Here’s Why US Android, iOS Phones Suffer From Smaller Batteries

If you pay a little bit of attention to the Android space, you might notice something a little annoying about smartphone brands that market heavily in the US. Think of Samsung, Google, Motorola, and Sony. These phones shy away from the battery and charging upgrades we tend to see with devices that have a heavier presence in China and Europe.

A lot of people give those OEMs mentioned earlier a hard time due to those smaller batteries, and I'm not innocent. The fact is that it makes them less competitive in a market where other manufacturers are approaching or surpassing the 7,000mAh mark. However, we might finally know exactly why US-focused OEMs have been held back.

It's Not Their Fault: US Air Transportation Regulations Are to Blame

Samsung's flagship smartphone series, the Galaxy S lineup, has been stuck on 5,000mAh batteries for a painfully long time. The Galaxy S20 Ultra, released in 2020, had a 5,000mAh cell. The Galaxy S25 Ultra, released a few months ago, also has a 5,000mAh battery. Meanwhile, a flagship phone like the Vivo X200 Pro has pushed up to 6,000mAh, and its successor for later this year will likely push that up even more.

However, there's an incredibly good reason why Samsung has stuck to the 5,000mAh mark, elucidated by Ice Universe, and the truth is that it isn't its fault. It's not the fault of the other manufacturers who find themselves in a similar predicament, such as:

• Apple
• Google
• OnePlus
• Sony
• Motorola

The person, or thing, to blame is one specific US federal regulation. In particular, we're looking at 49 CFR 173.185, related to lithium cells and batteries. It makes it such that when transporting lithium batteries by air, their capacity cannot exceed 20Wh for a single battery cell. A 5,000mAh battery generally sits around the 19.5Wh mark, which means it just squeaks through.

Manufacturers looking to sell their devices with the US as a major market will typically have to stick under 5,000mAh to avoid any issues with air transportation.

What's the Solution? OnePlus Might Have It Figured Out

If you pay a lot of attention to smartphones, you might have been able to mention a few devices that had an official US launch and still have batteries larger than 5,000mAh. The OnePlus 13 is a good example of that, with its 6,000mAh battery. That comes to over 23Wh, so how does OnePlus get around that?

The US federal regulation limits single lithium-ion cells to 20Wh, but what if you incorporated two separate cells, similar to foldable phones that have a battery in each half? That's what OnePlus did. Even though the combined capacity exceeds the 20Wh limit, each individual battery cell doesn't, which allows them to make it work and not trigger any issues with US air transportation.

Other manufacturers can follow OnePlus' example to enable bigger batteries in their phones, but if they choose not to, the only other way to get things to work would be to lobby for a change or exemption in the federal regulation. That's bound to be less easy.