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Robert Triggs, Head of Testing and Data Science at Android Authority, specializes in technical analysis, benchmarking, and smartphone camera reviews. With 10+ years of experience, he offers readers deep dives into mobile tech trends, chipsets, 5G, and more.
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If there’s one thing we all want from our next smartphone, it’s more battery life. Thankfully, battery cells are bigger than ever, while processors are increasingly frugal. This means that many, but certainly not all, flagship and mid-range handsets can take us through a day without leaving us suffering from battery anxiety.
However, some phones are definitely better than others at lasting through more demanding work/life balances or taking lighter users through a second day. Not to mention, there’s a massive variation in how quickly phones charge back up when they eventually run out of power.
To help you pick the best phone for rock-solid battery life, we run all of our review units through a series of automated endurance tests, checking how long phones can survive daily tasks like web browsing, video playback, camera capture, and more. Based on that data and hands-on experience, these are the phones that I think you should buy.
Many powerhouse smartphones will survive plenty of hours of intense use. However, the OnePlus 15 stands out as a multi-day performer, even besting last year’s already brilliant OnePlus 13 for endurance. First, its cutting-edge 7,300mAh silicon-carbon-enhanced lithium-ion battery is massive. Even before looking at our test results, it’s clear the phone has the battery capacity to keep power users going for a full day or more.
It’s also one of the fastest phones I’ve tested for wired charging, and it’s pretty quick with wireless charging, too. importantly, the OnePlus 15 performs exceedingly well in our battery life benchmarks. It puts in a well-rounded effort, surviving up to 35 hours of 4K video playback, over seven hours of 4K video recording or photo capture, 10 hours of web browsing, or over 13 hours of video calls.
I think you’ll agree that’s plenty of battery life for anyone, regardless of your daily mix, with some spare for the next day.
That said, our battery life test results are quite close in some metrics, with some phones having clear strengths and weaknesses. Technically, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is the phone you want in your pocket for those long browsing sessions, while other phones are competitive for photo and video shooting.
As I mentioned earlier, charging speed is a hugely important factor, allowing you to quickly top up the phone if/when the juice eventually runs out. The OnePlus 15 remains competitive with the very fastest in the business, and puts in a particularly impressive showing against the Galaxy S26 Ultra, given its much larger battery.
It reaches full in just 41 minutes, only a few minutes slower than last year’s phone, but that comes with the added bonus of extra endurance. Better still, it reaches 50% in just 16 minutes, ensuring enough juice to power through the day without spending ages attached to the wall. While it relies on SuperVOOC to reach those peak speeds, the phone also plays nicely with USB Power Delivery plugs and power banks, delivering at least 35W of power in my testing.
Besides its brilliant battery, the OnePlus 15 boasts some superb hardware and some that’s not quite as brilliant. A speedy Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor and sublime-looking display are series staples, but fans have been less happy with this year’s camera downgrades. Still, the OnePlus 15 a solid all-around phone, especially if you want a flagship that’ll last more than a day of heavy use.
While you won’t find many 6-inch smartphones with huge battery capacities, that doesn’t mean they can’t last all day. according to the data my benchmark data, the Google Pixel 10 is the best relatively compact model for battery life, not to mention a great all-around phone, whether you want great-looking pictures or the latest mobile AI tools.
In terms of numbers, it surpasses last year’s winner — the Google Pixel 9 — thanks to a more frugal processor. It passed our benchmark with almost 14 hours of web browsing, almost 10 hours of video call time, and more than five hours of straight picture snapping. The only blemish is a much more modest 18 hours of 4K playback than its competitors, but it’s closed the gap quite meaningfully this generation.
The Google Pixel 10 might not be the most performant phone on the market, but it will see you through a day of solid use, no matter what you’re doing. That 4,970mAh battery goes a surprisingly long way.
When the Pixel 10 eventually runs out of juice, the drawback is that it doesn’t charge back up all that quickly. 85 minutes to full is pretty slow, but not far behind rivals like the Galaxy S25, and is faster than the iPhone 16. Given the phone’s superb battery life, this is probably a worthwhile trade-off. Thankfully, it’s easy to find USB accessories matching the phone’s 27W USB PD PPS requirements.
Sometimes you just need a big battery to brute-force your way through a heavy day of use, and the affordable Google Pixel 10a comes through with a hefty 5,100mAh cell. That might not have changed since last year, and in truth, the handset performs virtually as well as its predecessor, but with new hardware features to sell you on. Check out our Pixel 10a review for everything new, I’ll just focus on the battery endurance here.
Around 10 hours in our web and Zoom tests ensure the 10a can take you through more than a busy day of work and play tasks, while the phone manages a colossal 23 hours of 4K video playback. For the shutter bugs, you can continuously snap pictures or record 4K video for over six hours before running the Pixel 10a’s battery down. Bottom line, the 9a will last everyone a full day and possibly a little more.
Of course, the Pixel 10a is much more than a big battery crammed in an affordable, compact shell. The phone sports a last-gen Tensor G4 processor that’s still pretty punchy for a mid-range model, reliable cameras, many of Google’s latest AI features, and an update commitment that can’t be beat. It’s hard to find another $499 phone worth recommending as much as the Pixel 10a, especially when it comes to battery life.
