Smartphones with the Longest Battery Life
There's long-lasting phones, and then there's the ZenFone 3 Zoom. The latest phone from Asus may boast dual rear cameras with an optical zoom, but the phone's true standout feature is its long-lasting battery life. Put simply, the ZenFone 3 Zoom is the longest-lasting smartphone we've ever tested.
Smartphones With the Longest Battery Life (Hours:Minutes)
ZenFone 3 Zoom: 16:46
Moto Z Play: 13:46
OnePlus 5: 13:06
LG X Power: 12:58
BlackBerry KeyOne: 12:47
Cat S60: 12:42
Blu Energy XL: 12:15
ZTE Blade V8 Pro: 12:08
Sony Xperia X Performance: 12:01
Huawei Mate 9: 12:00
ZTE Max XL: 11:53
Moto G5 Plus: 11:31
LeEco Le Pro 3: 11:25
Google Pixel XL: 11:11
Galaxy S8+: 11:04
Sony Xperia X Compact: 11:04
Our previous long-lasting champ, the Moto Z Play, turned in an impressive 13 hour, 46 minute result on our battery test. The ZenFone 3 Zoom blows that time out of the water, lasting 16:46 when continuously surfing over an LTE network. Credit the beefy 5,000 mAh battery and the power-sipping Snapdragon 625 inside the new Asus phone.
Those two phones have company at the head of the long-lasting class. The OnePlus 5, the latest flagship killer from OnePlus, is no slouch either when it comes to endurance. It held out for a little more than 13 hours on our battery test, making it a top choice if you want a phone that lasts all day long.
And if you're looking for a phone capable of lasting 11 hours or more on charge, you aren't hurting for options. Our long-lasting phones include an impressive mix, from flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S8+ and Huawei Mate 9 to less expensive options such as ZTE's Blade V8 Pro and the Moto G5 Plus.
Our top list of enduring handsets features devices that last at least 11 hours on the Tom's Guide Battery Test, which involves continuous Web surfing over 4G LTE. We set each phone's display to 150 nits to normalize for brightness and make sure each handset is receiving at least three bars of service. Just to put this performance in context, the average smartphone lasts 9:37 on our test before running out of power.
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These days, battery life is more important than ever, thanks to the big screens, superfast processors and demanding apps we find on the latest phones. After all, what good is that advanced camera or high-resolution display if your handset is dead before the sun goes down? Here's a closer look at the phones that make the grade when it comes to all-day battery life.
You'll never have to sweat making it from sunrise to sundown with the latest ZenFone from Asus. The ZenFone 3 Zoom features a massive 5,000 mAh battery, and while its Snapdragon 625 processor isn't the fastest CPU available, it does a pretty good job managing power consumption. That means you're unlikely to run out of juice capturing photos with the ZenFone's dual rear cameras or its 13-MP selfie cam. You can also use your ZenFone 3 Zoom as a portable power pack, charging other devices via a reverse charging feature. |
The modular design of the Moto Z lineup lets you easily attach add-ons to your phone to expand its capabilities. You won’t need to worry about slapping an extra battery onto the back of the Moto Z Play, though: We measured nearly 14 hours of battery life on this modular phone. Note that Motorola has come out with a successor, the Moto Z2 Play, but the new phone features a smaller battery — 3,000 mAh vs. 3,510 mAh in the original — so that Motorola could slim down the phone. The Z2 Play lasted 4 hours less than its predecessor on our battery test, so get the original Z Play if you value battery life above all else. |
OnePlus specializes in phones that offer the kind of features you find on high-end devices, but without the equally high price tags. That’s the case with the OnePlus 5, which outlasts more prominent phones from Samsung and Apple on our battery test. It’s not just the 13-hour-plus battery life of the OnePlus 5 that impresses, though: the phone’s Dash Charge feature can give you a day’s worth of power after just 30 minutes of charging.<br /> |
The LG X power is the second-longest lasting phone we've ever tested. During standby, it sips power, ensuring you'll always have juice when you need it, and in regular use, this phone has enough life that many people won't even have to charge it everyday. While its display, design and especially cameras are pretty lackluster, with a price that can get as low as $100 after deals and rebates, the X power is a steal for people looking for strong battery life. Note that LG just previewed a follow-up version, the LG X power 2, which boasts a 4500 mAh battery to the 4100 mAh power pack in this phone. The new version should arrive later this year. <br /> |
The keyboard on this TCL-built BlackBerry phone may be its centerpiece feature, but don't sleep on the phone's battery life. We managed to squeeze out a little less than 13 hours from this phone, thanks to its 3505 mAh battery — the largest to ever go inside a BlackBerry device. And when you do run out of juice, the KeyOne supports Quick Charge 3.0, which gets you a 50 percent charge after half-an-hour. A Boost mode even maximizes charging efficiency. <br /> |
