Xiaomi claims its new battery technology increases battery capacity 10%

Xiaomi claims the smaller battery pack on the right contains the same amount of power as the larger pack on the left.

Electronics manufacturer Xiaomi claims it’s developed a new type of battery technology that can pack 10% more capacity into batteries the same size of traditional lithium-ion batteries.

In a post shared on Weibo, Xiaomi says its High-Silicon Lithium battery technology packs three times as much silicon on the negative electrodes compared to current lithium-ion batteries and uses a special layering technique to improve efficiency. According to Xiaomi, this new design gives 10% more power in the same footprint. While 10% doesn’t sound like much, it’s better than nothing and is a welcomed jump from current battery tech, which feels as though it’s more or less plateaued over the past few years.

An illustration from Xiaomi showing the packaging of the battery with the piece of copper foil (pictured as orange) running down the middle.

Xiaomi doesn’t specify what smartphone we’ll first see these new batteries inside, but does say it will start mass production in the second half of 2022. If that timeframe proves accurate, it’s likely we’ll see the first of these batteries inside flagship devices in early 2023 or possibly very late 2022, depending on how quickly Xiaomi can get the battery packs turned around.