As smartphones become ever more capable and packed full of technology, there's one thing that never really seems to improve: battery life. Most of us have become resigned to the daily routine of plugging in our phones overnight to ensure that they've got enough juice to last the next day.
Philips attempted to work around this problem with the W6618, its Android handset which crammed in an incredible 5300mAh battery. However, aside from that headline-grabbing feature, the rest of its spec sheet was utterly dull, with a non-HD display, 1GB of RAM and just 4GB of storage.
But we're much more excited about another Android handset, spotted by Phone Arena, which also dials it up on the battery front, but has a list of specs that's far more interesting. The THL 5000 features a 5000mAh battery, and a quoted standby time of up to 1,000 hours.
Let's put those figures into some context. Many flagship-class devices have batteries with nowhere near that capacity - the Lumia 1020, with its mighty 41MP camera, for example, has only a 2000mAh battery, while even Nokia's giant 6-inch phablet, the Lumia 1520, makes do with just 3400mAh.
LG's new range-topper, the G3, comes with a 3000mAh battery, while the Samsung Galaxy S5 has 2800mAh. Even the premium Amazon Fire Phone's battery has just 2400mAh, and quoted standby time of up to 285 hours.
To put it simply, then, this is a pretty big deal, especially when you look at what else the THL 5000 has to offer. Despite its huge battery, it has a pretty slim body that's just 8.9mm-thick, along with a 5-inch Full HD (1920x1080px) IPS LCD screen protected by Gorilla Glass 3.
Under the hood, you'll get a 1.7GHz octa-core (yes, eight-core) MediaTek MT6592 CPU with a 700MHz Mali 450 GPU, paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. Around the back, there's a 13MP Sony Exmor camera, along with a 5MP selfie-cam up front.
You'll even get NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio, and other features such as double-tap-to-wake. Perhaps the one most important spec that's missing is 4G LTE connectivity, but HSDPA+ speeds of up to 42.2Mbps are supported.
That may be an acceptable compromise given everything else that's on offer, including that spacious battery, and considering the price tag too. The device is not yet available for purchase, but PhoneArena claims that it is expected to go on sale for the equivalent of $299. However, the device looks set to remain exclusively available through the company's distribution network in China, so if you were hoping to grab the THL 5000 elsewhere in the world, you may be out of luck.
Source: PhoneArena | images via THL
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