There’s little doubt that today’s smartphones crave power; we’re long past the days when phones were only about calling and texting. Demanding activities like gaming, watching videos, and snapping photos leave many of us glancing nervously at our battery indicators throughout the day and wondering when we should find the nearest charger.
The good news is that smartphone makers have been working hard toimprove battery technologyand power efficiency, both of which work from opposite ends to extend your screen and standby time. While you’ll still need to settle for some bulk — big batteries require big phones — it’s not hard to find a smartphone that can deliver multi-day battery life.
Still, few folks are willing to sacrifice features and performance just to get longer run times. After all, what’s the point of a smartphone that can last for days if it’s not powerful enough to do everything you want it to? Thankfully, we’ve tested allthe best new phonesto take out the guesswork and tell you which ones deliver the best battery life for a variety of needs, from high-performance gaming and photography to messaging and social media.
OnePlus 12
Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro
OnePlus 12R
Samsung Galaxy A15 5G
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL
Samsung Galaxy S24+
Nubia Redmagic 9S Pro
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
OnePlus Open
Oukitel WP33 Pro
Top phones with the longest-lasting batteries
Incredibly fast charging
The OnePlus 12 not only offers top-notch performance but has one of the largest and fastest-charging batteries of any flagship. The large 5400mAh battery can be charged at up to 80W speeds wired and 50W speeds wirelessly. And unlike some OnePlus models from the past, this phone supports LTE and 5G on most carriers.
Even with all-day battery life becoming more common in flagships, the OnePlus 12 stands apart thanks to ultra-fast charging speeds. Not only can you easily make it till bedtime without topping up the 5,400mAh battery, but once you’re ready to plug in, the phone charges in record time thanks to an included 80W charger. The phone even supports up to 100W wired charging if you’ve got the right adapter, and 50W wireless charging with the right pad.
Besides battery life, the OnePlus 12 is an excellent high-end Android option with the fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC powering Android 14. You can get it with 256GB or 512GB of fast UFS 4.0 storage with 12GB and 16GB of RAM, respectively. It has a large 6.82-inch 120Hz AMOLED with plenty of brightness to see outdoors in the sunlight.
OnePlus has also promised four major Android updates with five years of security updates, so you can rest assured that the phone will be supported as long as you want to keep using it.
OnePlus 12 review: All flagship, no AI
This phone leaves nothing on the table, making for a truly complete package
The camera system produces some great images without going overboard on processing. There’s a 50MP main sensor for the main camera, a 48MP ultrawide camera, and a 64MP telephoto camera with a 3x optical zoom. USB-C 3.2 speeds are supported as well, so if you want to take some 4K video, you won’t have to wait too long for it to transfer to a PC.
As for carriers, this phone will work on the AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon networks with support for 5G, so you can bring it with you to just about any carrier.
Power and performance to spare
The Asus ROG Phone 9 sports Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite platform, helping it break new records in performance and efficiency. It’s a powerhouse, but don’t let the gaming focus dissuade you; it’s equally capable for everyday tasks and has the best battery life we’ve ever experienced.
The ROG Phone 9 Pro is one of the first phones to feature Qualcomm’s newSnapdragon 8 Elite platform, and it shows what the next-generation silicon brings to the table in performance and power efficiency. This is Qualcomm’s first chip to be fabricated using a new 3-nanometer process, and it’s this that’s likely the most responsible for the new phone’s stellar battery life.
Asus has upgraded the battery to a 5,800mAh cell. That’s beefier than what most phones pack in, even if it’s not the largest out there. However, Asus has done serious number crunching to create a phone that can easily last through an intense 4.5-hour gaming session with even the most demanding titles.
Translate that into everyday use, and it’s not hard to get 15–20 hours of continuous video streaming and surfing on a single charge.
While Asus’s ROG Phones are known for showing off their gaming prowess, the company has taken that down a notch in recent years, leaving the traditional “gamer” aesthetic behind in favor of a more mainstream look.
The ROG Phone 9 Pro is still unmistakably a gaming phone, but it’s much more subtle about it. The blocky design leans into flatter edges and a matte back, although it sadly sticks with the pinhole camera — a compromise the company made last year to achieve the full edge-to-edge display. That was lamented by serious gamers, but it won’t matter as much to folks who simply want a powerful, long-lasting phone for casual gaming on the side.
The ROG Phone 9 Pro also continues Asus’s mission to prove that good cameras and gaming features aren’t mutually exclusive. It has the same surprisingly capable three-camera arrangement — a 50MP main shooter combined with 13MP ultra-wide and 32MP 3x telephoto lenses — with an upgraded Sony Lytia 700 sensor and an improved hybrid gimbal stabilizer. They’re subtle changes to the hardware, but the Snapdragon 8 Elite offers new image processing tricks that should produce better photographic results.
