Super Fast Smartphone Charging

FlashBattery, which can be fully charged in just five minutes, could be available to consumers next year.

16:39 16 May 2017

In 2015, Israeli start-up StoreDot demonstrated FlashBattery at the CES tech show in Las Vegas. The company’s chief executive, Doron Myersdorf, said that the battery, which could be fully charged in just five minutes, is expected to enter production in early 2018.

 

Mr Myersdorf previously explained that his firm’s battery contained materials that allowed for non-traditional reactions and the unusually fast transfer of ions from an anode to a cathode. The design involves nanomaterials and unnamed organic compounds.

 

However, Ben Wood, a technology analyst at CCS Insight, has doubts about the claims.

 

He said: "Taking risks with battery technology can bite you. I would say that experience has taught me to always remain sceptical. Let's see if it happens would be my view."

 

He pointed out that any design that generates large amounts of heat could impact the performance of the battery. However, he admits that anyone who can crack the “battery problem” will dominate the electronics market.

 

Other manufacturers are also working on quick-charging battery tech. One of them is Qualcomm, which announced its Quick Charge 4 system that offers five hours of battery life on a five-minute charge.