Apple striving for better iPhone fold battery life

The thinner casing of the expected iPhone Fold means a smaller battery, but a new leak backs up claims that Apple plans to mitigate this by improving power efficiency.

It's previously been reported that Apple — and Samsung — are having difficulties making thinner batteries. More recently, leaker "Mobile Phone Chip Expert" has claimed that Apple is concentrating on extending battery life by improving power efficiency in the iPhone fold's display.

Now leaker yeux1122 has backed up this report, saying (in translation) that Apple will "achieve the goal of slimming the battery by improving the Display Driver Integrated Circuit (DDI)," in particular.

The DDI controls operation of the display. If Apple can make that more efficient, it will lower both overall power consumption and heat output.

Note that in his previous leak about the difficulties in making thinner batteries, yeux1122 claimed that it hadn't been possible to make the substrate, the base material of the battery, as thin as anticipated.

Watch the Latest from AppleInsider TV

That meant, he or she said, that the battery in an iPhone fold or an iPhone 17 Slim could be no less than 6mm. Since then, other rumors have claimed that the iPhone 17 Slim will be just 5.5mm, and now leaker yeux1122 is agreeing that Apple's focus has moved on to maximizing battery life.

That said, if Apple is able to improve power efficiency to make the most of slimmer batteries, it can do the same for all iPhone batteries.

Consequently, if this leak is correct, it promises greater battery life for every model of the iPhone. Conceivably, only the iPhone 17 Slim and iPhone fold might by necessity get this feature, but it will surely be adopted across the whole lineup.

Note that leaker yeux1122 has only an average track record for accurate Apple leaks. He or she, for instance, claimed incorrectly that the iPhone 16 Pro would launch with a 2TB storage option — and that Apple had abandoned plans to make its own 5G modem.

5 Comments

apple4thewin 4 Years · 408 comments

About 1 day ago

Isn’t there a new battery material that was supposed to solve the slimming issue? I know some Android phones have it already. I believe it is the silicon-carbon mix.

1 Like · 0 Dislikes

muthuk_vanalingam 9 Years · 1416 comments

About 1 day ago

apple4thewin said:

Isn’t there a new battery material that was supposed to solve the slimming issue? I know some Android phones have it already. I believe it is the silicon-carbon mix.

Yes, you are right. It is silicon-carbon. And it has helped in increasing the battery capacity by 20%-30% in the last year or so. Earlier, 5000mah was the typical battery capacity in Android phones. Now, 6000mah battery has become the norm in Android phones, except for few OEMs like Samsung, Motorola who have not used those batteries for some reason. Some phones have battery capacity in excess of 7000mah as well. I think Apple would have been testing them for last 1 year or so and would have found it suitable to use it in the upcoming iPhones later this year.

2 Likes · 1 Dislike

apple4thewin 4 Years · 408 comments

About 1 day ago

muthuk_vanalingam said:

apple4thewin said:

Isn’t there a new battery material that was supposed to solve the slimming issue? I know some Android phones have it already. I believe it is the silicon-carbon mix.

Yes, you are right. It is silicon-carbon. And it has helped in increasing the battery capacity by 20%-30% in the last year or so. Earlier, 5000mah was the typical battery capacity in Android phones. Now, 6000mah battery has become the norm in Android phones, except for few OEMs like Samsung, Motorola who have not used those batteries for some reason. Some phones have battery capacity in excess of 7000mah as well. I think Apple would have been testing them for last 1 year or so and would have found it suitable to use it in the upcoming iPhones later this year.

I remember hearing some reviewers disappointed that Samsung didn’t use this for the S25 lineup. After doing some research, I think the only real issue is that it is too early to tell how the longevity of the battery life is due to battery degradation being higher on this material blend.

2 Likes · 0 Dislikes

muthuk_vanalingam 9 Years · 1416 comments

About 1 day ago

apple4thewin said:

muthuk_vanalingam said:

apple4thewin said:

Isn’t there a new battery material that was supposed to solve the slimming issue? I know some Android phones have it already. I believe it is the silicon-carbon mix.

Yes, you are right. It is silicon-carbon. And it has helped in increasing the battery capacity by 20%-30% in the last year or so. Earlier, 5000mah was the typical battery capacity in Android phones. Now, 6000mah battery has become the norm in Android phones, except for few OEMs like Samsung, Motorola who have not used those batteries for some reason. Some phones have battery capacity in excess of 7000mah as well. I think Apple would have been testing them for last 1 year or so and would have found it suitable to use it in the upcoming iPhones later this year.

I remember hearing some reviewers disappointed that Samsung didn’t use this for the S25 lineup. After doing some research, I think the only real issue is that it is too early to tell how the longevity of the battery life is due to battery degradation being higher on this material blend.

I was not aware of the battery degradation being higher in this material blend. But with higher capacities, the charging cycles would reduce, prolonging the battery life. And capping the charging to 80% will still result in adequate battery life for a day without needing to charge again on the same day. And with weight and thickness reduction, this looks like a much needed technological uplift for smartphones.

avon b7 21 Years · 8180 comments

About 1 day ago

Yes you are both right, Huawei and Honor are on third gen silicon carbon batteries and using them in folding phones, too . I believe they are currently at 1.5/2mm thick. They have been compared to credit card thickness.

It's one of the reasons that their folding phones are incredibly thin when unfolded.