The ROG Phone 9 arrives with beefed up cooling for its beastly new chip
Asus spared no expense, but will it be worth the cost?
The problem with a beefy battery is that it pretty much begs for faster charging, but thankfully Asus has thought of that, too. There’s a 65W adapter in the box that will deliver a full charge in around 45 minutes, and it uses the USB-PD charging standard, so it should work with any compatible third-party adapter.
In addition to 15W Qi wireless charging, a second side-mounted USB-C port lets you charge the phone while gaming without the cable awkwardly protruding from the side. you’re able to also switch to a “power only” mode to avoid charging the battery and generating the kind of excessive heat that will slow down hardcore gaming sessions.
80W charging in an affordable phone
The OnePlus 12R is a midrange phone with a large 5500mAh battery and some of the fastest charging of any phone you may buy at 80W. It’s got a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC powering it with 5G support on most carriers. You even get three major OS updates with four years of security updates.
From the spec sheet, the OnePlus 12R looks more like a flagship phone from last year than a budget phone from this year. It’s packing the still very capable Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC under the hood with up to 16GB of RAM. Its storage is pretty quick with UFS 3.1, though its USB speed diminishes to 2.0 transfer speeds. Still, from a few feet away, it looks like a high-end OnePlus phone, and with plenty of performance for the latest apps, including 3D games, you may forget you’re not using a flagship model.
This phone has a large 6.78-inch AMOLED panel that’s bright enough to see outside while you’re taking pictures. While the cameras did get a cut from the OnePlus 12, the 50MP main camera can still capture some decent images with the right light. When it comes to battery capacity, though, there are no compromises. While there’s no wireless charging, you get a massive 5500mAh battery with support for 80W wired charging with the included charger.
OnePlus 12R review: A real flagship killer for $500
A phone that packs all the power you need for the price you want to pay
The OnePlus 12R is set to get three major Android updates with four years of security updates, which isn’t bad for a budget device. With Android 14 out of the box, you can keep using this phone for years to come. With 5G support as well on the Big Three carrier networks, you’ll also get strong data speeds no matter which carrier works best in your area.
Long-lasting and affordable
The Samsung Galaxy A15 is focused on striking the perfect balance, offering good value and performance. The budget-priced phone has must-haves like a Super AMOLED display and a capable Dimensity 6100+ processor. More importantly, the long-lasting battery impresses. If you need an enduring phone on a budget, the Galaxy A15 is an excellent choice.
If long battery life is your main concern and the rest doesn’t matter much, the Samsung Galaxy A15 makes a strong case. Samsung’s latest bargain-basement smartphone is designed from the ground up to balance affordability with good enough performance for budget-conscious customers. To that end, it focuses on factors like high-quality construction and long battery life over innovative new cameras and top-of-the-line performance.
That’s not to say that the performance stinks. The Galaxy A15 is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ chipset that can handily keep up with day-to-day tasks and even a spot of gaming. Paired with its 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, the Galaxy A15 excels in other ways, too. Other strengths include a 6.5-inch 90Hz Super AMOLED display that is vibrant and makes viewing multimedia content a joy, and a built-in headphone jack — a rarity these days.
Elsewhere, the 50MP primary camera is competent, but the 5MP ultrawide and 2MP macro cameras are less so.
Samsung Galaxy A15 5G review: Everything you need for only $200
It’s not flashy, but the A15 gets the job done for people who don’t read reviews or care about specs
The Samsung Galaxy A15 packs an above-average (for its price class) 5,000mAh battery, and combined with its frugal processor, it easily lasts over a day. Users with lighter workloads can expect up to two days on a charge, which mitigates the relatively slow charging that maxes out at 25W, a step behind many alternatives, and the lack of premium features like wireless charging.
The everyday big-screen winner
If you’re reading Android Police, you’re probably aware of Google’s most recently released phone lineup. Of the three new delightfully redesigned slab phones, the Pixel 9 Pro XL follows in the footsteps of the Pixel 8 Pro, iterating on its success with an even brighter screen and next-generation processing hardware. It’s that new, efficient hardware, in part, that gives Google’s biggest new phone a leg up in the battery department.
After slogging through the AI-only extravaganza that was Google I/O 2024, we were more than ready for the Big G to deliver some new and exciting hardware. Practically begging, in fact. Well, deliver, it did, with what former AP Editor-in-Chief (and now the boss’s boss) Daniel Bader calls the first mature Pixel phone he can recommend without hesitation.
