Dyson’s latest venture could double your smartphone’s battery life

Dyson has agreed to invest $15 million in a new battery technology that could double the battery life of future smartphones.

It’s financing a University of Michigan spin-off called Sakti3, whose ‘next generation’ battery technology can reportedly hold twice the energy of existing rechargeable batteries, as reported by The Guardian.

This means we could see electric cars manage a range of up to 600 miles per charge, although anything with rechargeable batteries could benefit, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Sakti3 has achieved the impressive feat by switching out the liquid innards of current batteries.

Instead of using a liquid mix of reactive compounds, Sakti3 uses solid lithium electrodes that can manage significantly higher energy storage.

James Dyson, the company’s founder, said: “Sakti3 has achieved leaps in performance, which current battery technology simply can’t.”

“It’s these fundamental technologies – batteries, motors – that allow machines to work properly.”

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According to Sakti3, the solid-state batteries can store upwards of 1,000 watt hours per litre.

As well as improving the battery life of gadgets, that increased energy density could also see portable technology become significantly thinner and lighter because batteries won’t take up so much physical space.

Ann Marie Sastry, Sakti3’s founder and chief executive, said that Dyson’s investment will help speed up the process of bringing its battery technology to consumers.

“There is a great deal of knowledge and passion on both sides, and Dyson’s engineering team has the capability and the track record to scale up new ideas and make them a commercial reality,” she said.

When we will actually see the technology is harder to say; Dyson’s agreement does say that the batteries will appear in its own products first, however.