New Battery Tech Gives Eight Hours of Play Time on One-Minute Charge

[Steven Bogos]

New Battery Tech Gives Eight Hours of Play Time on One-Minute Charge

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The new battery claims to be able to give your Xbox One controller eight hours of play time on just a one-minute charge.

The biggest bottleneck in technology right now is far and away battery life. Having the coolest, fanciest smart watch means nothing if you are chained to an outlet. Likewise, having a fancy wireless gaming controller doesn't mean much if you have to either A) constantly buy new batteries or B) plug it in to charge while you are playing, effectively turning it into a wired controller. However, tech company PDP claims to have solved this problem, with the reveal of a new kind of battery for the Xbox One controller that can provide up to eight hours of play time on a single, one-minute charge.

Speaking to Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/7/10732084/new-battery-technology-one-minute-charging-eight-hours-play] at CES 2016, director of product development at PDP Christopher Dingle explained "In the past it has been about either your dry cell battery chemistries or your lithium ion or lithium polymers, but we've developed a new type of power pack. [Our battery is] a physical reaction rather than a chemical reaction."

While he wouldn't go into details on exactly how the tech worked, Dingle stressed that the company had a working prototype of the battery. Additionally, although the new battery will be initially limited to the Xbox One, Dingle says PDP is hoping to create rapid-charging power packs for things like your phone or laptop, at entry-level, mid-tier and premium price points. A PlayStation 4 controller battery is also in the works.

As for the when and how much, the rapid-charge pack for Xbox One controller will open pre-orders "near the end" of 2016, and will set you back a pretty hefty $99 for the charging base and a single battery.

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2016/1/7/10732084/new-battery-technology-one-minute-charging-eight-hours-play]

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[The Hungry Samurai]

$99 for a battery that charges in a minute or $55 for an extra controller and a spare battery to use while the others charge.

One minute downtime
Vs
Extra controller and potentially no downtime for the life of the batteries and an extra $45

Hmmm

 

[delroland]

Chris Dingle sounds like a fake name... ><

$99 for a battery that charges in a minute or $55 for an extra controller and a spare battery to use while the others charge.

One minute downtime
Vs
Extra controller and potentially no downtime for the life of the batteries and an extra $45

Hmmm

Initial costs for new tech are always high, but if this works as advertised, I see MS or Sony buying them out and incorporating the tech into their next gen products out of the box.

 

[Xan Krieger]

$99 for a battery that charges in a minute or $55 for an extra controller and a spare battery to use while the others charge.

One minute downtime
Vs
Extra controller and potentially no downtime for the life of the batteries and an extra $45

Hmmm

Or just use a wired controller like I do and never worry about batteries. This is why I use a wired xbox 360 controller, keyboard, mouse, and joystick.

 

[the.chad]

More interested to see if the technology behind it could be used on other battery powered devices i.e. Mobile Phones or Electric Cars?

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

"Physical reaction," huh? What, is it a windup spring? (I would be neat if it was a physical reaction at the microscopic or even molecular level.) When I first read the headline I thought it was a super capacitor (Hey, I'm sleepy enough to be optimistic right now.) or new fast charging Li ion/polymer chemistry that doesn't have a high capacity, but would be suited to controllers.

Isn't PDP a just a third part controller and headset manufacturer, though? Yeah, I've got one of their Wii U controllers. (I must admit it seems to be of decent quality. I just usually use the gamepad. I might use this $10 off coupon that I have sitting around, since the controller is back up for sale on their site.)

This doesn't seem like the kind of company developing new battery tech, more like the company that sources batteries and other components from suppliers and may make the PCBs and shells in-house. Kudos to them if they really made a new battery design with potential to grow, but I can't shake the feeling another unnamed entity did at least some of the thinking.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I suppose this tech is great for the MLG/ pro gamers out there.

 

[Thaluikhain]

That's a very bold claim. Hopefully, it'd be true, and gaming devices would be the least beneficiaries of this, but I'd not be surprised if it were not.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Additionally, although the new battery will be initially limited to the Xbox One, Dingle says PDP is hoping to create rapid-charging power packs for things like your phone or laptop, at entry-level, mid-tier and premium price points. A PlayStation 4 controller battery is also in the works.

Yet I see nothing in this article for the areas in which such battery performance would really matter; transportation and green energy solutions.

So that makes me think; what's the catch?

 

[Smooth Operator]

Yeah that is a neat trick but one thing keeps not getting mentioned, these super fast chargers cook your battery and then it dies within a year, possibly less as people are finding out with constant phone use.
Then again this is a super consumer market so the faster you can make something fail the better your sales.

 

[Flatfrog]

While he wouldn't go into details on exactly how the tech worked, Dingle stressed that the company had a working prototype of the battery

I call smoke and mirrors

 

[Merlark]

Seems like I read about this from some company or another every 3 months for the last 3 years now. we have batteries that last for ever and charge in seconds! awesome...where is it? I mean seriously, they are making them out of capacitors, carbon, polymers, lithium oxide blah blah blah. everything apparently makes a better battery yet were the heck are they?

Oh well, here is hoping we can buy this thing some day. maybe all the electric car company's are buying these guys out so thats why we never see anything get to the commercial stage.

 

[Duskflamer]

Anytime I hear about something like this, all I can envision is my tech literally going up in flames. I just have this gut reaction that it can't be safe to transfer that much energy that quickly.

 

[Mortuorum]

Back in October, I paid Amazon $30 for an 8-pack of pre-charged rechargeable AA batteries and a battery charger. Yeah, it takes several hours to charge the batteries, but (1) I have 8 of them; and (2) they cost me $70 less than the proposed new charger. I just don't see this as a value, at least for a game controller.

I am intrigued by what he means by "physical reaction" (as opposed to a chemical reaction). Is there a small flywheel in there? I can't see how that would work.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

A "physical reaction rather than a chemical reaction"... so you're telling me this sucker's nuclear?

 

[Callate]

Honestly, I've found it hard to understand the fetish for making everything wireless. It makes sense for motion controllers that one could easily jar loose from their cords, or for remote controls, or even for the new VR headsets (which are, ironically, almost all wired at this point in their development). But for most controllers, which are used six to eight feet from the console anyway, wirelessness just means having to change out batteries and an added chance to lose the thing if your television room has any kind of clutter.

All that said, the technology does sound nifty- assuming the over-all life of the battery is at least comparable to existing NiMH and Lithium-based alternatives. A battery that charges in one minute but loses half its ability to take charge within the first six months of use is of limited value.

 

[Jamash]

Spoiler: Comparison photo of the controller with its normal battery installed

This is a better and more telling photograph of the battery.

No wonder it boasts such impressive figures, the battery is at least 6 times the size of the normal Xbox One controller battery and rather than fitting inside the controller, snugly recessed away behind a hatch on the flat underside, it's a massive protuberance which looks like it ruins the shape and ergonomics of the controller and will make it awkward to hold.

Call me old fashioned, but I think I'll stick with the normal discreet internal battery and unobtrusive Micro-USB cable.

If this is typical of this company's amazing solution to batteries, i.e. make something many times bigger than the existing battery which protrudes out as much again as the device is deep, then I can't see their battery packs for mobile phones being very popular or practical.

 

[mtarzaim02]

Physical reaction, huh?

A nuclear battery pack... ...FINALLY!



One more step to get my own terminator. :3

 

[remnant_phoenix]

One step closer to power armor!

For those who don't know, top-level R&D teams have made power armor that works like that seen in games like Halo or film characters like Iron Man (minus the flying and hand blasters though), but what's holding it back is battery life. The best battery in the world can't power it for long enough to be practically useful in battlefield operations.