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Ask HN: Apple Battery Technology?
I just saw a live blog on the Apple keynote and one of the things that struck me was the battery lives of new Apple products.
It's like they are continuously packing something better in a smaller space while using Li-ion technology. What I don't understand is how the hell are they sustaining this? What technology are they using?
- grannyg00se 16y agoThis is primarily due to improvements in electronic components resulting in lower power requirements. For example: MOSFETS engineered to use a smaller footprint, giving less current loss. Displays using different technology that uses less energy (AMOLED vs LED) And also overall systems engineering resulting in lower current requirements (use one highly efficient integrated circuit instead of a combination of multiple less efficient integrated circuits) I don't think most changes in battery life can be attributed to the technology of the actual battery.
- wmf 16y agoSupposedly batteries are improving at 8% per year according to Musk's Law. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple aggressively adopts the latest battery chemistries rather than just buying commodity cells.
- Someone 16y agoI do not think they are doing anything special. They just are using everything they can buy (at the right price, and in the right quantities), to make lots of small improvements, one at a time. Some ways to get better products are: - Software optimizations mean less power usage. - Moore's law means fewer chips, means more room for batteries. (example: AFAIK, the iPad does not have RAM outside of the CPU) - Better batteries lead to higher power budgets. - Cooler operation makes denser packaging possible (I bet those new iPods will feel really heavy in the hand) - Non-replaceable batteries allow denser packaging. - Custom chips for e.g. audio or video decoding may use less power than doing the same on the CPU. They also are doing quite a bit to make their stuff look smaller than it is. The iPad, for instance, is about twice as deep in the center than at its edges. A custom-designed battery that is not a rectangular slab makes maximum use of that extra 'hidden' space. What makes them hard to beat at this game is a) they are really good at it and b) they ship stuff in sufficient numbers to make the added costs of custom designs bearable. For example, that built-in mains adapter in the new Apple TV means that the device itself must be tested several times. It is way easier to buy an external adapter that already has passed those tests.