While smartphones keep getting better, one aspect that can sometimes seem forgotten about is battery life, with many handsets prioritising slimmer builds over big batteries.
But there are some phones that have great battery life, and we’ve come up with a list of five of the very best ones that are widely available in the UK.
The good news is, you don’t even have to buy a flagship to get a long-lasting handset – some budget phones have some of the biggest batteries, so you’ll find handsets at a range of prices here, covering everything from the top-end Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, to the very affordable Moto E7i Power and OnePlus Nord N100, among others.
Capacity: 5,000mAh | Official life: not stated | Charging power: 25W wired / 15W wireless
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the ultimate, no-compromise flagship, and that includes the battery, which is an enormous 5,000mAh.
That gives this phone a whole lot of life, though using advanced features like its 120Hz screen and 5G can lessen this somewhat.
Still, most users will be able to go a long time between charges, and with 25W wired or 15W wireless charging you can power back up quickly. You can also make the most of that substantial juice pack by using the Galaxy S21 Ultra as a wireless charging mat to juice up other devices.
Elsewhere, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has top-end power, a quad-lens camera led by a remarkable 108MP sensor (and also packing a 10x optical zoom lens), a massive 6.8-inch 1440 x 3200 screen, and just about everything else you might reasonably want from a phone.
Capacity: 5,000mAh | Official life: not stated | Charging power: 18W
The OnePlus Nord N100 has the same size battery as the Galaxy S21 Ultra, but we’re giving it the edge because it has a lower resolution 720 x 1600 screen, so is likely to draw less power in the first place.
Other than battery size it’s a fairly low-end phone all round, so it’s an incredibly affordable way to get excellent battery life.
It has a 6.52-inch screen, a triple-lens camera with a 13MP main sensor, a 2MP depth one, and a 2MP macro one, an 8MP selfie snapper, 18W charging, a low-end Snapdragon 460 chipset, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage. Unlike other recent OnePlus phones this doesn’t support 5G, but you still get a lot for your money.
Capacity: 5,000mAh | Official life: 21 hours of video playback | Charging power: 15W
The Samsung Galaxy A12 is an exceedingly cheap phone with a rather large 5,000mAh battery. And like many other cheap phones its lack of high-end specs helps the battery go further, as it doesn’t have to push a lot of pixels on its 720 x 1600 screen.
That screen is a decent size though at 6.5 inches, making it a good choice for media, especially as Samsung claims the Galaxy A12 can last for up to 21 hours of video playback. It’s also rated for up to 20 hours of internet use or 109 hours of audio playback.
The Samsung Galaxy A12 also benefits from a quad-lens camera with a 48MP main snapper, expandable storage, and a 3.5mm headphone port – which is something many pricier phones have ditched. It’s not the most exciting of handsets, but if battery life and price are your key concerns then it’s a top choice.
Capacity: 4,352mAh | Official life: up to 28 hours of video playback | Charging power: 20W
The iPhone 13 Pro Max is a surprising entry in this list, since Apple’s phones don’t tend to have great battery life. But the company has finally broken that pattern here, despite the phone only having a 4,352mAh battery to play with.
Apple claims it can last for up to 28 hours of video playback, and while your own mileage may vary, we can confidently say that this is both the longest-lasting iPhone ever, and a very long-lasting phone in general.
Charging is slightly less impressive at 20W (or just 15W for wireless charging), but most other aspects of the iPhone 13 Pro Max impress, from its brilliant triple-lens camera to its great 120Hz screen and its enormously powerful A15 Bionic chipset.
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Capacity: 5,000mAh | Official life: over 40 hours | Charging power: 10W
The Moto E7i Power actually has a smaller battery than some of Motorola’s previous battery-focused smartphones. The Moto G9 Power for example has a 6,000mAh battery, but that’s no longer widely available, and the 5,000mAh in the Moto E7i Power goes further than you might expect.
This is a phone that – depending on how you use it – you could get around two days of life out of, with Motorola quoting over 40 hours between charges.
Of course, heavy users won’t keep it going that long, but even then you should get well over a day, as the phone appears battery-efficient, and with just a 6.51-inch 720 x 1600 screen and a low-end Unisoc SC9863A chipset it’s not drawing a lot of power.
Its Android Go software is also light on power draw, being slick and bloat-free. With specs like that this isn’t a phone for demanding users, but if you just want something that will last then the Moto E7i Power is the handset to go for.
So there you have it, five of the longest lasting phones around. In fifth place we have the super-premium Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, followed by the affordable OnePlus Nord N100 in fourth.
The cheap Samsung Galaxy A12 and pricey iPhone 13 Pro Max take third and second place respectively, and then in first place it’s the Moto E7i Power, with its unbeatable life.
So there should be something for everyone here, but any of these phones will last you a long time between charges.
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