In the last two years, the capacity of batteries in smartphones has increased rapidly. Batteries of 8000 mAh or even 10,000 mAh, which were previously only typical for external batteries, are now increasingly becoming an integral part of the specifications in modern phones. However, in the case of laptop computers, the growth of battery capacity is not so dramatic, although there is some progress in that segment as well.
A few years ago, most thin laptops had batteries with a capacity of around 55 Wh. Models with a battery greater than 60 Wh were considered relatively large. Today, even compact 14-inch laptops often come with 60 Wh batteries, while some newer models reach around 80 Wh. For gaming laptops, the battery capacity has been reaching a maximum of 99.9 Wh for a long time.
The 100 Wh limit prevents larger batteries in laptops
There are two main reasons why laptop batteries don’t grow at the same rate as phones.
The first reason is the development of technology. New battery technologies are usually first introduced in the most popular products in order to develop production faster and reduce costs. Smartphones have a much larger market and higher demand, so battery manufacturers first optimize the technology specifically for them. Only when the production process matures and becomes cheaper, the technology begins to be applied in other devices, including laptops.
Another reason is the regulatory restriction related to air traffic. According to the rules of civil aviation, batteries with a capacity greater than 100 Wh are not allowed to be transported on airplanes. For this reason, laptop computer manufacturers have been designing batteries with a maximum capacity of around 99.9Wh for years so that devices can be carried normally during travel.
Higher energy density can change laptops
If the batteries in laptop computers reached the energy density that batteries in phones have today, it would bring about several important changes.
First of all, autonomy would increase significantly, especially with thin and light laptops. With gaming models, the space for increasing autonomy is smaller because they already use the maximum allowed batteries for transport, so progress is more expected here through more efficient processors and graphics chips.
Another big change would be to reduce the mass of the device. Higher energy density would allow batteries to be lighter with the same capacity, which would further reduce the weight of ultralight laptops.
Combined with increasingly efficient processors and modern architectures, this could lead to the widespread appearance of laptops weighing around one kilogram or even less, without compromising autonomy.