Robert Triggs / Android Authority
You’re not alone if you’re pining for longer battery life from your latest smartphone. Despite emerging technologies like silicon-carbon cells, we’ve seemingly hit a ceiling just above the 5,000 mAh mark — at least for phones sold in the US and Europe. Meanwhile, glance over at models in China or India, and you’ll spot far larger batteries in otherwise identical handsets.
For example, the new Nothing Phone 3 packs a 5,150mAh battery globally, but bumps that up to 5,500mAh in India. The HONOR Magic 7 Pro goes from 5,270mAh in Europe to 5,850mAh in China, and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra stretches from 5,410mAh globally to a massive 6,000mAh in its domestic market. So what gives? Why can’t we have these same huge battery capacities on the other side of the world too?
Wouldn’t you know it? Regulation and red tape are to blame
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
If you’ve ever attempted to ship a phone by post in Europe or the US (and probably many other countries too), you might have been interrogated by the postmaster about the size of the battery and whether it’s sealed in the device. That’s because many countries treat lithium-ion batteries as hazardous goods, with strict rules on how they’re packaged and transported. The same rules apply — often even more stringently — to commercial shipments moving by air, road, rail, or sea.
Several major international regulations govern this. In Europe, there’s the ADR (covering road transport), RID (rail), and IMDG (sea). For air shipments, carriers follow the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules. In the US, there’s also the Code of Federal Regulations, 49 CFR § 173.185, which lays out similar requirements, and other nations sometimes have their own rule variations.
All of these regulations ultimately trace back to the UN’s Model Regulations, which define lithium-ion batteries as either UN3480 (batteries shipped on their own) or UN3481 (batteries packed with or inside equipment). But the most important piece is UN Special Provision 188, which sets a threshold for what’s considered a “small” lithium-ion battery that can be shipped under simplified rules. That limit is 20Wh (watt-hours) per cell, and it’s mirrored in the ADR, IMDG, IATA, and other international rules that govern global transportation networks. For context, there’s also a 100Wh limit for a complete battery pack before stricter transport classifications kick in — but that’s more relevant for laptops and power banks.
International transport rules cap single-cell li-ion capacity at 20Wh, roughly 5,300mAh.
A 20Wh cap might sound large, but it’s tied to the battery’s voltage. For a typical lithium-ion cell with a nominal voltage around 3.8 V, this works out to roughly 5,300mAh per cell — which is about where most modern smartphone batteries in Europe and the US max out. That’s why you might notice slightly smaller battery capacities in these markets compared to some models sold in countries with fewer shipping constraints.
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