Tech News Roundup for September 23, 2020
Here are a few of the tech stories I found interesting… on Tuesday. This is being written early Wednesday morning, so anything of note that happens during the day on Wednesday will be missing.
Tesla Battery Day Event Promises Cheaper Batteries, Vehicles… Eventually
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed plans for the company’s future direction in battery technology on Tuesday. Tesla has an ambitious plan to halve the cost of the battery cells that go into its vehicles, which constitutes a large portion of the cost of these vehicles. While the cost of the batteries in Teslas have already fallen 87% since the introduction of the original Roadster years ago, driving the costs even lower will help bring the costs down even further. Right now, batteries in Tesla Model 3 and Model Y cost about $156USD per KWh of energy. Tesla’s goal has always been to get that below $100 USD per KWh.
Tesla hopes to achieve this by creating new “tabless” batteries that have 5x the energy density of the current batteries in Tesla vehicles. Thse 4680 batteries, as Tesla calls them, should enable 6x the power and 16% greater range compared to the batteries currently used in the Model 3 and Model Y. It achieves this using the aforementioned “tables” design, which removes the bulky piece that connects the battery cell to the device it is powering with a much smaller connection that is more integrated into the whole product. Tesla plans to produce these 4680 batteries in house, which would be a first for the company. Tesla currently buys all of the batteries for its vehicles in North America from Panasonic, with Elon Musk stating that Panasonic’s production capacity has limited production of the Model 3 and Model Y. Moving to in house batteries will allow Tesla to better control its product stack.
Musk also promised that this new battery will power a new Tesla vehicle that will cost $25,000 USD. No other details were given about this new vehicle, but that price point is important. The current lowest price for a Tesla vehicle is a $35,000 USD Standard Range Model 3. That standard range model gets to that price by sacrificing about 25% of the range of the other Model 3 cars. Getting to $25,000 will make electric vehicles more affordable for more people, which should help adoption greatly.
Don’t expect the new batteries and new car any time soon, however. Elon Musk stated that it will likely be 2023 before we see these batteries being manufactured in quantity, which also means we won’t see the new, cheaper vehicle until at least then. Until then, Tesla will continue buying batteries from Panasonic, and Musk says it will actually increase the number it buys from the company. We will likely see incremental cost reductions in Tesla vehicles in the medium term, as Tesla improve the efficiency of its production process. Tesla did lower the price of the Model 3 and Model Y by about $3000 earlier this year, and the company has not been shy about reducing prices or increasing capabilities of its vehicles whenever it is able.
Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 750G Processor
As consumers and device OEM’s push back against the huge cost of the high end Snapdragon 865 chipset, Qualcomm is trying to alleviate that by releasing more processors in the lower cost 700 series. The 750G is the latest such product. The 750G will be faster than the 730 and 732G, but not quite as fast as the 765G.
The 765G chipset is very capable, and is more than enough for most users. The 750 appears to be a replacement for the 730 and 732G, which are capable today, but the 750G should hopefully add a little extra oomph which will add to their longevity.
Plus, it will help keep the price down, which everyone will appreciate.
Fitbit Sense Reviews Hit
The Fitibit Sense is Fitbit’s new high end fitness centric smartwatch, and reviews hit on Tuesday. Based on a few of them, the product seems very disappointing out the door. The hardware is praised, but the software is said to be riddled with bugs and half baked. The blood oxygen monitoring feature works with only one specific watch face, which is nonsense.
Before I was gifted the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 I had the Fitbit Versa, which was the first version of this line of watches. I found the fitness features to be very robust, but the actual smartwatch features quite basic. It was enough for me, but I did wish it had just a little bit more. The sense is aiming to improve on that, with more smartwatch type features and capabilities like GPS, voice control, and more advanced sensors. It even *improves* the battery life, going from 4 days on the Versa 2 to as many as 6 days on the Versa 3 and Sense. The design is very similar to a 40mm Apple Watch (unfortunately lacking a larger option) that looks quite good if you are ok with a square-ish watch instead of a round watch. However, Fitbit seems to have stumbled out of the gate with the Sense, which is disappointing. If you are entrenched in the Fitbit ecosystem, the Sense (or Versa 3) are the devices to get, but the software bugs will likely keep it from being a serious competitor to the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watches, at least for now.
https://www.theverge.com/21450123/fitbit-sense-review
Jabra Announces Elite 85t Headphones
In the tech world, while the focus on true wireless headphones usually falls on the headphones made by Apple, Samsung, and Google, the most popular and well known alternative to AirPods and Galaxy Buds has been the Jabra Elite series. The 65t and 75t were well regarded headphones, and now the followup 85t have launched. The 85t is an improvement on the 75t in every way, and should be a solid set of headphones for those looking. It features active noise cancellation, longer battery life, bigger speaker drivers, a wireless charging case, a vent to improve the fit in a user’s ear, and more microphones to improve call quality.
Jabra also announced that it will update the 75t to include active noise cancelling, but that it will be software based, as the 75t lacks the dedicated hardware.
https://www.androidauthority.com/jabra-elite-85t-elite-75t-anc-upgrade-1159792/