Did you know the original Samsung Galaxy S had a tiny-by-modern-standards 1,500 mAh battery? That went to 1,650 the next year, then 2,100 the year after, and it took until the S7 to break the 3,000 mAh mark. The S10+ was the first to breach 4,000, and the S20 Ultra was the first to crack 5,000 mAh.
Since then, things have generally skirted this number in the average mainstream phone. Sure, you'll see the occasional device approaching or touching 6,000 mAh, but it's not common. Screen sizes might have stagnated (if you don't include foldables), but Oppo and OnePlus don't intend that fate for battery capacities, apparently.
OnePlus And Oppo Seem To Have Plans To Push Battery Capacities To The Next Frontier
If you've been around Android devices for a very long time, you've been blessed to see the evolution of Android smartphones and their specifications. It's great to see how we went from 3.5-inch displays to 6.8-inch ones; 1GB of RAM to 16GB, and even tiny 1,500 mAh batteries to those around the 5,000 mAh mark. However, for the most part, a lot of these specs climb up to a point and eventually stagnate because going any higher tends to be impractical.
On a technical basis, battery sizes can definitely go up, but it reduces the practicality of the phones carrying them since it would mean heavier and thicker devices, and we've seemed to hit the sweet spot regarding those specs. Have you ever seen one of those niche battery-focused phones — like the Energizer Hardcase P28K? It is over an inch thick and weighs 570 grams (that's heavier than two Z Fold 5s) with its 28,000 mAh battery. For daily use, mainstream phones have gotten to a good balance between endurance and device dimensions.
Oppo and OnePlus might be onto something though, and according to Digital Chat Station on Weibo, they could be working on a battery that breaks the 7,000 mAh barrier. Considering the recently released OnePlus Ace 3 Pro has a 6,100 mAh, I think there's a lot of veracity to this rumor. There's not too much space for the company to climb to hit that coveted 7 point.
A 7,000mAh Battery Is Likely In The Running Because Of OnePlus' Glacier Battery Technology
If only batteries could get smaller while holding the same capacity, that would solve all our problems, wouldn't it? The aforementioned OnePlus Ace 3 Pro, which has a 6,100 mAh cell, uses a silicon-based battery, which is quite different from the standard lithium-ion batteries that most of us are used to. OnePlus calls this “Glacier Battery”.
The silicon makes a big difference here, as it allows for higher-density batteries — essentially, compared to a lithium-ion battery of the same size, the silicon one would have a higher capacity. It's exactly why the Ace 3 Pro manages to weigh just 207g and measure less than 9 mm thick.
As this tech advances, it could mean phones that get a tad thicker and heavier, but not by as much as you'd expect when you hear “7,000 mAh battery”. I'm not complaining; the less that I need to charge, the better.
