Huawei P40 Rumors Point To A Massive Change In Battery And Charging

Unlike Huawei's previous flagships, the Huawei Mate 30 almost flew under the radar, thanks to its unavailability in many markets. You rarely hear about it unless it's in relation to the US blacklist and how it misses out on Google Play apps and services. On its own, however, the Huawei Mate 30 is a formidable and advanced Android phone and it seems that the Huawei P40 will continue that trend and will deliver features no smartphone has today: graphene batteries.

Smartphone components have made strides in development over the past few years but lithium-ion batteries have remained the same for almost decades. More often than not, development in that area has been limited to making them more compact without risking safety the way the Galaxy Note 7 notoriously did. Many battery and smartphone makers are looking to graphene as the next big step for these volatile power sources and Huawei might be one of if not the first on the scene.

Graphene is considered to be more stable than the usual liquid chemicals inside batteries and conduct electricity faster to boot. It's safer to cram more of the substance in the same space, making it the ideal substance for smartphone batteries. They're still experimental, though, and mostly more expensive given their properties. That, however, might not stop Huawei from daring.

According to one of the first rumors about the Huawei P40, the company will make use of some graphene in batteries to expand capacity to as much as 5500 mAh but at only 70% the size of equivalent lithium-ion. Together with Huawei's 50W fast-charging tech, the phone is also expected to charge to full in just 45 minutes.

Those are pretty big changes, especially for a company that has less access to components and suppliers thanks to the US ban. With still no access to Google's proprietary software, Huawei will have no choice but to pull out all the stops in innovation to convince consumers to make that rather expensive mobile investment.