It has been floated recently that Samsung may release the Galaxy S7 in 2015, and the Korean corporation is clearly working on this device behind the scenes. And news has emerged this week that suggests that the Galaxy S7 might have one element that is particularly impressive.
Galaxy S7 battery life
According to reports, Samsung has recently made a major breakthrough in battery technology that will greatly enhance the lifespan of the Galaxy S7. Sources close to the Samsung supply chain suggest that the technology in question will enable the forthcoming Galaxy S7 smartphone to run for five full days on a single charge.
This particular breakthrough is thought to centre around lithium-ion batteries. It is noted that Samsung has made a particular discovery with regard to this in recent weeks, and that this will enable the Korean consumer electronics giant to double the lifespan of existing batteries in its next smartphone generation.
Battery life remains a central consideration in the ongoing smartphone war between Apple and Samsung. Although Apple has enjoyed a stellar 2014, and is clearly the prominent mobile company in the world at present, its products have nonetheless been criticized for being rather greedy with power. Samsung has fared somewhat better, and it has been rumored for some time that the Korean corporation would step up its existing battery portfolio in the foreseeable future.
It was Samsung that beat Apple to the punch by including wireless charging in the Galaxy S6 this year, and now it seems that that manufacturer of Android devices is looking to further improve its battery setup.
Issues with battery life
Although engineers have previously been able to extend battery capacity between charges, this has often been employed at the expense of battery life. But the Samsung research and development department has apparently conquered this ongoing issue. It is suggested by reports emanating from Korea that not only has Samsung doubled the capacity of the batteries intended for the Galaxy S7, but also ensured that the cell can be based around a highly durable cathode that will deliver long life.
The particular technique which has been employed in order to achieve this is quite ingenious. Samsung has reportedly coasted the graphene on the surface of the silicon involved in its battery cells with a protective layer. This apparently enables the battery life and time between charges to be increased significantly.
However, although fans of the Samsung Galaxy series would love to see this appear in the Galaxy S7, this is far from certain at the time of writing. There are differing opinions among industry commenters and analysts regarding the length of time that this could take to be commercialized. To give some idea of this, Samsung first demonstrated wireless charging technology back in 2008, yet it took seven years for it to be fully introduced to the Samsung Galaxy range.
It seems less likely that this technology will take seven years to be fully commercialized, but it is considerably more feasible than wireless charging was in 2008. There certainly shouldn’t be the same level of expense incurred by the technique involved. It is also a big plus point for Samsung that this process was developed internally, and this should indicate that the commercialization of this battery technique becomes feasible far more quickly than if an external supplier had provided it.
Launch date
But despite this cheery outlook for longer battery life with the Galaxy S7, it is still certainly not guaranteed that the technique will be commercialized in time for its release. This will be an absolute certainty if the Galaxy S7 is indeed released during this calendar year, as it would simply be impossible for Samsung to instigate this technique in the extremely short timeframe that this would necessitate.
Should Samsung delay the release of the Galaxy S7 until April 2016, as was largely expected until recently, then the chances of this five-day battery life coming to fruition must increase significantly. It is certainly something that Samsung would love to include in its mobile range sooner rather than later, as it would give the Galaxy S7 a massive advantage over the iPhone series.
Meanwhile, both Samsung and Apple continue to work on software development intended to increase battery life. This was a primary focus of the recent iOS 9 release, and Google has also ensured that smartphones running the Android operating system do so more efficiently in recent releases. Combining this with processors that are also less prone to drain the battery life means that charging smartphones nightly will soon be confined to the garbage can of history.
As Samsung continues to work on a Galaxy S7 device that could feature a five-day battery life and 4K resolution, there is no doubt that fans of the Android series will be awaiting it with bated breath.
