When are we getting the first smartphone that can be fully charged in 1 minute?
Yes, you read that right. Someone out there is making huge strides in battery technology. In partnership with Stanford University, ITRI — an award-winning research company — has introduced a new battery technology called URABat.
That stands for Ultrafast Rechargeable Aluminum Battery, a technology that, as you guessed, uses aluminum to pass energy instead of today’s preferred lithium-ion. There are a few big advantages that ITRI pointed out, but perhaps the biggest is its supposed ability to charge to 100% in 1 minute. That’s absolutely insane.
Not only that, but the battery is said to be able to last 10,000 charges, and — as a seemingly-innocent-but-probably-totally-intentional jab at Samsung — they say there’s no chance for it to catch fire, either. Winner! The batteries are also flexible, so the Fruit Rollup phone of our dreams could be on the horizon.
Of course, we don’t know the full details. What sort of capacity and battery life are we talking about? It’s great that a battery could be charged in 1 minute, but that doesn’t mean much if the battery dies in 1 hour.
And then there’s also the question of commercial viability. How expensive will the batteries be to produce? Because if they cost, say, $300, then you can pretty much say nay to the thought of it inside any consumer electronic product.
But the possibility is there, and with us begging for a battery renaissance moment for years now it’s hard not to get excited at the thought of this new future. We’ll keep patiently waiting and you can bet we’ll have our eye on ITRI to see where this one is going.
[via ITRI]