OnePlus is reportedly taking mid-range smartphone batteries to a new level

The other day, leaker Digital Chat Station posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo about an upcoming phone featuring a battery with a capacity in the range of 6200mAh to 6400mAh. As my colleague Iskra Petrova noted in her article, the post didn't mention a specific phone, but the specs listed certainly pointed to the OnePlus 13. Equipping a phone with a huge battery is nothing new for OnePlus which put a 5400mAh cell in the OnePlus 12.

A new Weibo post by Digital Chat Station includes a new revelation. Oppo and its OnePlus unit are reportedly working on a 7000mAh battery and surprisingly, this power source could debut on a mid-range model. This would not be the first mid-range phone to sport a 7000mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy F62, released in February 2021, was equipped with a 7000mAh battery. Even earlier than that, in September 2020, Sammy released the mid-range Galaxy M51 which also featured a 7000mAh battery.

Sure, larger batteries mean longer battery life which is great for users. But there could be some downsides. First of all, the phone will take a longer time to charge fully. For example, the Galaxy M51 supports 25W charging and Samsung says it takes 115 minutes to charge the battery to 100%. Two, a bigger battery might make the phone more likely to overheat. But the third and most important negative is that the inclusion of such a large battery is apt to make a handset thick and harder to hold.

OnePlus has promoted the silicon-based battery that powers the OnePlus Ace 3 Pro. These batteries have a higher density allowing them to pack a higher capacity in a smaller size. For example, this phone measures under 9mm thick, and weighs under 207 grams and still sports a 6100mAh battery.

We've seen low-end phones from brands that are not widely known come with huge batteries. For example, Ulefone and Umidigi are two manufacturers that most people have never heard of of. Both offer phones with huge 10000mAh batteries. On Amazon, Blackview has a handset priced at under $200 that is powered by a 13000mAh battery. But these are not mid-range models.

Right now, it appears that batteries on high-end smartphones are beginning to exceed the 5000mAh capacity range and perhaps next year's iPhone 17 Pro Max will be the first iPhone to carry a battery with a capacity in excess of 5000mAh. Keep in mind that because of the differences between iOS and Android, comparing the battery capacity of an Android phone and an iPhone is like comparing an oranges to an...apple.