The risk of battery swelling, while low, is inherent with Lithium-ion Polymer cell technology, which is widely used across the tech industry (not unique to Dell or PCs). In contrast, older model notebooks across the industry used lithium-ion cylindrical cells, which had a metal casing and did not swell. Lithium-ion Polymer batteries are housed in a flexible multi-layer pouch, which may sometimes swell for a variety of reasons including but not limited to age, usage pattern, and environmental conditions. Lithium-ion Polymer batteries have become popular across the industry in recent years due to their slim and customizable form factor and longer battery useful life. Battery swelling is a failure mode associated with a type of battery cell technology called Lithium-ion Polymer.