The phone’s only drawback is its sluggish 84-minute full charge time. It’s definitely slower than other affordable phones at this price, but that’s the price to pay for that large battery.
Very affordable smartphones with big batteries are increasingly easy to come by, and budget model specs tend to be a bit more frugal, which is already a recipe for multi-day battery life. Even so, a standout and very affordable model I’ve tested is the late 2024 CMF Phone 1.
Its large 5,000mAh battery endured over 10 hours of web browsing or Zoom calls and over 18 hours of 4K video playback. The CMF Phone 1 has you well covered for daily essentials. It’ll also handle seven hours of 4K video recording and over nine hours of photo capture, so it won’t give out when capturing precious memories either.
When you eventually need to top up, the phone is fully charged in about an hour. That’s marginally faster than its rivals, and not far off many flagship phones, thanks to rather speedy 30W charging. Just like our overall best pick, this budget option has you covered on both sides of your battery needs.
The CMF Phone 1 is an impressive little package for such an affordable entry. If you can spend a bit more money and fancy some additional specs, the brilliant CMF Phone 2 Pro only costs a little more and also offers very frugal battery life.
It used to be the case that foldable phones meant big compromises, most often in the battery department, which was especially true for compact clamshell models. That’s not the case anymore; the Motorola Razr Ultra offers superb battery life and even outlasts bigger booklet foldables.
The Motorola Razr Ultra bucks that trend, with a good-sized 4,700mAh battery that’s on par and even bests some traditional 6-inch flagship smartphones. Whether it’s daily web tasks, media applications, or even a spot of gaming, this cell powers through hours of screen-on time to ensure it can take you through a busy day.
When you do need to top up, the Razr Ultra supports pretty quick charging. We clocked it to full in just 57 minutes while pulling 45W from the wall, and the phone supports up to 68W when you can line up the perfect plug and cable. The phone will also manage 30W wirelessly with a compatible charger, double what rival foldables offer.
The Motorola Razr Ultra is also a superb handset in the grand scheme of things. We love the phone’s versatile camera setup, handy dual displays, and slick software experience. The clamshell’s only real drawback is that all this tech comes with a steep price tag. Still, Motorola’s more affordable Razr and Razr Plus clamshells aren’t far off the pace for battery life either.
We can’t mention longevity without the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. While it didn’t last quite as long as the OnePlus 15 across most of our tests, it’s not far behind in content capture and actually beat the phone for web browsing time. Paired with a stellar update commitment, reasonably charging speeds, solid cameras, and one of the best software packages around, don’t sleep on Samsung’s latest ultra-flagship.
With a giant 5,000mAh cell, the Samsung Galaxy A56 5G continues to offer the excellent battery life we liked about its predecessor. At just $499, it’s an affordable phone with brilliant longevity and 45W fast charging to boot that rivals the Pixel 10a for battery endurance at this price. However, performance leaves a lot to be desired, so this one is only really recommended for those who desire battery life above all else.
While it didn’t survive our camera capture benchmarks as well as Google’s flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S25 still offers plenty of battery life for daily workloads, especially if you need video playback for your commute. If battery life has you torn between this and the latest iPhone, Samsung’s flagship is a clear winner. While we haven’t tested the new Galaxy S26 yet, its slightly larger 4,300mAh cell should stand it in even better stead.
Obviously, the number one place to start with battery life is the size of the battery. The more milliamp-hours (mAh), the longer the handset typically lasts. It’s as simple as that. In addition, a bigger battery at launch means that battery life will still last through a day as the battery ages and its maximum capacity gradually decreases.
However, bigger batteries require more space, so there’s a trade-off between the phone size you want and how long it can last. That said, advanced battery technologies, like silicon-carbon, are making it possible to increase capacity without increasing size. So keep an eye out for that in more handsets in the coming months and years.
While battery capacity is the biggest contributor, the phone’s other specifications determine how quickly that battery drains. Bigger displays, more powerful processors, wireless modems, and much more all contribute to power consumption. More efficient, modern components can make seemingly small battery capacities last longer than you might expect, so don’t necessarily write a phone off just because its battery isn’t the biggest.
Testing phones is what I do best. From camera and charging, to performance and battery life, I’ve spent probably a few too many hours agonizing over the best testing methods and tools to quantify the intangibles that separate a good smartphone from a great one.
Battery life is a particularly tough nut to crack because there are so many variables. Everyone uses their phone slightly differently, and we all live in areas with different 4G/5G signal strengths and Wi-Fi networks that’ll put different stresses and strains on our battery use. However, we can still compare phones against one another in a meaningful way by looking at common use cases and testing how long handsets can endure.
I designed, built, and continually reevaluate Android Authority’s automated battery life benchmarking tools, which measure the tasks we probably all use our phones for several times each week, if not daily. Web browsing, 4K video playback, and Zoom video calls make up the humdrum of day-to-day use, while our camera and 4K recording tests ensure your next purchase can keep up with documenting the lives of friends and loved ones. The very best phones offer balanced battery life across all these possible tasks. For more on our testing process, check out our dedicated page.
Of course, the phone landscape changes quickly. New display, processor, and battery innovations continue apace, meaning that each new generation tends to bring something new to the battery life table. As such, I review our test data every few months and update this list to make sure you’re always abreast of the best battery life that smartphones have to offer.
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