Sony is hoping to take new battery chemistry out of the lab and into actual smartphones within the next five years. According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Sony is working on both lithium-sulfur and magnesium-sulfur batteries to replace today's lithium-ion chemistry. The result could be a 40 percent gain in density by volume. Laminated batteries for smartphones would be the initial target product, with commercialization slated for 2020. Phone makers can increase the battery's size-which has already happened with the rise of jumbo-sized smartphones -and improve efficiency in other components such as the display, but they can't make the battery itself any better. Nikkei notes that Sony hasn't even ironed out the technical challenges yet, and that its lithium-sulfur batteries are still prone to "heat generation or ignition."