The iPhone 17 Air and Galaxy S25 Edge’s grea...

It seems like

iPhone 17
rumors are hitting continuous today, which is sensible — we’re about 4 months out from launch, so {hardware} particulars must be locked down forward of mass manufacturing. It takes fairly some time to churn out the thousands and thousands of items Apple must fulfill worldwide launch demand.

The most recent rumor (through The Information), is that with the intention to obtain its ultra-thin 5.5mm physique, the

iPhone 17 Air
will sport a critical compromise in battery life. How a lot? Allegedly, Apple’s inside testing means that simply 60 to 70% of homeowners will be capable to make it a full day on a single cost, down from about 80 to 90% for different iPhone fashions. The corporate is even stated to be making ready a brand new battery case, one thing it hasn’t supplied because the discontinued MagSafe Battery Pack.

Related rumors have emerged round Samsung’s

Galaxy S25 Edge
. In keeping with WinFuture, the cellphone might have a 3,900mAh battery — that is extra capability than the iPhone 16, however beneath the common S25’s 4,000mAh, and far lower than the S25 Extremely’s 5,000mAh. That is put me off each Samsung and Apple’s upcoming “vanguard” telephones, and never simply because everybody prefers increased numbers.

Dealing with the established order

As a tech journalist, I could be an exception, however I discover that almost all telephones nonetheless haven’t got sufficient battery life, by no means thoughts rolling issues again. My present day by day driver is an iPhone 16 Professional, which in response to Apple, must be able to as much as 22 hours of (streaming) video playback. Sounds spectacular, proper? In follow, nonetheless, I am struggling to think about how that might be potential. I prefer to placed on Reuters’ video briefing whereas I bathe and alter within the morning, and I am going to typically see the battery drop to 90% or decrease earlier than I even get downstairs for breakfast. On exercise days, it is potential for the battery to dip beneath 30% by the point I get into mattress, and that is after a 15- to 16-hour day of largely non-video exercise. If I truly spent an hour or two streaming YouTube, I might in all probability need to put my cellphone in Low Energy Mode in some unspecified time in the future.

I might say it is baffling that Apple and Samsung seem like headed within the unsuitable path, however actually, it isn’t. Each firms have lengthy put different upgrades forward of battery life. It’s, in principle, potential to make it over a day in case you’ve bought a cellphone just like the Galaxy S25 Extremely or iPhone 16 Professional Max, however solely with gentle utilization. Certainly, battery life has all the time performed second fiddle for many smartphone makers, just because larger batteries are costly whereas being robust to use in advertising and marketing campaigns. A 6.9-inch display or a 10X telephoto lens is instantly spectacular — it is more durable to wow folks with an additional two or three hours of runtime.

This 12 months, it looks like each Apple and Samsung are engaged on the belief that we’ll be wowed by thinness, which is a mistake. It is going to appeal to some folks, definitely, however we’re not within the 2000s anymore — telephones have been skinny for a very long time. Nobody I do know is complaining about thickness. If something, the difficulty appears to be that telephones have develop into unwieldly, getting thinner whereas concurrently rising taller, wider, and slipperier. Metallic and glass could also be good aesthetically — however with no case, skinny units like my iPhone and my spouse’s OnePlus 9 5G really feel like they might slip out of my fingers with one unsuitable gesture.

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So near price range nirvana, but thus far.

A worrisome path for the longer term

Misusing the most recent tech

Each the iPhone 17 Air and S25 Edge could also be primarily based on silicon-carbon batteries, a variation of the lithium-ion batteries we’re used to, merely with increased power density. That hasn’t been confirmed, however the tech has been utilized in a number of telephones already, and now appears poised to go mainstream.

If that’s the case, I am nervous {that a} unhealthy precedent is rising. Once I first heard about silicon-carbon, my hope was that we might get extra longevity out of telephones the identical measurement, or at the very least equal longevity from barely smaller units. Ought to the Air and Edge show profitable, we might be hit with a wave of copycat units, a few of which can additionally throw battery life underneath the bus. That may take the business backward at a time when persons are extra depending on smartphones than ever.

To be honest, Apple and Samsung could also be attempting to maintain components prices down and retail costs in examine. Silicon-carbon batteries are costlier to provide in the mean time, so even attempting to match the capacities of normal lithium-ion batteries could also be tough with no chunk into revenue margins. It might be that after manufacturing prices come down, we’ll see capacities go up once more, fulfilling the brand new tech’s promise. Who is aware of — perhaps Apple will truly ship a two-day iPhone sooner or later.

Alongside these traces, I am hopeful that each the Air and the Edge will serve a function just like the iPhone X, which Apple launched in 2017. This was the primary iPhone with an OLED show and a

Face ID
digicam, costing a then-unprecedented $999. Many individuals balked at it, however gross sales of the iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone 11 Professional finally pushed manufacturing prices down, making it potential to place each OLED and Face ID on the $799 iPhone 12. Nowadays, even the $599

iPhone 16e
shares these options.

Time will inform how briskly the brand new battery tech bridges over to helpful capacities at inexpensive costs, if it does in any respect. I simply know that for now, Apple and Samsung can depend me out of units that cut back battery life with none tangible advantages. It’s going to hardly matter how cool a cellphone appears sliding out of my pocket if I can not make it to the gymnasium and again with out plugging into my automotive — or from Alberta to Texas with no battery pack or charging in the course of the flight’s layover. I assume I am going to nonetheless be bringing my iPad alongside for mid-flight leisure.

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