Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by squarefoot on Thursday June 03, 2021 @02:25AM
(#27377849)
Every fast charge heats up batteries, which shorten their life. In a world of non easily replaceable batteries, I'd rather charge them in 2 hours to make them last as long as possible.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by m_mueller on Thursday June 03, 2021 @04:04AM
(#27378416)
Wow. If that's the case maybe one should start giving more credit to Chinese companies when it comes to fundamental innovations. Looks like display tech and batteries might be the first areas where they are going to be at the forefront.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by ksec on Thursday June 03, 2021 @03:18PM
(#27386065)
I dont actually know the details for Xiaomi. But there were at least ONE Graphene based Battery tech developed in US and licensed for commercialisation with LG. And consumer could buy that as portable Battery since 2020. And AFAIK all Graphene Based Battery are from licensed from the same company. Unfortunately Google only give me crappy results I can get you a link for reference.
The researcher names are Korean, Chinese and Japanese, and in the "Supporting Information" window they were affiliated with 2 research institutes in Japan.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by m_mueller on Thursday June 03, 2021 @02:04PM
(#27385094)
It’s actually an interesting parallel to how high tech hardware worked 30-40 years ago. Back then you often had fundamental research coming out of the US and brought to market from Japan, as their manufacturing base somehow allowed for more efficient productization. Looks like it has shifted to Japan now being still strong in research, but the manufacturing base is now strongest in China. One thing that I think is so remarkable about Elon’s ventures is him showing that there’s nothing stopping you still to build mass manufacturing efficiently in the West.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by squarefoot on Thursday June 03, 2021 @11:52PM
(#27390367)
I wouldn't consider Tesla cars as mass manufactured, and that's a good thing because it's what keeps them ahead of the competition. Prices aside, I think they couldn't even sustain the production numbers required to sell cars to everyone, which is something the competition can easily do.
As much as I would like to be able to buy a Tesla, they better not enter that minefield that is mass production.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by anaganisk on Thursday June 03, 2021 @11:03PM
(#27390085)
I was trying to say, yes Koreans might be where this was created. But bringing out the product with an application is the context of this.
Nobody said Xiaomi invented it. They bought out the tech with batteries, properly applied. They're not like just putting the battery inside a phone. It needs a lot of calibration and also hardware/ software improvements on phone to support it. Why would you thank Koreans for that?
Its same as saying we need to thank Turks because Turkish immigrants sequenced the vaccine, sold by Pfizer.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by jimmygrapes on Thursday June 03, 2021 @05:49PM
(#27387825)
It would take as many years to confirm the claims, during which time it wouldn't matter if they are correct as long as it wasn't extremely wrong. Also during that time they rake in the investments via product buys or other funding, allowing (potentially) for further (or initial) innovation. It's a risky game but in a consumer world it's a good play.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by rkagerer on Thursday June 03, 2021 @03:22AM
(#27378145)
I keep mine for 5 years on average, and pay a little more for a model that will work reliably with an open-source ROM in case the manufacturer ceases support (or when I've had enough of their bloat).
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by unicornporn on Thursday June 03, 2021 @02:58AM
(#27378002)
Not necessarily. Smartphones have reached a level of performance and maturity that I could easily use one for 7 years if it wasn't for the planned obsolescence. But, somehow security updates stop arriving (even for Lineage). My next handset will be a Fairphone. At least they seem to be doing what they can to keep their devices running [1].
Apple is doing better. My SO has had their iPhone SE for 5 years now and updates keep coming.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by mhitza on Thursday June 03, 2021 @04:42AM
(#27378606)
Feel your pain. Got a Huawei phone mid 2018, without knowing that a few months before they removed the option of unlocking the bootloader (I was under the impression before, that all Android phones could be unlocked).
Granted, this was just a quick replacement phone when my previous phone just decided randomly to die one day.
At least at the moment it seems that Huawei is an outlier, no such issue with Xiaomi phones.
Re:Xiaomi says it can now fully charge a phone in eight minu...
by squarefoot on Thursday June 03, 2021 @08:10AM
(#27380075)
Pinephone, Librem 5, Fairphone. The first two aim at being secure and trustworthy, at the price of losing Android, which is not a big issue for many users. The latter aims at sustainability, has removable battery and is modular, expandable and repairable, but runs Android with all its drawbacks. There are options however to purchase it (along with other "normal" models) with /e/OS preinstalled which is a De-Googled Open Source version of Android.
edit: Both PinePhone and Librem 5 also have a replaceable battery and can be repaired to some extent. There are also spare PinePhone mainboards and other spare parts for sale at Pine64 site.
If it is as good as they claim the battery can easily last 3-5 years in normal usage.
Out of curiousity, this is the earliest research I can find about graphene in Li-Ion batteries: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/nl800957b
The researcher names are Korean, Chinese and Japanese, and in the "Supporting Information" window they were affiliated with 2 research institutes in Japan.
Fwiw, I still use my old Honor 8 and my wife her Redmi note 5 as a daily driver.
Apple is doing better. My SO has had their iPhone SE for 5 years now and updates keep coming.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/the-fairphone-2-hits...
I agree, but it's not the hardware which gets outdated, just the software which gets locked away.
I really wish phones had to be bootloader unlocked as legal requirement in EU(even better with hardware/driver reference/blobs/sources) .
Granted, this was just a quick replacement phone when my previous phone just decided randomly to die one day.
At least at the moment it seems that Huawei is an outlier, no such issue with Xiaomi phones.
https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/
https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
https://www.fairphone.com/en/
https://esolutions.shop/
edit: Both PinePhone and Librem 5 also have a replaceable battery and can be repaired to some extent. There are also spare PinePhone mainboards and other spare parts for sale at Pine64 site.
https://pine64.com/product-category/smartphone-spare-parts/?...