These Best Battery Life Smartphones Make Sure You Get All-Day Results Without a Recharge
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People buy smartphones for several reasons. They could be after the best affordable phones to save them money, while others look at options that take exceptional photos. One area that has a significant influence on a buying decision is how much battery life they offer. Let’s face it, the last thing you need to worry about is running out of gas halfway through your workday.
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Today’s best smartphones not only pack ginormous batteries inside, but a combination of new hardware and software helps to optimize their battery life. Smartphones with the longest battery life will generally still have some charge left right before you go to bed for the night. That’s great, but we still dream of the day when smartphones will get us several days with a single charge.
Until then, we’ve been testing all the best smartphones throughout the year, including a few neat foldable phones, so we know exactly how they handle real-world situations. After testing 20+ smartphones in 2022, we’ve selected the best battery life smartphones that’ll get you through a day without worry.
The Best Battery Life Smartphones At a Glance
1. Best Overall: OnePlus 10 Pro — $849.00 at Amazon
2. Runner Up: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra — $48.95 at Amazon
3. Best iPhone Battery Life: Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max — $1,099.99 at Best Buy
4. Fastest Charging Speed: Black Shark 5 — $509.00 at Amazon
5. Contender: Google Pixel 7 Pro — $858.49 at Amazon
6. Best Foldable Phone Battery Life: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 — $1,499.99 at Amazon
BEST OVERALL
1. OnePlus 10 Pro
Buy Now On Amazon $849.00
$650 at best buy
Battery Capacity: 5,000 mAh
Charging Speed Time: 60 minutes
Battery Life Performance: ~30%
Review: Stunning Design Paired With Lightning Fast Charging
Don’t let its hand-friendly size fool you because the OnePlus 10 Pro has the best smartphone battery life in our testing. Putting it through our daily routines, we frequently found it hovering around the 30% mark each night right before bedtime.
Remarkably, we didn’t believe that OnePlus stuffed a hefty-sized 5,000 mAh battery inside of its casing due to its compact size. Somehow it did and was more than generous at consistently giving us the best results with our testing.
If having the best battery life in a smartphone isn’t enough to convince you, then just know it’s also pretty good at recharging as well — it took just 60 minutes to fully charge using the included 65W charger it came with. Additionally, it took just five minutes of charging to go from 1% to 10% battery life, which is handy when you’re pressed for time.
RUNNER UP
2. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Buy Now On Amazon $1,034.50
From $250 at Samsung
Battery Capacity: 5,000 mAh
Charging Speed Time: 91 minutes
Battery Life Performance: ~30%
Review: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Is The Flagship To Beat
Taking the runner-up spot in our best smartphone battery life testing is the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. It’s indeed the biggest of the three new smartphones in the Galaxy S22 line, so it comes as no shock that it offers outstanding battery life.
Big phones require big batteries, which is why the Galaxy S22 Ultra provided us with all-day battery life during our testing. We used it primarily to play games on its massive 6.8-inch WQHD+ AMOLED display, surf the web, and edit some videos on the go. These are processor intensive tasks that pushed its battery to the limits, but we were pleased by its 30% battery range each night.
On top of having the best battery life of smartphones we’ve tested, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is a phenomenal camera phone with its quadruple camera system. If that’s not enough, it’s perfect for power users who handle a lot of productivity apps thanks to the ease of its S Pen stylus.
BEST IPHONE BATTERY LIFE
3. Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
Buy Now at best buy $1100
$1,099 at Visible
Battery Capacity: 4,323 mAh
Charging Speed Time: 90 minutes
Battery Life Performance: <30%
First Look: Goodbye to the Notch, Hello Dynamic Island
It was a neck-to-neck race for second place, but Apple’s largest sized iPhone is still one to consider if battery life is important to you. That’s because it still had a smidge below 30% battery life on average each night during our testing.
What’s notable here is the efficiency of its battery which, at 4,323 mAh, is technically smaller than the other two phones that beat it. The efficient battery could be attributed to the combination of its A16 Bionic chip and 6.7-inch Super Retina XDR display. Either way, we were impressed by how well it stood up with our use.
Equally impressive is how the phone performs as a whole. Not only was it silky smooth running apps and watching video content, but we were blown away by the magic of Cinematic Mode when recording video.
