Phones with best battery life 2024 - buyer’s guide

We are putting the iPhone 16 Pro Max as our top pick here for being not only one of the best flagships, but also one of the phones to offer the longer battery life nowadays.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is worth getting for its well-rounded user experience, luxurious design, its premium services and warranty, for its clockwork iOS, and for its versatile camera experience with great photos and exceptional videos. And a thousand other little things we cannot fit in here.

The new model delivers on its promises, even the carefully worded ones like performance improvements. Apple has never targeted the tech-savvy smartphones users with the iPhone and instead won their large base with consistent quality, a high level of service and convenience and (some) pro features. And the formula is still working, better than ever if you ask us.

So, should you get the new iPhone? It is the best iPhone ever made. It has a stunning design, an outstanding display, great performance, impressive speakers, pro-grade cameras with a consistently good photo and class-leading video quality, impressively long battery life and likable if weird iOS. That’s a YES, fore sure.

Overall, the iPhone 16 Plus impressed us with its chart-topping battery life, its excellent build, console-level performance and reliable cameras across the board.

It's still nowhere near the Pro lineup, and it's missing features such as an optical zoom camera, the autofocus on the ultra-wide camera, the 120Hz high-refresh-rate screen that comes with Always-On Display, or the new customizable Action key. Depending on your priorities, the lack of some of these might be a deal-breaker for you.

The iPhone 16 Plus is one really niche device, but if we had to pinpoint one key feature – it would be its really impressive battery life. And then adding the well-rounded specs, we think have a winner here.

Sony really outdid itself this year and the new Xperia 1 VI scored an outstanding Active Use Score! Plus, we liked the new more mainstream yet still premium display, latest chipset and the improved cameras, both hardware and software-wise.

However, the unremarkable video quality with the zoom camera, the uncompetitive charging speed and the underwhelming performance tuning of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 keep us from giving this phone an excellent score.

Then again, if you are a photography nerd, you will definitely appreciate the solid hardware at hand here coupled with excellent battery life and various Pro-oriented modes and settings for photos and, eventually, for videos.

Overall, we enjoyed our time with the Zenfone 11 Ultra. Asus has a very "no-nonsense" approach to smartphone development and the general UX, especially regarding the Zenfone line, which is meant to have a much broader appeal than the ROG Phone. It is an excellent flagship smartphone with high-end specs and performance,

The only thing that rubbed us the wrong way was the absence of a charger in the retail box. Oh, and perhaps cooling could be better for the beastly Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

Other than that, we have nothing but praise for the Zenfone 11 Ultra. It is a superb device all around, worthy of rubbing shoulders with the best and most popular premium phones currently out there. Here's hoping it brings Asus some much-needed market success and wider popularity with buyers.

The vivo V30 may be a bit expensive for its class, but it definitely punches above its weight. The handset impresses with exceptional camera performance and unmatched battery life. The display, chipset, and charging are also quite competitive, although they are not part of the device's standout features!

All in all, we can only think of just two drawbacks - the lack of stereo speakers and the relatively high price tag. Aside from that, the V30 is an excellent all-rounder with marginal drawbacks.

The Realme GT 6T is an excellent and very well-rounded upper-midranger with an excellent battery life. It is a true multimedia powerhouse with its class-leading vibrant, bright LTPO OLED display and exemplary stereo speaker performance. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset offers ample burst and sustained performance, making the phone great for any task, particularly gaming, thanks to its nicely implemented per-app high refresh rate selection options. The main camera is also quite capable regardless of lighting conditions.

If we had to find some complaints about the Realme GT 6T, it would probably be the 8MP ultrawide camera. The competition has moved away from the dated 8MP ultrawide unit, and Realme should too.

Overall, we find it a very good offer at about €350, one with particularly solid battery life.

The OnePlus Nord 4 remains competitive in its price range by offering a unique design approach, excellent battery life, speedy charging and great performance thanks to its Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chip. The camera experience is a mixed bag, but we tend to like the photos taken with the main camera in 1x Photo mode. The absence of stabilized 4K video recording is the bigger con in our books, though.

Having 256GB storage by default would have made the Nord 4 a tad more competitive as at least half of the phones in the same price bracket start from 128GB. The promised 4 years of software support will likely draw some users who are already on the fence.

