A swell of online leaks suggests that Samsung’s SDI division is testing a 20,000mAh battery that we might see on the company’s smartphones one day. Now, as good as this news sounds, there is some nuance that’s worth underlining. Here’s what we know about it so far.
The thread popped up on X when @phonefuturist posted the battery setup online. There’s an image of a split cell in his post. One of the cells on the battery stack is a 12,000mAh Si/C. And the other makes up the rest: 8,000mAh Si/C.
Cell 1, which has a 12000mAh capacity, is 6.3mm thick just by itself. And the second 8000mAh unit is 4mm thick. As big as the numbers are, these thickness figures actually make sense. The leaker has said that the test prototype lasted for 27 hours SoT (Screen-on-time).
The battery had 960 cycles over a one-year test. Sadly, the battery is not stable yet. And to be honest, it’s not that impressive either if it only lasts 27 hours in constant usage. The Power 2 made by Honor is already putting down 20.3 hours of screen time with its 10,080mAh battery, and that is a consumer phone (launching January 5th).
When Samsung SDI was done with the testing, the 8000mAh side of the battery swelled from 4mm to 7.2mm. That made us doubt its reliability even more. Samsung obviously has a long way to go if it wants to catch up with Chinese brands that are now hitting 10,000mAh cell capacities on smartphones. Therefore, you can check Samsung price lists and the availability of the new handsets on our website.
We do warn against believing this news blindly, though. There’s not a single mention of what type of test was used or what parameters were considered for SoT. Samsung SDI develops batteries for all sorts of devices, not just phones.
The leaker might have misunderstood the nature of this cell. It might be used for another purpose. We have our eyes and ears open just in case something new shows up regarding this 20,000mAh battery. So let’s wait for updates in the meantime.
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