StoreDot demos the next iteration of its super fast battery charging tech

Back in the spring of last year, StoreDot released a video on YouTube which showed a new type of battery that could re-charge in just 30 seconds. The demo showed a modified Samsung Galaxy S4 with a large prototype battery stuck on the back. Once plugged in the battery re-charged in under 30 seconds. Now 9 months later, StoreDot is at CES trying to get support for its new technology and Leo Kelion from the BBC managed to get a fresh look at the current state of this future battery design.

The new rig that StoreDot is demonstrating now shows a phone with a battery that is the same size as a normal smartphone battery. Likewise the charging cradle has been refined and looks much closer to the type of charging cradle used in the early days of mobile devices.

Although these new batteries have a lot of potential, don’t expect to see a replacement battery for your existing phone. They can’t be retrofitted to present phones as the current needed to charge the phone is huge, around 40 amps, much larger than the 1 or 2 amps used today.

The battery is built using specially synthesized organic molecules which allow the ions to move from an anode to a cathode at a high speed. However the technology still needs to be perfected. The new slimmer battery in the current demo is only a 900mAh unit, around one third of what is found in a modern smartphone. To create a device with a 2000mAh battery, phone makers would need to add an extra 5mm to the thickness of the handset. The current 2000mAh batteries from StoreDot take around 3 minutes to charge. Storedot’s goal is that by 2017 it will be able to create batteries of the same size and capacity as today’s units.

For a more information on this new tech then you can watch the BBC’s interview with Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot’s chief executive.