FASTEST CHARGING SPEED
4. Black Shark 5
Buy Now On Amazon $509.00
$829 at Black Shark
Battery Capacity: 4,650 mAh
Charging Speed Time: 19 minutes
Battery Life Performance: ~25%
First Look: This Gaming Phone From Black Shark Charges in 15 Minutes Flat
The Black Shark 5 may not have as much brand recognition as the other phones with the best smartphone battery life on our list, but you should know about it nonetheless. The Xiaomi-made smartphone got us about 25% battery life after each day of using it normally.
Even though it’s specialized as a gaming phone, complete with touch-sensitive shoulder buttons to mimic the feel of a game controller, the Black Shark 5 is a well-rounded smartphone that’s capable of handling daily tasks for work and play. It’s one of those phones that can also attract attention with its aggressive, industrial design.
When we were pinched for time, we were beyond impressed by how fast it charged. In fact, it took less than 20 minutes for it to go from 1% to 100% battery life using its included charger.
CONTENDER
5. Google Pixel 7 Pro
Buy Now On Amazon $869.49
$499 at Mint Mobile
Battery Capacity: 5,000 mAh
Charging Speed Time: 97 minutes
Battery Life Performance: <20%
First Look: Google Pixel 7 Pro Prove Once Again It’s a Camera Pro
It’s always a race to the top between Apple, Samsung, and Google. Compared to its contemporaries, the Google Pixel 7 Pro trailed behind the pack reaching a mark of under 20% battery life each night.
We were honestly shocked by that because its predecessor in last year’s Pixel 6 Pro seemed to offer longer battery results in our experience. Nevertheless, the Pixel 7 Pro still managed to outclass smaller-sized phones like its sibling in the Google Pixel 7 — as well as from rivals like the iPhone 14 and Galaxy S22.
The Google Pixel 7 Pro is still an excellent choice because it’ll receive software updates faster than other Android phones. Additionally, it’s superb at capturing photos and videos with its upgraded camera system, which is one of the best out there.
BEST FOLDABLE PHONE BATTERY LIFE
6. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
Buy Now On Amazon $1,499.99
$1,500 at BEST BUY
Battery Capacity: 4,400 mAh
Charging Speed Time: 109 minutes
Battery Life Performance: <20%
Review: I Didn’t Think I’d Love Foldable Phones This Much
This wouldn’t be complete with a comparison from a fancy foldable phone. In this case, we decided to test the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 because it has a larger capacity battery than the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Not surprisingly, it ate up the battery much quicker because of its massive 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED main display.
Using that with the combination of its outer 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED cover screen, we weren’t too shocked to see its battery life well under 20% each night before bedtime. With so much screen, it’s undeniably more taxing on the battery to keep it all lit up properly.
Sure, battery life may not be its strongest asset, but it’s still the longest-lasting battery in a foldable phone we’ve tested. We really enjoyed how its foldable display could be used in so many different ways, like the ability to run up to three apps simultaneously.
How We Tested for the Best Smartphone Battery Life
Manufacturers love to claim that their phones have the longest battery life. In most instances, however, their conclusions are based on controlled tests, which we feel don’t represent the true results. That’s why tested them based on how they’re intended to be used, by actual real people doing everyday normal stuff on them. They consist of the following tasks:
Capturing photos with their cameras
Browsing the web
Buying the coolest tech gadgets off the Amazon app
Lightly playing mobile games
Replying to emails
In testing out the best smartphones, we always make sure to note their battery percentages at the end of the night. Therefore, we make sure to take note of the battery level before we place it on the charger. We do this over a period of a week and take the average for a final result.
So far, most smartphones provide one day’s worth of normal usage, but they often need nightly charges to be at a sufficient level for the following day. We also made sure to record how long they took to recharge using either the included power adapter or whichever option offers the fastest charging for the respective phone.
About The Author: John Velasco
John Velasco is the Tech Editor at SPY.com and has tested hundreds of smart home products during his decade-long career reviewing gadgets. Since joining SPY.com, he’s reviewed the best home security cameras, flagship smartphones, and Amazon’s first smart TV. Previously, John worked as the smart home editor at Digital Trends. He’s also worked for Android Authority covering Android-related news as the editor-at-large, and at PhoneArena as the senior editor. John has been covering mobile and smart home tech for over a decade, and he is also passionate about virtual reality, drones, and electric bikes.
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