CES 2009: New batteries for portable devices?

With attendees as laden with portable devices as anyone on earth, the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas is the perfect venue at which to discuss the state of battery technology—and to ask when the batteries that power our portables might be smaller and lighter and blessed with longer run times.

Run time is especially important to the CES crowd, who are constantly moving from one cavernous display hall to another, while remaining  connected via smartphones and laptops. As one manufacturer's rep at yesterday's "Better Batteries" panel discussion conceded, "If you can’t go through the day on a single charge of the battery, we know that's not good enough for the consumer, who doesn't want to have to search out a wall outlet and stop what he or she is doing."

He had my ear, since I was at that moment charging my iPhone at the side of the meeting room, after texting colleagues and checking e-mail for the better part of the day had depleted its charge to the dreaded red zone.

Alas, the panel, which mostly comprised reps from battery manufacturers, promised no imminent miracles. The consensus: For the next year or so at least, consumers should expect only incremental improvements in run time, mostly from closer collaboration between battery and device manufacturers to ensure maximum efficiency delivering power to the device and maximum efficiency in the battery itself. And the technology of choice for the time being, they agreed, remains the lithium-ion cell.

Which isn't to say that new battery technologies on the horizon might not eventually pose a serious challenge to lithium-ion. Some such innovations were on display at the show. Dean Gallea, our computer-testing expert, talks about one such technology, silver-zinc, in the video at right.

—Paul Reynolds