Battery Problems?

Akira Yoshino developed the prototype of the li-ion in 1985. His prototype led to the creation of lithium-ion batteries. These are what you find in portable electronics. These batteries are the rechargeable sort. The lithium ions are what move from the negative electrode through an electrolyte. A positive electrode comes into play during a discharge. As you might have guessed it, this process starts all over again once you recharge your device. The technology appears to work in theory. The technology even sounds impressive. But we all know that many times, these batteries are the bane of our devices.

With our busy lives, we have come to depend on devices with long battery life. With our devices built to last longer, recharging capabilities have become a necessity. Yet even with this advancement, we have all heard the horror stories. I am sure we all remember the news broadcast warning you, don't get cheap chargers. We all listened, but more of our devices were blowing up. Thus it became clear that it was not our knock off accessories but the batteries themselves. Yes, the same batteries that allow us to live our busy lives could not actually handle our demands.

The case of Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Now that smartphone had such horror stories that made this device notorious. Imagine you have invested in a dazzling Android phone. You can marvel at the slick design. You can get practical use out its water resistance. And you can even celebrate that for once you can connect an external storage device through the microSD card slot. The hype around this phone had been huge. This was perhaps one of the first smartphones to come head to head with the king of smartphones, the iPhone. What served to be this phone's Achilles's heel, its battery, of course.

Much like other smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 contained the lithium-ion batteries. Yet this particular phone had something different about it. First of all, it had jumped on the bandwagon of the ever slimmer phone. Second, Samsung seemed to have wanted to come out on top by having an even longer battery life. How did they do this? They made a custom-sized battery, a larger battery, a battery that reports say did not even fit the phone. Is it any wonder when they started to blow up, they even caught on fire?

Now we all know that Samsung Galaxy Note 7s tried to compete with iPhones. Is it any wonder then why they both used the same rechargeable battery, lithium-ion? No. It is no surprise than that the iPhones are also plagued with similar battery issues. We have seen the videos no doubt. We have all seen people throwing their overheated iPhones out before they exploded. It seems all too incredible that such a small device can have such a devastating impact. So is it any wonder why many of us become terrified when our iPhone batteries begin to play up. And what about those times when the battery expanding is not so obvious?

During my postgraduate degree, I had my first encounter with a faulty iPhone battery. No, my phone was not swelling up. My phone charged fine. The sign that was something wrong was my battery draining from 70% right down to 42% in a split second. That's not normal, right? I kept expecting things to improve, instead, my phone began to freeze up. This was when I decided to visit the Apple Store. The technicians there thought there was nothing wrong until they opened up my iPhone. For the price of a new battery, I got a whole new phone.

With my iPad, my battery issues were a lot more obvious. Yes, it charged, but my iPad had gone from lasting five to six-hour from a single charge to draining in under two hours. At first, I thought it had to do with software issues. I am sure we are all familiar with older hardware growing slower with every new software update. I had tried a few soft resets and hard ones, but the battery draining persisted. So that was when I booked a visit with the Apple store.

The repair visit to the Apple Store was a little different with masks and temperature checks. The Apple technician was very helpful. He ran the checks and established that getting a replacement was the right way to go. A note to add here, Apple products are expensive, their aftercare though is amazing. Apple hardware and software advertise themselves as being user friendly. It only stands to reason that the store colleagues would uphold this by being friendly and professional with customers. So for the price of a new iPad battery, I was fortunate enough to receive a whole new iPad.

During these times of hardship, we are all having to save money when and where we can. Indeed Apple reported an 'an all-time high' in their fourth in products and services. Any company can thrive during times of plenty. It is those companies who can reorient their services that can thrive. Indeed, only recently, it was my MacBook that began to play up. My computer was working fine but it became harder and harder to close my machine’s lid. It was only with the announcement of another lockdown that I realised I had to have my machine looked at. It was an expanding battery in the making.

Batteries. We love them. We hate them. Lithium-ion batteries are thin and have recharging capabilities. Yet with such powerful technology, there are bound to be issues. Lithium-ion batteries seem to be the main culprit. Exploding batteries may be here to stay. Even so the more we are aware of this, the more we can detect the signs. Once upon a time, large companies denied these battery problems, now they fix them. Public pressure has brought about this change. And as members of the public, we must be aware of the dangers and take care of our devices accordingly.