News Toshiba preps minute-charge 'miracle' battery

A minute to charge? Wow. Fantastic news for future mobile devices. Pitty the following el Reg article doesn't mention how long it will last for though:

Toshiba has developed a Lithium-Ion battery capable of being charged to 80 per cent of its full capacity in under 60 seconds. Filling it up takes just "a few more minutes", the company boasted today.

That's considerably faster than today's Li-ion rechargeables which can take 1-4 hours to reach 80 per cent capacity, and even longer to fill completely.

Toshiba also claimed the new cell offers a greater longevity than today's Li-ion batteries, losing only one per cent of its capacity after 1000 charge cycles, according to the results of its own charge-discharge testing.

More here

Of course, I'm sure it'll work even better with the application of some black sticky tape with some glitter stuck on top. Eh, Cheese?

 

Sounds like a fire hazard. Still, I hope they end up in iPods and whatnot, not just laptops. Hopefully before my extended warrantee expires If they do have color screens on everything by the end of this year, I'll at least get that.

 

That all depends. One of the reasons why batteries take ages to charge, and get rather toasty in the process, is that they have resistance. Lower the resistance, and you do not only shorten recharge times but also reduce the heat.

In any case a godsend for the Sony PSP, considering its battery life.

 

yeah but that also means the charge has to be very sccurate or else, with a sudden puff of glittering smoke and flames the battery goes up...along with the applience

 

well it is 600mAh so just take it as a AAA battery and think how long they last. in all fairness "how long it lasts" is like asking how long a piece of string is. Dipends on the appliance.

 

If this takes off, i can see charging stations popping up all over the place. Costs you a quid to recharge or whatever.. not a bad idea tbh.

 

This is totally hype - probably will only last for like 20 minutes

 

Somehow i doubt that - why would htey bother to even produce it if it were; it'd be a Li-Ion battery with a compressed "life-cycle".

 

agreed. but then im a pessimist

 

This does sound cool. However it still wont 'cure' the problems of devices such as the psp simply because its not increasing the longevity of a batteries charge just the amount of time it will take to recharge it.

The problem with a lot of todays devices such as the psp and pdas is they have such poor battery performance.

When new batteries come out that will last for longer on a single charge, then that will be proper 'good news' for device manufacturers and consumers, especially Sony...

 

And Toshiba, of course, has a life-long track record of producing hype.