That’s pretty high praise, and it’s definitely warranted. Where Pixels have been somewhat notorious for overheating and efficiency issues in the past, the Tensor G4 system-on-a-chip inside thePixel 9 Pro XLmakes just the right improvements to eke an impressive amount of screen-on time from this full-size slab phone.
Google Pixel 9 Pro XL review: The best big Android phone
Google’s big flagship earns its $100 price bump and then some
The Pro XL doesn’t match the borderline-overkill capacity or blistering charge speeds of the similarly sized OnePlus 12, for example, but it’s not meant to. Rather, Google’s well-tailored interface and versatile, feature-packed software suite are engineered to appeal to the masses, capturing still images and videos perfectly with the touch of a button, and making seemingly magical editing as easy as a few taps.
Abandoning the typical rhetoric of “no phone is perfect,” the Pro XL (and smaller Pixel 9 Pro, for that matter) comes as close to flawless in the design department as any phone we’ve reviewed. The newly flattened edges, luxurious metallic frame and matte glass back, and redesigned, almost industrial-inspired camera visor make this one of Google’s best-looking pieces yet.
And, of course, you can expect to continue getting the latest cutting-edge software tricks as soon as Google has them ready. This advantage isn’t alwayscompletelyfree from bugs, but the consistency is improving somewhat as the software giant gets better at large-scale feature drops.
5 distinct ways the Google Pixel 9 Pro differs from the Pixel 9 Pro XL
More than just a size difference
We do have one gripe: Google’s vaunted promise of seven years of Android updates falls just a bit flat given that the Pixel 9 series will ship with Android 14, last year’s version, just a month before Android 15 is likely to drop. But that’s pretty minor compared to the near-perfect balance of usability, performance, and endurance the Pixel 9 Pro XL provides.
It even, at long last, makes the jump above 30W charging, with a 37W peak pushing it into the realm of respectably fast refueling.
Stellar software support from Samsung
The Galaxy S24+ is easy to overlook with the more expansive S24 Ultra hogging most of the spotlight, but this is an excellent phone, and probably a better fit for most people the the S24 Ultra. Samsung has packed in a 4900mAh battery with quick 45W charging so you can easily make it through the day on a charge with a quick recharge taking you through the night.
While the design of Samsung’s flagship phones has given way to safety and iteration, they still feature nice materials, sturdy build quality, and some of the best hardware available. Powered by the fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC with 12GB of RAM, the Galaxy S24+ is still one of the fastest phones you’re able to buy. You get a choice of 256GB or 512GB of high-speed UFS4.0 storage with USB-C 3.2 for fast transfers.
And while it looks a lot like the S23+, the S24+ has a slightly larger and brighter display, a bigger battery, as well as a faster SoC.
This phone has a fairly large 4900mAh battery with support for 45W wired and 15W wireless charging. A full charge in the morning should easily last until nightfall and if you’ve got plans in the evening, the fast charging can get you topped up while you get ready to head out. Samsung states this phone can reach 65% charge in half an hour and our review experience matches those claims. Even if you take a lot of photos with the 50MP main camera, you should have plenty of battery capacity.
Samsung Galaxy S24+ review: A safe bet
AI gimmicks aside, this is a very easy-to-recommend flagship
Samsung also claims that this phone will receive seven years of Android updates, which is one of the best support policies of any Android phone. With support for the latest 5G network bands on the three major networks, including mmWave, you can keep using this phone for years.
Premium pixel-pushing at a practically paltry price
A refreshed, overclocked version of Nubia’s late-2023 gaming phone, the Redmagic 9S Pro can run with the best of them but doesn’t cost all that much. Its practically unparalleled battery capacity is backed up by 80W USB-PD charging, so you shouldn’t run out of juice even when the internal fan fights to keep the hardware cool.
Nubia’s one of a handful of smaller companies that makes relatively niche phones for the global market. Its phones don’t often make it Stateside and even more rarely get popular there, but some of its recent releases are finally getting the buzz they deserve.
Among those up-and-comers is the surprisingly affordable Redmagic 9S Pro, courtesy of Nubia’s dedicated gaming department. It’s powered by an overclocked Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 3, so from the start, there’s no question it’s built for performance. Up to 16GB of RAM, plenty of storage space, and a high-speed UFS 4.0 storage controller fit the bill perfectly when you need to install and load texture- and polygon-heavy titles.
Typically,powerful gaming phonesdon’t last particularly long on battery power, but Redmagic’s latest handset aims to change that. A massive 6,500mAh battery gives you plenty of time to play, and even the active cooling system doesn’t massively drain the reserves while combating the thermal throttling that could otherwise lead to dropped frames. And if it does ever run out, 80W charging means a quick plug-in session of just over a half-hour will have it right back at 100%.
