Close-up look at that new 'stepped battery' on the Moto X and LG G2

Two trips to New York City in two weeks one for Motorola, and another for LG, and one common theme: Why waste space inside the phone when you could fill that void with a little extra battery volume.

Enter the "stepped battery," and it's a simple enough idea. Instead of a single, rectangular-shaped battery, you've got one with a small "step" and little bit of a hump that gives you a little more juice.

We got an up-close look at LG's "stepped" battery this morning at the G2 launch event, and you can see exactly what they're talking about. LG's using a 3,000 mAh stepped battery in its G2, and the bulge is subtle maybe not even a full millimeter in thickness but it's there. And spread it out over a decent size area, and suddenly you gain a bit more capacity.

Motorola's doing the same thing in the Moto X (though with a smaller overall volume at 2,200 mAh), and sure enough, LG confirmed to us that Motorola uses LG batteries in some devices. (That'd be LG Chem, actually, which is a separate business from LG Mobile.) Not a big leap to make there.

This is in contrast to a phone such as the HTC One, which uses a traditionally shaped battery and instead slides the phone's motherboard into that space where the phone curves outward.

Neither the Moto X or the LG G2, it's worth mentioning, has a removable battery. One way or another, it's a nice, basic change that gets us a few precious extra minutes out of our phones. Nicely done.

Via: Close-up look at that new 'stepped battery' on the Moto X and LG G2