Graphene batteries may slash your phone recharge time to 15 minutes

Imagine your laptop, phone, or other battery-driven piece of tech recharging in less than 15 minutes? That’s at least an hour faster than the fastest smartphone recharging systems can manage today, and something most of us would find extremely beneficial. The good news is, the world’s first graphene battery pack is here, and it promises to deliver exactly this level of performance.

Revealed by Chinese company Dongxu Optoelectronics, the battery pack is called the G-King. It has a 4,800mAh capacity, which is considerably more than what we see in a smartphone, and more inline with small tablets, or compact laptops like the 11-inch MacBook Air. Dongxu claims the battery regains its lost charge in 13 to 15 minutes. The battery shouldn’t fall over after a single recharge either. Dongxu says the cell is strong enough to be discharged and recharged 3,500 times, which it states is seven times the strength of a conventional Li-Ion battery.

China Xinhua News/Facebook.com

It’s all thanks to graphene, the wonder-material we’ve been hearing about for some time, which has the potential to revolutionize the world of battery technology. Apart from making the batteries inside our gadgets more efficient, graphene makes flexible screens possible, and can be used to improve heart rate and fingerprint sensors. It’s graphene’s ability to make batteries better that has the world all excited though, particularly in the area of electric cars.

Dongxu’s G-King battery was shown off at an event in Beijing at the beginning of July, and seemingly was demonstrated on stage, but that doesn’t mean it’s about to be fitted inside your next smartphone. The company didn’t give any idea when the G-King or a derivative would reach us, and for now remains tantalizingly out of reach. However, the fact it has reached the stage in development where it can be officially unveiled this way represents a positive step closer to fitment inside the devices we use everyday.