The Razer Kishi Ultra is my favorite Android controller, and perfect for larger devices
you’re able to slap this baby on a foldable
But you don’t even have to boot up the phone and start playing to get the picture this is a flashy phone for high-intensity gaming. It doesn’t exactly adhere to the overly styled, practically gaudy design of some “gaming aesthetic” devices, instead opting for a boxy, almost retro design with a totally flat back that delivers symmetrical ergonomics.
Its near-perfectly rectangular screen gives you another hint this isn’t your average smartphone. Designed to maximize screen-to-body ration, its high resolution, good brightness, and 120Hz refresh rate don’t disappoint, and make the latest titles look excellent — surprisingly so, in fact, for something that starts at $650. It is a bit of a double sword, though, as it lacks any significant bezels for easy holding, or for storing front-facing speakers, which is one of our few complaints with it.
Redmagic consistently makes the best gaming phones, and the 9S Pro is the latest proof
For those that truly prefer function over form
While phones may never be the absolute most popular portable gaming devices, models like the Redmagic 9S Pro make it clear they’re still worthwhile when done well and appropriately priced. Not unlike the Flip 5G released this year by Nubia’s main division, the gaming-focused near-flagship was a pleasant surprise from a lesser-known manufacturer.
If you’re looking for respectable performance and a fancy appearance at a considerably lower cost than the big-name US phones, it’s an easy sell. It’s not approved for or supported by AT&T’s networks, but it works well with Verizon despite being unrecognized, as well as T-Mobile if you’re not a rural customer who relies on band 71 for 4G data.
Peak performance and efficiency that’s worthy of consideration
The iPhone 16 Pro Max raises the bar for battery life, largely thanks to its more efficient A18 Pro chip. However, Apple hasn’t made any compromises to get there, as this year’s model sports an even larger 6.9-inch screen and enough performance to handle AAA games, professional-grade videography, and the company’s new suite of AI features.
We live in exciting times when there’s never been a better selection of great Android smartphones. Still, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give credit where credit is due and acknowledge that Apple makes a worthy alternative for anyone looking for a change of scenery. While iOS isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, the iPhone 16 Pro Max checks a lot of the right boxes, and there’s certainly enough here to tempt some folks to consider a switch.
For starters, you’re getting a gorgeous 6.9-inch 120Hz OLED display that can handle all the latest HDR standards while reaching 2,000 nits of peak outdoor brightness and dropping to a single nit for those times when you don’t want to disturb those around you. Of course, the larger display means a bigger phone overall — we did find it more unwieldy than last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max — but that’s the price you pay for excellent battery life, as there has to be room to pack in a larger cell.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max makes good use of that extra space, combined with Apple’s latest power-efficient A18 Pro chip, to deliver battery life that can reach two days with moderate usage, and solid all-day battery life even for power users and mobile gamers.
That’s another area where the iPhone 16 Pro Max gets an edge over most of its Android rivals. The Apple-designed custom GPU architecture in the A18 Pro and the company’s ability to convince game developers to embrace its MetalFX engine have made it a gaming powerhouse, with AAA console titles like Resident Evil Village and Assassin’s Creed Mirage available on the App Store. This is more of an indictment of the state of gaming on the Google Play Store than the power of Apple’s A-series chips, but it is what it is.
The A18 Pro also includes an image signal processor and dedicated hardware video encoders, making it one of thebest camera phonesfor videography. It can record Dolby Vision HDR video in 4K at 120fps for what Apple calls Cinematic Slow Motion and supports advanced formats used by pro filmmakers like Log and the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES), plus a four studio microphone array and an AI-powered Audio Mix feature to ensure you get quality sound.
You may not want to shoot a feature film with your mobile phone, but it’s nice to know you can.
Review: The iPhone 16 Pro Max can’t keep pace with its Android rivals
And it’s all because of iOS
Apple has also boosted charging speeds this year. Wired charging is still officially rated at 50% in 30 minutes when using a 20W charger, but you can shave a bit off that if you use a 30W brick.
Perhaps more significantly, MagSafe charging has also been boosted to full 25W speeds, allowing the same 50%-in-30-minutes as wired charging. You’ll need a new MagSafe charger for this, but that’s no different from the fast wireless charging on every other phone; the new Qi2 standard is still only officially rated at 15W — anything beyond that is proprietary for now.
The downside here should be apparent to any Android fan: You’ll be entering the iOS ecosystem with all that it implies. Apple’s walled garden is nice and comfortable, but a golden cage is still a cage. The company is slowly opening things up, but it still has a long way to go before it reaches the freedom of the Android world.
