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Future smartphones could fully charge in minutes with Samsung's new battery technology

Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) has developed a new battery technology with more capacity and extremely fast charging times. 

The new graphene-based technology could charge a battery in 12 minutes, where the same capacity battery could charge in an hour with standard fast charging. 

It could remove the risk of ever running out of battery simply because it could be more convenient to charge your devices. 

Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) announced on Tuesday that it has developed a battery technology that can fast-charge mobile devices and electric vehicles faster than ever before. 

For a battery that usually takes an hour to charge with current fast-charge technology, Samsung claims the new technology could fast-charge a battery in 12 minutes. 

Current fast charging is great, but Samsung's new battery could charge significantly faster. Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

The new technology includes a single layer of carbon atoms from graphite, known as graphene, which is "100 times more effective than copper in conducting electricity." It also transfers energy "140 times faster" than silicon used in current lithium technology, which makes it "an ideal material for fast charge," according to Samsung. 

Samsung's new battery technology might even give mobile devices and electric vehicles more battery life compared to current batteries, as they have the potential for more capacity. It's unclear how much longer these batteries would last, but the extremely fast charging would make it more convenient to top off your device when you need a charge simply because it takes less time. So if you can spare the occasional five minutes here and there for a top up, you'll be less likely to run out of battery.

Electric vehicles, like those from Tesla, could charge a lot faster thanks to Samsung's new technology. Thomson Reuters

The concept is exactly the same as today's fast-charging technology in smartphones, where 30 minutes of regular fast charging gets you 50% of battery charge. As its name suggests, fast charging is, indeed, faster than regular charging, which could take over two hours to fully charge a smartphone battery. 

This all sounds great, and Samsung has found a way to mass produce the technology at an "affordable price." But there's no mention of when, or if, Samsung would ever use its new battery technology in mobile devices and other electric devices.

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Sorry, Samsung fans: The Galaxy S9 won’t get an under-screen fingerprint sensor

The Galaxy S9 is coming in early January, various recent reports claimed, as Samsung looks to introduce the new smartphone at CES 2018, more than a month earlier than the expected MWC launch. The iPhone X’s popularity is apparently to blame, as Samsung is looking to release a competitor as fast as possible.

The same reports already revealed plenty of details about the phone’s hardware, suggesting that the Galaxy S9+ will be the only device to sport a dual camera on the back. They also claimed that the new phones will have the same general design as their predecessor. A new report now says the Galaxy S9 will indeed get a new fingerprint sensor, but it’s not the kind of fingerprint sensor you might want.

Let’s face it, placing a fingerprint sensor under the display, like many iPhone X rumors said this year, is a totally cool feature, especially for tech fans. Being able to use a surface to scan fingerprints and project images is brilliant, at least on paper. In real life, it’s apparently challenging to achieve. Even for Apple and Samsung. In fact, Apple will tell you that it never considered such a solution for the iPhone X to begin with and that Touch ID sensors are more or less dead now that Face ID is here.

The Galaxy S9 will have a traditional fingerprint sensor, and it’ll be placed on the back of the handset, just like the Galaxy S8. However, the sensor will have a central location which should make it a lot more accessible. It’s also supposed to be a brand-new fingerprint sensor, according to Korean-language ETNews, which says that Samsung plans to ink a deal with a Taiwanese supplier for the Galaxy S9.

The report says the final contract was not signed, but that should happen soon. The report also adds that the sensor will be placed on the rear case, though this is old news since BGR exclusively confirmed the Galaxy S9’s new design last week. It’s unclear what caused this particular change, and whether the new sensor is in any way superior to the one used in the Galaxy S8 series.

ETNews also notes the phone will come with iris scanning technology but makes no mention of a 3D facial recognition system that would rival the iPhone X’s Face ID camera. Instead, the report says the phone will have a regular camera and an iris recognition camera on the front.

Finally, ETNews says that Galaxy S9 mass-production will start in January.

Samsung Files A Patent For Screen-Based Fingerprint Scanner

Samsung has now received an international patent – listed under international patent application number PCT/KR2017/003831 – for a behind-the-screen fingerprint scanner. Before anybody gets too excited, it’s worth noting that a patent filing does not immediately equate to a technology that is ready for market or that will even hit the market at all. It could be that Samsung is just now reaching a point where it sees a path forward to incorporate the concept. The company would want to file a patent to prevent legal action, in case the technology turns out to be viable. However, if the patented tech does turn out to be feasible, this could be a game changer for the smartphone industry.

As to the patent itself, Samsung filed the patent on April 7 and it was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on November 2. The associated patent drawings show that, in order to get the fingerprint scanner functioning properly, Samsung plans to layer display technologies and fingerprint scanning behind a glass overlay. The fingerprint scanning layer would rest on top of a standard touch sensor, which would be laid out on top of the actual display. Underneath that, a three-layer pressure sensor is included to provide a trigger for the fingerprint scanner itself. What that means is that, if the patent ever sees use in a real device, users will be able to trigger a fingerprint scan on the screen, instead of with dedicated off-screen hardware. While that would certainly change the way users unlock their devices, Samsung has provided other use-case scenarios in its patent filing as well. For example, having the sensor under the screen would allow users to lock and unlock just about anything without the need to move their hand off-screen or take additional actions. Instead, it could happen in a more automated fashion. For example, sliding on the screen to access Samsung Pay could also trigger a fingerprint scan. That means that users are automatically logged in while taking an action they’d already need to take to access the app – if they have it secured via the fingerprint scanner.

As mentioned above, there is no guarantee this functionality will ever be built into a handset, let alone the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9. However, it does appear that Samsung is making some strides in moving fingerprint scanning to an on-screen action, as opposed to placing it in a dedicated piece of hardware. With any luck, the company will work out how to make this function properly since it is a feature many have been clamoring for.