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Google's Project Ara is an effort to create a modular smartphone. Users can dynamically swap hardware modules to upgrade or alter the configuration of the phone. It is scheduled to debut in Puerto Rico in the second half of 2015 for testing. Now SolidEnergy has announced a high-density battery module for the platform:
Module makers for Project Ara are already lining up to create third-party modules for the platform, and one of the more interesting ones is SolidEnergy, which promises to make revolutionary batteries that have twice the capacity of current batteries.
SolidEnergy is an MIT startup with $4.5 million in funding, and it has 12 employees who have been working on this new technology for the past three years. The company has developed an ultra-thin metal anode that has twice the density of the graphite and silicon anodes commonly used in smartphone batteries."Our battery basically makes the Project Ara phone more practical," said SolidEnergy founder and CEO Dr. Qichao Hu in an interview. "Right now, one of the major challenges with this phone is that the battery life is too short."
Because the company can just sell its own battery modules to consumers and because its batteries can store twice as much energy than the competitors, SolidEnergy has chosen to make batteries for Project Ara at first. Project Ara only has room for so many modules, and the battery module isn't particularly large in size. That makes high storage capacity very compelling. SolidEnergy will begin commercializing its own batteries in 2016. Batteries targeted at electric vehicles will follow in 2017.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @02:01PM
So they say Ara's main problem is short battery life, and their batteries will double that. But the summary fails to say what that battery life is. If the battery life is increased from 1/10 of other phones to 1/5 of other phones, it's not really useful. If lifetime is increased from 2/3 of other phones to 4/3 of other phones, it's great. So which one is it?
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Tuesday February 03 2015, @02:43PM
So what you are suggesting is that marketing actually put down specific values and not some fluffy nonsense words and vague percentages and multipliers.
(Score: 2, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday February 03 2015, @02:49PM
http://media.bestofmicro.com/8/8/477224/gallery/solidenergy-battery_w_600.jpg [bestofmicro.com]
Same capacity, half the physical size.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 03 2015, @02:46PM
Going by the photo, 2 ampere-hours (same capacity) at half the physical size of batteries the industry already uses to store 2 ampere-hours.
Battery life is the top concern for all smartphone makers, but if Ara is going to launch with a smaller battery, a battery that is two times denser than the ones used by competitors would allow it to have similar battery life.
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @05:21PM
So the battery lifetime issues of Ara are because of the size of the battery (rather than the phone being more power hungry)? If so, that would have been a very valuable addition to the summary (together with how much smaller the Ara battery is).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 03 2015, @03:09PM
The world deserves better than incremental advertisements posing as news pro google.
Call me when it (or a good deal of modules) is done. And then I'll still be sticking with my dumb phone.
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Tuesday February 03 2015, @05:08PM
The first link in TFS is currently "create a modular smartphone [soylentnews.org]", but it should be "create a modular smartphone [soylentnews.org]".
(Score: 2) by Open4D on Tuesday February 03 2015, @05:27PM
It's not too short for me.
At least, not if the following is true: an Ara phone's "supporting framework will also contain a tiny backup battery, which can keep the phone alive while you swap a dead battery module for a charged one [ieee.org]"
I have stated previously [soylentnews.org], with regards to mobile phones, that I want it to be "easy & cheap to have multiple batteries that can be swapped out during the day", probably by means of a new type of standardized battery. "You carry a few in your pockets in a (standardized) protective case, have a few at the office, a few in the car, etc.. If you're ever caught short, you can always borrow one from a friend or buy a pre-charged one from any shop / vending machine / cafe / bar."
Until seeing this story it hadn't occurred to me that Project Ara might be my best hope for this ambition.
So it's great that SolidEnergy think they can double the energy density. But for me it's not that big a deal, because getting through 2 battery modules in a day is only moderately more convenient than getting through 4 battery modules in a day.
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Wednesday February 04 2015, @02:04AM
After reading above, it appears that these batteries can store twice as much energy in the same volume as other "normal" batteries.
Forget the flipping phone! When will this come to laptops? It would be nice to either have double the time on a charge or far more capacity for TDP (I understand that keeping a laptop cool is a major concern, but tell that to the people who had Pentium 4 laptops back in the day).
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.