Samsung finally pulled the wraps off its highly anticipated Galaxy Note 3 recently, and the news now is that the battery life on the new phablet is going to last a lot longer than expected, according to GigaOM.
The most obvious reason for the better battery lifespan is the 3,200 mAh battery that the Note 3 comes with, which is around 100 mAh higher than it was in the Note 2. But that is not the only reason why. The Note 3 comes with a small chip buried within that will reduce the power necessary to keep the Note 3 connected to the network by as much as 30 percent, a rather large percentage to say the least.
The small chip, called the envelope tracker, was developed by Qualcomm. And the report states that this is the first time that the technology has been implemented in a commercial device. The envelope tracker basically matches the power being pushed through the phone’s signal amplifier to the actual power needed to transmit a signal. While the theory behind this seems relatively simple, real-time implementation is reportedly very difficult.
Samsung has finally announced the Galaxy Note 3
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will come with a much better battery life
A mobile signal is traditionally a waveform that comes with a series of peaks and valleys. This forces a typical phone signal amplifier to maintain a uniform “envelope” of power that can capture the mobile signal at its highest amplitudes. This problem is reportedly seen the most with LTE, which is plagued by what is called a high peak-to-average ratio.
While explaining the problems that a high peak-to-average ratio pose to the source, Jeremy Hendy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at envelope tracking company Nujira said, “You need a high-powered amp for LTE otherwise the signal is distorted. That’s why the power on an LTE [handset] is so bad. For every 4 watts you put in you only get 1 watt out.”
What does envelope tracking do to this problem, you might ask? It basically folds the power envelope around the waveform as tightly as possible, resulting in relatively little power loss.
And this is good news for a device like the Note 3. While the big display sported by the phone is definitely going to be the biggest drain on the battery, it should be remembered that the smartphone’s LTE or 3G radio is always on and trying to get in touch with the network.
Also, users who have a lot of mobile apps running in the background will also benefit from this because apps also communicate with the network at all times. And the Note 3 will be able to last much longer because it is not wasting all that extra energy. Intensive functions like video streaming will still take away a lot of the power due to excessive use of the processor and display, but the additional mobile radio power expenditure can be avoided.
And Nujira believes that envelope tracking can do much more. As the technology improves, the company estimates that as much as 25 percent of the overall battery life of the smartphone can be saved, and this is not just from the radio unit. And the technology is slowly spreading among smartphone manufacturers. According to the source, Nujira and another envelope tracking company, Quantance, have started shipping their chips out to device makers, while many other radio frequency module makers are already in the process of coming up with products of their own. Qualcomm, though, definitely wins out over the competition for now because of its dominance in the smartphone processors and LTE chips market.
The most obvious reason for the better battery lifespan is the 3,200 mAh battery that the Note 3 comes with, which is around 100 mAh higher than it was in the Note 2. But that is not the only reason why. The Note 3 comes with a small chip buried within that will reduce the power necessary to keep the Note 3 connected to the network by as much as 30 percent, a rather large percentage to say the least.
The small chip, called the envelope tracker, was developed by Qualcomm. And the report states that this is the first time that the technology has been implemented in a commercial device. The envelope tracker basically matches the power being pushed through the phone’s signal amplifier to the actual power needed to transmit a signal. While the theory behind this seems relatively simple, real-time implementation is reportedly very difficult.
Samsung has finally announced the Galaxy Note 3
The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 will come with a much better battery life
A mobile signal is traditionally a waveform that comes with a series of peaks and valleys. This forces a typical phone signal amplifier to maintain a uniform “envelope” of power that can capture the mobile signal at its highest amplitudes. This problem is reportedly seen the most with LTE, which is plagued by what is called a high peak-to-average ratio.
While explaining the problems that a high peak-to-average ratio pose to the source, Jeremy Hendy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at envelope tracking company Nujira said, “You need a high-powered amp for LTE otherwise the signal is distorted. That’s why the power on an LTE [handset] is so bad. For every 4 watts you put in you only get 1 watt out.”
What does envelope tracking do to this problem, you might ask? It basically folds the power envelope around the waveform as tightly as possible, resulting in relatively little power loss.
And this is good news for a device like the Note 3. While the big display sported by the phone is definitely going to be the biggest drain on the battery, it should be remembered that the smartphone’s LTE or 3G radio is always on and trying to get in touch with the network.
Also, users who have a lot of mobile apps running in the background will also benefit from this because apps also communicate with the network at all times. And the Note 3 will be able to last much longer because it is not wasting all that extra energy. Intensive functions like video streaming will still take away a lot of the power due to excessive use of the processor and display, but the additional mobile radio power expenditure can be avoided.
And Nujira believes that envelope tracking can do much more. As the technology improves, the company estimates that as much as 25 percent of the overall battery life of the smartphone can be saved, and this is not just from the radio unit. And the technology is slowly spreading among smartphone manufacturers. According to the source, Nujira and another envelope tracking company, Quantance, have started shipping their chips out to device makers, while many other radio frequency module makers are already in the process of coming up with products of their own. Qualcomm, though, definitely wins out over the competition for now because of its dominance in the smartphone processors and LTE chips market.
