OnePlus 16 and its rivals tipped to adopt steel shells for extra-large batteries

The Honor Power recently debuted as the world's first non-rugged, every-day mid-range smartphone rated for a capacity of 8,000mAh thanks to cutting-edge silicon-carbon (SiC) battery technology.

The Android industry has no intention of looking back from this watershed moment, and will rush headlong into next-gen development that can deliver 8,500mAh upgrades by 2026, according to the latest tips on the subject.

The improvements are reportedly based on new "high-silicon" technology that might incorporate 25% to 30% of the semiconductor into their batteries, as opposed to a maximum of ~10% today. 

That might keep energy densities high while ensuring that overall device thickness does not exceed the ~8mm dimension of the Power.

The upgrades are projected to become available across multiple tiers of the smartphone market, from high-performance flagship killers to the flagships themselves.

Therefore, those extra-high-capacity batteries just might feature as selling points in 2027-8 devices such as the "OnePlus 16", and/or its flagship rivals such as the Xiaomi "17 Pro", Honor "Magic9 Pro" and Oppo "Find X10 Ultra".

One or more of those flagships (or their successors, presuming the 9,000mAh technology is not ready until 2028) might mimic Apple and its latest, steel-clad iPhone battery by integrating the same increased protection for their new and cutting-edge power-packs.