MWC 2023: Honor presents silicon-carbon battery

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC), well-known manufacturers from the consumer electronics sector were once again able to present their latest products. Honor was of course also part of the party. The company did not only present a new smartphone with its Magic 5 Pro. More exciting might have been the announcement that they want to have developed a new battery based on silicon-carbon anodes. Especially in terms of battery life, this technology is supposed to pay off.

Does Honor show the battery of the future?

Currently, smartphones consistently rely on classic lithium-ion batteries. And that’s not just the case with the little helpers of everyday life. Even large-scale electric cars rely on battery technology. However, it is generally known that lithium-ion batteries have major disadvantages. Lithium is a questionable raw material, especially from an ecological perspective. That’s why companies are working meticulously behind the scenes on alternatives – across all industries. Just recently, for example, the Chinese battery manufacturer Hina presented an innovative sodium-ion battery for electric cars. At the MWC, Honor has now presented another alternative to lithium-ion technology.

However, since the space inside smartphones is much more limited than in cars, the silicon-carbon battery scores with a higher power density. Honor speaks of 12.8 percent more power density than lithium-ion batteries. This promises a significantly longer battery life. This is to be achieved in particular by the fact that the residual voltage of the newly developed battery should still be sufficiently high even when the battery is low. Even with modern smartphone batteries, it can always be observed that the battery level drops faster in the low percentage range. This is not supposed to be the case with the silicon-carbon battery. Honor promises a remaining capacity that is 240 percent higher than that of lithium-ion batteries.

Honor Magic 5 Pro comes without a new battery

Surprisingly, Honor does not yet rely on the new battery technology for its brand-new flagship smartphone. Although the manufacturer did not explicitly deny this during the presentation, since the Magic 5 Pro is supposed to come with a 5,100 mAh battery and the presented battery offers 5,450 mAh, there is no match. The experts from GSM Arena, however, have pointed out that this restriction could be tolerably valid for our climes. After all, Honor issues a capacity of 5,450 mAh for its Magic 5 Pro in China. Thus, consumers in China might already be able to try out the new silicon-carbon battery. However, that is only conjecture so far.