The company’s first foldable is a winner
It took OnePlus a while to introduce its first foldable, but the company didn’t skimp on specs. The OnePlus Open has stellar screens, high-end internals, and a great camera. And it has a large-for-a-foldable 4805mAh battery that powers it day with ease. Add to that a fantastic design, and you’ve got an excellent competitor for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold lineup.
OnePlus took a while to introduce its first foldable, but the OnePlus Open ranked as one of our favorite foldables of 2023. And it’s still an excellent choice due to its balanced approach towards all-out hardware and software. Not only that, the OnePlus Open is equipped with a large 4,800mAh battery that lets it go all day. And when it comes time to top up the phone, the 67W charging support comes in the clutch.
Of course, battery life is just one aspect. The OnePlus Open knocks it out of the park with high-end specs, like a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. In fact, in our review, we found it to be rather excellent. Additionally, more than the hardware, it is the software that excites. With its novel approach to multitasking, Oxygen OS on the OnePlus is a delight to use.
The OnePlus Open is what every foldable should be
OnePlus supplies the competition Samsung needs
Don’t forget the cameras. The triple camera setup delivers great results in most lighting conditions. You can refer to our OnePlus Open review for a full deep dive into the cameras, but generally speaking, the Open can comfortably go toe to toe with the best foldables, and many other smartphones.
OnePlus even put an interesting spin on the telephoto sensor. With a 64MP resolution sensor, the camera can zoom up to 3x optically and go further up to 6x with minimal loss of detail in bright light. The results speak for themselves. The OnePlus remains one of the best foldables on the market.
When you need a phone that goes a week between charges
The Oukitel WP33 Pro isn’t as large as you’d expect for a phone with battery life measured in weeks, not hours. The rest of the package isn’t a slouch either. Thankfully, Oukitel built a strap into the phone to comfortably carry the hefty 22000mAh battery-equipped phone — all 557 grams of it.
If battery life is all you care about, you’re in the right place. The Oukitel WP33 is an absolute chonker of a phone with a massive 22,000mAh battery slapped in. Battery life here is measured in days; a week of use is an absolute possibility. With a battery rivaling that of dedicated power banks, it’s no surprise that the phone can also double as a power bank.
The rest of the package isn’t too shabby, either. The Oukitel WP33 Pro has a reasonably rugged construction and even includes a built-in strap. A MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ chipset powers the show, and it’s good enough for daily use, with some games tossed in for good measure.
However, software isn’t quite as good; the default skin lacks an app drawer, and you shouldn’t expect much regarding software updates. Similarly, the camera performance is pretty spotty; while the 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor can certainly pull its weight, getting a great photograph is equally about software — something Oukitel lacks.
Oukitel WP33 Pro review: A rugged smartphone you can actually daily
The WP33 Pro is a chonker but not as impractical as you might think
The Oukitel is the perfect phone for the right person. Perhaps you spend a lot of time outdoors without access to power, or you would like the convenience of charging your phone once a week. As long as you know what you’re buying, the Oukitel WP33 Pro delivers battery life that isn’t just class-leading but sits in a class of its own.
Choose a phone with all-day battery life and then some
The OnePlus 12 is more than a one-trick pony with some of the best mobile hardware alongside its impressive charging tech. It has the ultra-fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC, 5G, and Wi-Fi 7 support, providing plenty of power that’ll last years. With a multiyear software support policy, this phone has a lot of longevity. It also comes with a high-speed charger in the box, so it’s basically a unicorn. Even leaving battery life aside, the OnePlus 12 is a great, well-rounded phone.
While it’s a bit pricey for what it offers in other areas, Asus' ROG Phone 9 Pro is a gaming powerhouse that stunned us with its excellent battery life. That’s mostly thanks to the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, so we expect that other new phones powered by that chip, like theOnePlus 13, may soon be nipping at Asus' heels. For now, however, the ROG Phone 9 Pro takes the crown for delivering the best battery life and performance.
If you’re looking for the best bang for your buck, OnePlus still wins in that arena with the OnePlus 12R. It has a 5,500mAh battery that can last all day and then some, plus the fast 80W charging that’s OnePlus' claim to fame. It offers the best balance of price, performance, and battery life by far, making it the sweet spot for those who don’t want to break the bank.
Incredible performance, considering its reasonable price
No matter how great your battery life is, you’ll eventually need to recharge and when you do, the OnePlus 12 completes the job faster than any other phone on this list. Besides that, its got a large 5400mAh battery that can easily last all day thanks to the power-efficient, yet powerful, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.
