Why haven’t smartphone batteries improved?

Battery technology seems stuck in the dark ages. Nicole Kobie examines its limitations and reveals the research that could cause a power revolution.

Smartphone screens are getting bigger and sharper, processors are ever-more powerful, but battery life continues to be the bane of our ongoing mobile existence.

No wonder, then, that a recent pair of surveys showed battery life as one of the key considerations when buying a smartphone. Global Market Institute found that 89% rated a phone’s battery life as “important” – far more so than the 68% who chose by the brand of the handset – and said extending time between charges was so crucial to users that some turned off key features or turned down screen brightness in order to extend battery life. A separate study by uSwitch revealed that 89% of Britons would be more likely to buy a smartphone purely based on longer battery life, rather than more flashy features such as voice controls, flexible displays or even 3D graphics.

LG 65UB980V: Bold and beautiful

LG's high-end 4K TV combines brilliant Smarts with great images. John Archer reports

LG has had a topsy-turvy year in TV. On the upside, the brand’s taken the Smart TV world by storm with its WebOS interface. On the downside, it’s struggled to keep up with some rivals on the picture quality front.

Chiefl y, this is because the IPS panels it employs in its LED-lit fl atscreens have failed to deliver the sort of contrast performances we’ve come to expect from rival LCD technologies. If any TV’s going to lift LG into the A-List, though, it’s the 65UB980V. After all, this is the company's fl agship 65in model for 2014, and as such it comes packing the highest levels of LG’s hardware and software wizardry.

Dell XPS 18

A step in the right direction.

If you recall from our first Dell XPS 18 review in the August 2013 issue, we were surprised by how much we liked the 18-inch AIO/tablet hybrid. As much as we enthused, however, there were a few issues that kept us from recommending it outright. Haswell was right around the corner, which would have offered better CPU, GPU, and battery performance over its then aging Ivy Bridge processor. We also didn’t like that it only had a paltry 32GB caching drive. With the XPS 18 Mark II, Dell is attempting to address those issues.

DriveClub

Membership benefits.

Every console needs a killer game or two, titles that redefine the way things are done. Because gaming is so broad, these are genre specific attempts at capturing hearts and minds, and the racing genre is hotly contested. The Xbox, for example, has Forza, which has become something of an unassailable fortress for Microsoft console car gaming. The PS3 had the Gran Turismo series which, despite a wobbly later run, still managed to captivate audiences. For the PS4… well, that space still needs to be filled, really, and it seems that it was the main aim of DriveClub to do just that. But definitive racers need to offer a whole array of positives, including a realistic driving model and, unfortunately, DriveClub doesn’t really deliver in all the areas that it should.

The Evil Within

Get ready for punishment…

Horror is not an easy genre to get right, Whether it be in the format of books or films, scaring the crap out of the audience is a lot tougher than you might think. It is, arguably, easier to do with video games, because the player is so much more involved with the activity, actually providing feedback rather than just receiving information intended to get their heart pounding.