Last week, the American tech reviewer Marques Brownlee—better known online as MKBHD—dropped an 8-minute, 31-second tech explainer on YouTube titled “The Problem with these Smartphone Batteries.” 

The video focuses on silicon-carbon battery technology, a type of battery some smartphone brands have started using because of its capabilities to pack more energy into slim devices. But it quickly provoked a backlash online, with some accusing Brownlee of offering a misleading take.

Here is everything that happened:

What did MKBHD say?

In the video, Brownlee says, “A lot of phones—competitive, flagship phones that have come out lately—have skipped the silicon-carbon batteries. It seems like whole companies like Samsung and Apple and Google are waiting on the sidelines and not touching this new battery tech in any of their phones.”

He added that “on the surface, it would seem like silicon-carbon is a no-brainer.” 

However, he claimed in the video that he had been hearing that the battery might have a swelling problem, which could be why many phone makers have not jumped on it yet.

“I’ve gotten a few emails in the past year from people in the industry, and I won’t say which company they work for, but all smartphone companies. And individually they each reached out to me to say that there are some concerns with silicon carbon batteries, and all their stories match up about a totally different concerns about swelling and longevity.’

He added that after he reached out to more people, he became convinced that “this is the main reason we are not seeing this tech everywhere in a tonne of phones.”

Do silicon carbon batteries swell?

In the videos, Brownlee admits that it was common for phones to swell when they charge.

“One thing about batteries is that as they charge and discharge, they expand and contract a little bit with the heat,” he said. But he added that the silicon carbon batteries could expand three times their original volume. 

“So during charging in a silicon carbon smartphone battery, the silicon heats up and absorbs lithium ions, and when that happens, the silicon can expand to three times its original volume,” he said.

“I can imagine a sponge that triples in size when wet and then shrinks back down, and over and over again every time it discharges…eventually, things are probably going to crack.”

However, some users on X took issue with the thumbnail, which was a picture of the OnePlus 15 charging with fire sparks pouring out of its charging port. Critics claim that it was “misleading,” with fans of the OnePlus 15 arguing that they had not experienced it. 

The OnePlus 15 comes with the silicon carbon battery.

Critics of the video on Reddit also said that Brownlee didn’t offer the context that modern silicon-carbon batteries still use lithium-ion chemistry and silicon-carbon composite anodes, not pure silicon. 

The Problem with these Smartphone Batteries
by u/dwaxe in mkbhd

However, the incident was also seized on as evidence of fresh criticism that the American tech YouTube creator industry was too focused on Western tech and had not done enough research on technology popular in other regions.

“This whole Si/C battery issue after MKBHD's video just shows the lack of cutting edge tech exposure Western reviewers have. They also don't want to acknowledge such innovations and their entire world revolves around Apple, Google or Samsung...Sad state of affairs,” Yogesh Brar, a creator who is based in India, posted on X. 

But Brownlee pushed back against his assessment with a reply on X. 

“That's interesting - the entire video actually came from the exact opposite context - I'd been reviewing so many phones not available in the US and racing about silicon carbon batteries (including the OP15 that I daily) that commenters started to wonder why Samsung, Apple, etc weren't also using the tech and seemed so stagnant. There were literal memes about it,” Brownlee said.

The MKBHD channel has since changed the thumbnail to just a picture of the OnePlus 15 charging but without the fire sparks.

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