New smartphone battery charges to 48% in five minutes

A smartphone battery that goes on for over a day on a single charge might be out of reach of most people at the moment, but one that charges to 48 per cent in five minutes is on the way.

Huawei's new fast-charging battery charges 10 times faster than normal lithium ion batteries and has a new electrode design, according to the company.

The batteries created by the Huawei-owned Watt Lab, were demonstrated at the 56th Battery Symposium in Japan last week.

The new batteries incorporate a catalyst in the anode that speeds up the conversion of electrical energy from the grid into chemical energy.

The process neither shortens the battery's life nor does it reduce the amount of energy it can store.

Huawei has showcased two types of batteries - a 3,000 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery that could be charged to 48 per cent in five minutes and a smaller 600mAh battery that charged to 68 per cent in two minutes.

By way of comparison, the Nexus 6P phablet comes with a 3,450mAh battery while Apple's iPhone 6S features a 1,715mAh battery.

Current quick-charging technology such as Qualcomm's Quick Charge or the faster charging capability built into the new USB-C connector took an hour to fully charge a large smartphone battery.

Huawei's Lithium-ion device is similar in size and capacity to the batteries that come with most smartphones.

A Huawei user said in a blog post: "Soon, we will all be able to charge our batteries to full power in the time it takes to grab a coffee."

Earlier this year, UK company Intelligent Energy claimed a prototype hydrogen-powered fuel cell, it had developed for Apple's iPhone 6, which could keep the handset running for a week without a recharge.