Talk about a phone that can take a licking and keep on ticking. Cat has built an extremely durable phone with the S60, which survived multiple 6-foot drops and a 30-minute swim in 6 feet of water. And while it took all that punishment, the S60’s battery never flagged, lasting 12 hours, 42 minutes in our battery test. You may not need the phone’s built-in thermal imaging feature, but the Cat S60 is the phone to get if you need a long-lasting device that can stand up to whatever punishment life dishes out. |
The only thing bigger than the battery life of the Blu Energy XL is this phablet’s 6-inch screen. This unlocked Android phone, which is compatible only with GSM networks, lasted 12 hours, 15 minutes on our battery test, thanks to its massive 5,020-mAh battery. The Energy XL’s sub-$300 price tag means you don’t have to pay up to get a phone capable of lasting you throughout the day. In recent weeks, Blu phones have come under fire for a security vulnerability stemming from firmware created by a third-party developer; Blu has reportedly issued an update that fixes the flaw, though. |
ZTE didn't cut back on features with its $229 Blade V8 Pro, and that includes the unlocked phone's battery life. Lasting more than 12 hours on our tests, the Blade V8 Pro will remain charged throughout a full day of use. And you're getting more than just a long-lasting phone with this device. ZTE also added other premium features like a fingerprint sensor and dual rear-cameras, making this an attractive budget option for people who still want their phones to pack in a lot of capabilities. |
Sony isn’t kidding about the “Performance” this high-end phone’s name. A quad-core Snapdragon 820 processor puts it on par with any flagship phone you can name. That standout performance doesn’t come at the cost of battery life, as this high-end variant of the Xperia X lasted a little more than 12 hours on our battery test, with the help of built-in smart-battery technology. |
The Huawei Mate 8 was an all-day battery beast, lasting 12:47 on our battery test. The latest big-screen phone from Huawei, the Mate 9, doesn't quite reach those heights, but it still clocked in at 12 hours of battery life, and that's with the high-powered Kirin 960 chipset fueling some of the best performance we've measured on a smartphone. If you like big-screen Android phones, particularly ones with a bright, colorful screen, the 5.9-inch Mate 9 promises to keep up with whatever you can throw at it. |
Battery life is one area where this budget phone from ZTE doesn't compromise. Thanks to its 3,990 mAh battery, the ZTE Max XL held out for nearly 12 hours on our battery test. You'll also get a big, bright 6-inch screen on the ZTE Max XL with full HD resolution. You can only get the phone through Sprint or one of its prepaid subsidiaries, but if you go that latter route, the ZTE Max XL is available for $99. |
LeEco's first phone to arrive in the U.S. delivers battery performance that's better than phones that cost nearly hundreds of dollars more. Lasting 11:25 on our battery test, the LePro 3 outperformed top-tier devices like the Pixel XL, Galaxy S7 Edge and iPhone 7 Plus, even though the LePro's $400 price is a fraction of what you'd pay for those phones. You'll make some tradeoffs, most notably with the camera, but the LePro 3 is just more proof that you don't have to settle for diminished battery life if you opt for a less expensive phone. |
Battery life shouldn't be something you have to compromise on if you want to save money on buying a smartphone. The Moto G5 Plus ($229 for the 32GB model, $299 if you double the storage to 64GB) is a perfect example, lasting more than 11 hours on a single charge. Thanks to TurboCharge, you can add up to 6 hours of battery life after just 15 minutes of charging. The Moto G5 Plus also boasts a bright, colorful screen, a solid camera and the latest version of Android Nougat. |
The Pixel XL may be new to Google's lineup, but it doesn't disappoint anyone who's come to expect long-lasting battery life from Google's phones. Surfing the web on Verizon's network, the Pixel XL lasted 10:34. That's pretty good, but the unlocked phone lasted 11:48 — more than an hour longer — when we tested it on T-Mobile's network. Whichever version of the Pixel XL you get, expect a full day of battery life on a single charge.<br /> |
If the latest Galaxy phones are any indication, the battery woes of the Note 7 are going to wind up in Samsung’s rear-view mirror. Samsung put a 3,500 mAh battery into the 6.2-inch S8+, which is actually smaller than the power pack inside last year’s S7 Edge. Nevertheless, the S8+ outperformed that model on our battery test by nearly an hour. Part of the credit goes to the Snapdragon 835 inside of the S8+ and its much-improved power management features. |
It can't match the Xperia X Performance's battery life, but this other member of the Sony X Xperia family is no slouch when it comes to lasting a long time on a charge. In our testing, the Xperia X Compact lasted a little more than 11 hours. Throw in its camera's five-axis image stabilization, and this Sony phone could appeal to anyone who wants a camera phone capable of shooting from dawn til dusk. |
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