If you had to pick one aspect of a smartphone to improve, battery life would be pretty high on many people's lists. At Mobile World Congress this week, Energizer unveiled a new device that's almost overkill on the battery problem. The P18K Pop is basically more battery than phone, packing a ridiculous 18,000 mAh capacity that apparently lasts weeks on a charge – but on the flip side, it brings new meaning to the old phrase "brick phone."
The phone itself is from French company Avenir Telecom, which is licensing the Energizer brand for a range of devices with extended battery capacities. For comparison's sake, the capacities of most flagships hover around the 2,000 mAh to 3,500 mAh range – 18,000 mAh is closer to the ballpark of a beefy powerpack.
According to Avenir, the P18K Pop packs enough power for up to 90 hours of phone calls, 100 hours of music or two full days of watching video. Under normal use, the company promises "weeks" between charges.
But all that extra power has to be stored somewhere. The P18K Pop is a chunky beast measuring 18 mm (0.7 in) thick, according to a hands-on report from Engadget. Modern flagships are usually a svelte 7 or 8 mm thick, so you'll no doubt notice the extra luggage. That said, if you frequently get around with a separate power pack in your pocket, it might be easier to just have the one device.
Battery aside, the P18K Pop's other specs are pretty good, too. As is the trend this year, the phone has no less than five cameras built in – three on the back and two front-facing selfie cams. The rear has a 12-megapixel main camera backed up by a 5-MP and a 2-MP camera, which should give a decent depth of field.
Rather than carving a notch into the screen, the front cameras are hidden away in a pop-up mechanism as seen in devices from Oppo and Xiaomi, among others. These two cameras are 16 MP and 2 MP.
The screen itself measures 6.2 in and displays in a Full HD+ resolution. Under the hood, the phone is running 6 GB of RAM and has 128 GB of storage space.
Avenir hasn't yet detailed the price for the P18K Pop, but it says it will start shipping in the (northern hemisphere) summer.
Source: Avenir Telecom via Business Wire