The Nord 4 has a lot of premium features, great battery life included, so we do reccoment exploring it.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus model is a solid overall package. All of the unique Nothing design and aesthetics are there. Compared to the Nothing Phone (2a), the uptick in performance isn't particularly huge and is not realistically noticeable in practice. The display, while not industry-leading, is slightly brighter. The upgraded 50MP selfie is appreciated but it's only a slight improvement.

The larger version of the unique phone introduces spectacular battery life, which comes on top of already great specs sheet and awesome features. And that is why it has made it to our list.

The Galaxy A15 4G is an excellent offer – affordable and with outstanding battery life. It comes with a bright and smooth 1080p AMOLED screen, a good chipset, camera that gets the job done, and fast charging. The phone runs on the latest Android version and One UI, too, and it will get 3 major Android updates.

It is hardly the best phone, that is for sure. There is no ingress protection, the speaker is so-so, the GPU performance is mediocre, and the cameras are no good at night. But even as is - the Galaxy A15 just make sense.

We had it rather easy with the Galaxy A15 - it is a good phone for the price, and we do recommend it if it fits your budget.

The OnePlus 12R is an excellent offer with excellent battery life. It’s an attractively priced smartphone with a large Fluid AMOLED screen with 1B colors, 120Hz refresh, and Dolby Vision. It also packs flagship-grade Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset with proper cooling solution that helps for good sustained performance.

The OnePlus 12R's specsheet already revealed some of its key weaknesses. The lack of wireless charging and the IP rating that doesn't promise submersion survival will possibly disqualify it for some potential buyer. More limiting, we reckon, is the camera system that features a so-so ultrawide and is missing a zoom unit - that's the weak point that rivals can readily exploit. After all it is not a cheap phone.

That said, stills performance is superb on the main camera and not half bad on the ultrawide, with both excelling in the dark - that's anything but a disappointing performance, if you don't particularly care for video. Add to that a wonderful display, class-leading battery life, and charging speed that's also among the best (in any class), and the 12R isn't looking too shabby, all things considered.

Ultimately, whether the OnePlus 12R is merely good enough or just great for you will be decided on exactly how much you want to be zooming in or out on your cameras.

OnePlus may have lost its distinct character as the brand grew into maturity, but that doesn't mean they're not making great phones still. Sure, OxygenOS is now just another name for Oppo's ColorOS, but why should ColorOS be a bad thing. Certain issues we had with the OnePlus 11 have been resolved on the 12 and it’s only the sub-standard water protection that remains - essentially all other high-end phones are rated for submersion, while the 12 isn't.

Excellence on the fundamentals should go without saying, after all we’ve out the phone on this list exactly for this. Even in this context, however, the OP12 is among the better ones in terms of battery life, charges faster than just about anything else mainstream, and has a display that does more HDR than a lot of competitors.

Sure, we're not quite fond of the 12's video output during the day, though we're almost convinced that the spectacular stabilization makes up for shortcomings elsewhere. Selfies are also unusually good, but more important, we feel, is the overall great stills performance from all rear cameras in all conditions.

In the end, the OnePlus 12 makes it quite easy for us. It's so great in many ways and only has small-ish missteps in just a couple of areas - that sounds like grounds for a recommendation.

The Xiaomi 14 is a reasonably priced compact flagship phone. Overall, the handset is a capable mini flagship with plenty of big-screen features - a full stack of excellent cameras, LTPO OLED, fast charging, solid battery life and plenty of storage.

What we would like to see in the next version of the Xiaomi 14 is autofocus on the ultrawide camera, better selfie and better thermals during long and heavy workloads. We found the Xiaomi 14 to throttle significantly under load, which may ruin your gaming experience in some cases.

Still, the Xiaomi 14 is easy to recommend as it's perhaps the most capable compact Android flagship currently on the market.

The Xperia 10 VI is a truly unique device with excellent battery life; there are no two ways about it. Its dimensions alone make it stand out. While the Xperia 1 VI decided to go for a more standard display aspect ratio this time around, the Xperia 10 VI stuck to its roots and still offers a cinematic 21:9 display. Other great features it continues to offer include a lightweight body made in part from recycled and environmentally-friendly plastics, IP68 ingress protection, a powerful and very clean stereo speaker setup, a 3.5mm audio jack, and expandable storage.

However, the Xperia 10 VI isn't a perfect device. It is hard to accept the 60Hz refresh rate Sony insists on using on the Xperia 10 series. We get that the display panel aspect ratio is quite exotic, but that's just not competitive in 2024. And frankly, neither is the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset in this price range. Still, we do appreciate that Sony finally moved away from the Snapdragon 695 and at least went for a chipset that offers 4K video capture.

