Honor saved a surprise for the end of the MWC press conference. The new silicon-carbon battery is going into production with their new smartphone Honor Magic5 Pro without delay and could soon replace conventional li-ion batteries in other models as well. The biggest advantage is the higher energy density – Honor states that 12.8% more energy can be stored in the same volume.
That’s not the dream revolutionary leap. But considering that Li-ion batteries have taken 30 years of development to get to today’s capacity, while silicon-carbon is just getting started.
The Honor Magic5 Pro featured on the same press release has a 5,100 mAh graphite cathode battery in Europe. The silicon-carbon battery in the Chinese version of the phone has a capacity of 5,450 mAh (an increase of 6.8%), while maintaining the physical dimensions of the battery. Other sources also confirm that the Chinese market will serve as a real test. Less than 7% is not much, but we are only at the beginning.
We can be pleased that Honor has its technology up to date and that it is not just presenting us with laboratory tests. Experience from the past says that it is only a matter of time before the novelty reaches the global market. Of course, if it works.
At the presentation, we also saw a graph, according to which the new type of battery does exceptionally well even when discharged, when the voltage drops to 3.5 V. At that moment, the silicon-carbon battery has 240% more capacity than commonly used accumulators.
