Editor's Note: The Xiaomi M11 Ultra has been announced, and as expected, Xiaomi's new model offers a silicon-oxygen anode battery. We have updated this report to reflect that announcement; for more information on the Xiaomi M11 Ultra, please visit the Xiaomi M11 Ultra hub.

One of the biggest challenges phone makers face each year as they try to make their smartphones thinner and lighter is reducing size without affecting battery life. Companies can do things that reduce battery consumption (more efficient chips, adaptive refresh rates, etc.), but there is no substitute for a higher capacity battery.

Since the introduction of smartphones, cell phone manufacturers have focused on lithium-ion batteries, and some have recently switched to lithium-polymer batteries. But with the just-announced Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra, Chinese giant Xiaomi is taking a new approach. It is the first smartphone to feature a silicon-oxygen anode battery.

The move was announced on Twitter by Xiaomi's senior product marketing manager, Daniel Huang Desjarlais, ahead of the Mi 11 Ultra's big launch today (March 29). Its "main advantage," he wrote, is that it is "thinner and charges faster."

"This is similar to electric cars, where adding nanoscale silicon material to the anode can increase the theoretical gram capacity to 10 times that of graphite." [It was just revealed this week that Xiaomi may be working on its first electric car.

While it sounds very promising on paper, we'll have to wait and see how it fares in real-world benchmarks when compared to other smartphones. After all, Desjarlais' tweet uses the word "theoretical," and it is quite possible that the first iteration will offer minimal real-world performance benefits.

However, the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra combines an incredibly small and light frame with great battery performance and fast charging, and it is hard to imagine other manufacturers not emulating this success.

Xiaomi is not alone, of course, in re-evaluating smartphone batteries. Apple will reportedly address the iPhone 12 family's disappointing stamina in the iPhone 13 with several changes, including battery softboard technology and "space-saving designs for many components. Combined, these should either increase capacity in the same frame as the iPhone 12 or further reduce its size to keep battery life at the same level.

The Mi 11 Ultra is available now, but we do not yet know the price of this phone, which will be available in the UK in late April. In addition to new and exciting battery technology, the phone has some pretty phenomenal specs. The camera includes a 50MP main sensor, a 48MP ultra-wide lens, and a 48MP telephoto camera. It also has a secondary display on the back to aid in selfies if the 20MP front lens is not enough.