All things considered, we can't outright call the Xperia 10 VI a great deal or blanketly recommend it to everyone. It is a very specific device that will appeal to a group of fans. But its compact size, great cinematic screen, excellent camera and long-lasting battery life do deserve a consideration.

The Moto G54 Power Edition does what it does without too much fanfare. It is an okay budget device that does have certain nice aspects to it, particularly for the price range. The 120Hz refresh rate and the relatively good way the dynamic refresh rate is handled on the phone are much appreciated. The ability to lower said refresh rate down to 30Hz to conserve power is a great addition to the mix. The Moto G54 Power also has a surprisingly solid stereo speaker setup with Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio support. The camera setup, while nothing to phone home about, is also quite versatile thanks to an autofocusing ultrawide that doubles nicely as a macro shooter. OIS on the main cam is also great to see.

The battery life is solid, of course, but that is right there in the name and kind of a given on a 6,000 mAh pack.

As for things we didn't like about the G54 Power, there is the LCD panel, which simply doesn't get bright enough and has pretty slow pixel response times, leading to smearing and ghosting. The Dimensity 7020 is also not a particularly impressive chip. While it holds up quite well in terms of CPU performance, its IMG BXM-8-256 GPU is a bit starved for power. Also, the onboard ISP limits video capture to 1080p. To be fair, that is the norm in this budget price range anyway.

All things considered, we generally had a good time while using and testing the Motorola G54 Power. It certainly has plenty of limitations to work around, but it still delivers a satisfactory experience and it is a great phone if you want a long-lasting battery life.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra remains Samsung's ultimate smartphone, including battery life-wise, and it's the most complete package you can buy today. Samsung didn't just coast for another year, which we felt was the case with the S23 Ultra. We got more new stuff this time around than we could have predicted. The new materials in the build don't just feel nice; they also improve the visual experience. After years of enjoying the coolness of curved displays, we've now grown up to realize that flat screens have their benefits, and Samsung's now giving us flat screens across the range.

Without much fuss around that subject, the S24 Ultra is one of the longest-lasting Androids you can buy, and even if the big names from China charge three times as fast, the Pixel and the iPhone don't. An always-with-you stylus remains elusive outside of the Samsung flagship, and you may not know you want or need one until you've had one.

The camera system is also mostly a source of satisfaction. The rethinking of the telephoto setup is a forward step that adds another layer of versatility. The rest of the rear modules we'd almost call stale next to what we're seeing from Chinese brands and their impressive hardware, but Samsung has managed to squeeze out such performance out of these otherwise uninspired bits that it doesn't feel like we're getting less than what is right.

Yes, there were display issues. And, yes, the charging is far from great. But In the end, Samsung's ultimate smartphone comes easily recommended.

The new Galaxy A55 tries to ride on the success of its predecessors and though it brings modes updates, it is still one incredibly solid offer. We are impressed by the battery life; we liked the new, more premium design; raw performance is good along with sustained performance, and we are generally happy with the camera all-around, including selfies and video recording. Display quality is competitive, although it's not hard to find bright 120Hz OLEDs nowadays.

We are very disappointed by the fingerprint reader; we are not fans of the virtual proximity sensor, and the thick screen bezels are off-putting. While none of these is a real deal-breaker, they should be considered when shopping for a phone.

All in all, the Galaxy A55 is a good phone on a reasonable price and it gets our recommendation.

This new generation Motorola Razr 50 Ultra addresses some of our Razr 40 Ultra complaints and brings other improvements. Most notable, perhaps, is the introduction of a proper IPX8-rating, which brings the Razr's water resistance up to the Galaxy Z Flip level.

The Moto is without competition in its market segment when it comes to charging speed, its displays are likely the best in its class, and its speakers are better than most (foldables or otherwise). The software implementation on the cover screen is one 2x button in the camera UI short of perfection, and Hello UI is easy to like in its entirety as well.

Motorola is taking a bit of gamble with the camera setup - or is it a calculated strategy? Either way, we do like the main+tele combo, and if you're more into ultrawide shots, there's always the non-Ultra. In any case, this Razr does a solid job as a cameraphone..

All things considered, as small-size foldables go, the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra has some excellent features and impressive battery life, which makes it quite the enticing proposition.