With the importance of keeping devices powered up, there is a lot of tech already out there, and a lot coming soon.

Few things are more frustrating than finding out that your smartphone battery is going to die, right when you need it the most, or when you know you’ll need it to hang in there for a few more hours before you can plug it in.

This common frustration has caused a massive amount of rechargeable battery tech to be developed.

While there are a number of different types of smartphone battery technology that has already been created and that has already been added to store shelves, there is also a lot more to come, as the technologies are in development and have yet to make it past the prototype phase. What’s curious is that the new products are being released at such a rapid rate that many people can’t always tell what’s currently available and what won’t be around for a number of years from among several products that sound like they all belong in science fiction.

Do you know the difference between the current and future smartphone battery technologies?

• Powering up one device with another – indeed, external battery chargers can be a lifesaver, but another technology would make it possible to share power charges among regular devices. You could add juice to your smartphone with a tablet, or pass some of your mobile phone battery charge to a friend who is running on the last bar. Is this technology already out? Yes, somewhat. It is available from very limited sources, so far, but the feature, sometimes known as “reverse charging” has been seen in real devices such as the Ascend mate 2 from Huawei.
• Body heat battery power – after having been tossed around for years, using body heat to charge mobile devices suddenly found itself into the spotlight and a team in Korea has developed thermoelectric generator technology that would allow a person’s own body to recharge a device. Is it available yet? Not quite. Qualcomm has a form of the technology but so far it works only to speed up current recharging times. It doesn’t actually charge up a device on its own.
• Power banks that are small in size but big on power – it’s one thing to have a small, slim portable smartphone battery charger that can recharge a device a couple of times or so, but what about being able to recharge the iPhone 6S Plus six full times? That one’s already out. The slimmest 10,400 mAh power bank on the market is available through Mogix and it offers six full charges in the lightest, smallest package.