OnePlus reportedly developing massive smartphone batteries — what we know

OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

If you've followed OnePlus, you know that the Chinese smartphone maker loves its batteries and optimizing battery life.

Its phones already feature massive batteries, and the recently released OnePlus 13 sports a huge 6,000mAh battery.

The batteries of the OnePlus phone are so good that they take four of the top ten slots in our picks for the smartphones with the best battery life, only losing to the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro.

However, that's just the first step. A leaked roadmap and a report from regular tipster Digital Chat Station (via Phone Arena) claim that OnePlus is developing 7,000mAh — and, eventually, 8,000mAh batteries.

The roadmap indicates that the next flagship OnePlus phones could feature impressive 7,000 mAh batteries. However, that may not be enough for OnePlus, as DCS claims that OnePlus is developing a ridiculous 8,000 mAh battery.

More powerful batteries in the works

OnePlus slide showing the difference between the Glacier Battery and a 5,000 mAh battery

(Image credit: OnePlus)

In their post, DCS wrote, "Ouga Lab tested 8000mAh ± 80W, 15% silicon content."

Ouga Lab is a research and development center for Oppo and OnePlus. Based on DCS' claim it appeared the lab produced a battery significantly bigger than the glacier battery introduced with last year's China-exclusive OnePlus Ace 3 Pro. This new battery increases "silicon content" from 15% to 6%, more than the Ace 3 Pro.

According to reports, silicon can store more lithium ions than graphite, making the power cells made with it more powerful than traditional batteries.

It's also supposed to support 80W SuperVOOC fast charging speeds.

It will be interesting to see if these larger batteries make OnePlus phones bigger. Part of the reason for introducing the Glacier battery was that the manufacturer could pack 6,000mAh worth of capacity into the same space as a 5,000mAh battery.

Blows current phones out of the water

If OnePlus is able to launch 7,000 or 8,000mAh smartphones, that high capacity would likely blow the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra or iPhone 16 Pro Max out of the water, despite their current excellent battery life.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Current best battery options
Row 0 - Cell 0

Battery Size (mAh)

Battery life (hours:mins)

Galaxy S25 Ultra

5,000 mAh

17:15

Galaxy S24 Ultra

5,000 mAh

16:45

iPhone 16 Pro Max

4685 mAh

17:35

Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro

5,800 mAh

20:34

OnePlus 13

6,000 mAh

19:45

Pixel 9 Pro XL

5,060 mAh

12:54

As you can see from the above table, it would even best current offerings from OnePlus. The additional 1,000 or 2,000mAh of a new battery would presumably at least two hours, possibly more to its capabilities.

Though, as you can see with Google's Pixel 9 Pro XL, it's not all about battery capacity. Optimized chips like Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite or Apple's new A18 processor also do a lot for making phones operate more efficiently. Google's current Tensor chips aren't as good at that aspect of maintaining stronger batteries.

OnePlus currently uses Qualcomm's chips which combined with the bigger batteries could lead to impressive results down the line.

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Scott Younker
West Coast Reporter

Scott Younker is the West Coast Reporter at Tom’s Guide. He covers all the lastest tech news. He’s been involved in tech since 2011 at various outlets and is on an ongoing hunt to build the easiest to use home media system. When not writing about the latest devices, you are more than welcome to discuss board games or disc golf with him. 

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