Phones have improved considerably in the last ten years. If we compare a smartphone that we use today with a mobile from 10 years ago, we would think that smartphones are so advanced that a group of aliens must have brought them to Earth. However, there is one thing that does not seem to improve quite as quickly: batteries. In fact, the batteries seem to be getting ever worse because with each new device that enters the market, the battery life becomes even shorter or simply remains the same.

This is always one of the problems when buying a smartphone, even one that is new on the market, such as the iPhone 6, because, as a user, we believe that when you buy a new device, everything should improve, including the life of the battery. Perhaps this idea is unrealistic, because there is no perfect gadget to meet all our needs, but is it too much to ask for a battery to last 48 hours? It would seem so.

Batteries are not really improving

Every year we see dramatic improvements in technology. Computer components are faster, work better and are much more economical. We see screens that have more pixels and hard drives with greater capacity. Everything happens so fast that it seems that Moore’s Law will come to an end any moment now.

However, batteries are not improving at the same speed. Yes, there has been some progress but it has been very slow in coming, or at least it is not advancing as quickly as other areas in the world of technology. Another problem is that components seem to be ever smaller, but batteries still take up a large part of the architecture of your smartphone and other devices.

Thinner batteries and larger screens

Battery technology has improved a little, and mobile components have also become more efficient, requiring less energy to run well. Why, then, do we not yet have more battery life?

The reality is that we still live in an era where to get more battery life we need it to be thicker physically. This is a problem in the smartphone industry because the more time passes, the thinner the devices, eliminating vital space and creating batteries which are also very thin (and, therefore, cheaper). In addition, another requirement of the industry is for screens to be larger, as we see in lines such as the Samsung Galaxy S or the iPhone.

When you have a thinner battery and a bigger screen, the battery life does not seem to improve, but rather is almost the same as previous devices, and sometimes worse.

Why did batteries in mobiles use to last so long?

When we read battery saving tips for the mobile there are always a number of recommendations that suggest turning off push notifications, turning off mobile data, lowering the brightness of the screen and things like that. In the past, no one would have given you this type of battery saving tips for your Nokia 2260, and it is possible that you would never have even worried about it because, for many users, they only had to charge their phone after two days of use.

Mobiles from previous generations were a little “dumber”, that is to say, they could only be used to receive calls, adding things on the calculator and sending text messages. A smartphone is basically a small computer, with dozens of installed applications that are running all the time to give you updates as often as you decide. You can have your smartphone display turned off and it will keep running all kinds of activities without you knowing about it, wearing down the battery very quickly. And if you use it to play games, surf, watch videos or get directions using GPS, it is obvious that the battery will drain more quickly. Could you have done any of these activities with a “dumb” phone?

Making do with the batteries available

Unfortunately, we will still have to wait a little longer for better batteries for our smart devices. In the meantime there are a few things we can do to improve what we have available on the market, be it disabling the synchronisation function, buying an accessory, such as the iPhone cases with a built-in battery, or having a portable charger to use when needed.

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