Xiaomi is working on a solar-powered smartphone

The Chinese manufacturer has filed patents for the design of a mobile phone equipped with a photovoltaic panel on the back. Objective, recharge the device all day thanks to the energy of the Sun.

With external batteries that cost less than 30 euros, it is now easy and inexpensive to dispense with a charger and compensate for a possible lack of autonomy of his smartphone in the day. But Xiaomi is even considering lightening your bag from this external battery since the Chinese manufacturer has filed patents for a model that can be recharged using solar energy.

For this, the small photovoltaic panel would be placed on the back of the smartphone, under the usual photosensors. On the sketches unearthed by LetsGoDigital, we note that this addition does not affect the smoothness of the device, and this model, if it came out, should not distort the pockets.

Ten years that manufacturers are exploring this path

This implies that the user will have to do without the shell charging time, and put the camera to a light source and probably wait several tens of minutes before recovering the battery. For the moment, it is also only a patent filing but the smartphone market is in search of new innovations, and charging with solar energy deserves to be explored.

In the past, some manufacturers had already studied this idea. In 2009, Sharp was remembered for adding photovoltaic cells to the shell of his phone. At the time, thirty minutes in the sun allowed two minutes to be called. We obviously hope that Xiaomi has greatly improved these values.