“All manufacturers are looking to have better-performing batteries,” says Thomas Husson, an analyst at advisory company Forrester Research. “There is a sense that it is an area that is lagging behind, that we have to move forward.”

As smartphone models have become increasingly similar, having a better battery is a way to “stand out from the crowd”, he adds.

There have been many advances in the battery field since the first smartphones hit the market in the 2000s – such as wireless charging – but there is still much room for improvement.

The growing popularity of power-hungry applications such as gaming and social media is fuelling demand for “mobile batteries with high battery capacity” and spurring the race for innovation among manufacturers, Allied Market Research wrote in a research note.

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Most smartphones currently run on lithium-ion batteries that are made up of rare materials such as lithium, cobalt and manganese whose prices have soared and which degrade as time passes.

To get around this problem, manufacturers are exploring alternatives using lithium sulphur or graphene, which may last longer and rely on fewer rare elements.

Chinese handset maker Honor has developed a new higher-capacity battery technology that uses silicon carbon for its new AI-infused flagship Magic 6 smartphone, which it says can fully charge in less than 40 minutes and lasts longer than its main competitors.

It is the top smartphone battery in a ranking compiled by Dxomark, a commercial website that scientifically assesses handsets.

As AI features use more energy, “of course we need a powerful battery life”, Honor CEO George Zhao said at MWC.

South Korean giant Samsung is reportedly developing a solid-state battery that can store more energy, charge faster and offer greater safety. The company aims to launch it in 2027.

Its main rival Apple – which last year overtook Samsung as the world’s top seller of smartphones – is developing its own battery technology with a view to introducing its designs into mobile devices, perhaps as soon as 2025, according to South Korean newspaper ET News.

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Battery making had usually been outsourced but device makers are now increasingly seeking to “reduce their dependency on certain suppliers”, as they are already doing with chips, Husson says.

The Beijing-based company said the next-generation battery is the first in the world to realise the miniaturisation of atomic energy, placing nickel-63 isotopes into a module smaller than a coin.

The company, which is not attending MWC, did not say when the battery would be mass-produced for commercial applications, saying only that it was in the pilot testing stage.

Improvements are sometimes required by legislators.

The European Union parliament approved new rules in June last year to make batteries more sustainable, by imposing minimum levels of recycled content that they must use, and to be more durable.

“There is more money being spent on battery technology than ever before because of the electric vehicle development,” says Ben Wood, chief of research at analyst firm CCS Insight. “So it is quite an exciting time for batteries.

“If someone could crack the battery problem, it would be a game-changer. Imagine having a mobile phone that lasts two weeks – it would be amazing. But we are years and years away from that happening.”