[giantrobot]

If you remember Nokia's batteries they were covered in a relatively thick ABS shell. They were also, compared to today, had laughably little storage. A Series 40 Nokia just did not draw that much power. The single GSM/PCS radio also sipped power.

Even if you stripped a 5G phone down to a Series 40-esque interface the 5G radios alone would use more power than a whole 3310.

In order to get the power density modern phones need they require high power Li-poly batteries. An extra 3mm worth of ABS shell is a lot of lost capacity. You can't sell user serviceable Li-poly batteries without a protective shell. You'd never get a UL rating because Li-polys are dangerous if mishandled.

[szszrk]

I found out somewhat recently that those Nokia batteries (like BL-5C) are still used in hardware. You can still pick them up on some stores.

I came across them in portable radios (portable FM radios, small global radios, plane listening radios and similar).

[jillesvangurp]

The N95 had something like 995 mAh. A modern iphone would have about 4x that.

Also interesting to know is that BYD was supplying a lot of phone batteries back then. I think they also supplied to Nokia. Phone batteries is what made them big.