Phones with best battery life 2024 - buyer’s guide

We are putting the iPhone 15 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.

You do not get the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max for its Titanium frame. Or its 5x telephoto camera, or USB-C port, or even the console-level. The iPhone 15 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 most of 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, you know. 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, long battery life and likable if weird iOS.

And even if there is a potential issue with performance and some image processing imperfections, it remains among the best smartphones on the market right now, with class-leading battery life at that!

Overall, the iPhone 15 Plus boasts a significant upgrade over its predecessor in a couple of key departments - display, battery life, performance, main camera and charging.

It's still nowhere near the Pro lineup, and it's missing features such as this year's chipset, the 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 15 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.

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 incredibly compact Sony Xperia 5 V is a minor update over the Xperia 5 IV - it brings a more powerful chipset, newer Gorilla Glass panels, and an improved main camera at the expense of the retired zoom one. Luckily, 2x zoom is still present, with excellent quality at that. But the bet bit about this compact device is its incredibly long battery life!

The Xperia 5 V has one of the best designs on the market - it's a timeless classic with a lovely grip, an impressively compact form factor and a very secure grip. The all-round ingress protection is greatly appreciated, too.

Then there is the cutout-free OLED with excellent properties. Sony hasn't figured out the variable refresh rate just yet, but judging from the outstanding battery life, we think not many users will hold this against them. The latest Snapdragon chip and RAM will always come in handy, as well as the improved thermals. We like the new stereo speaker setup a lot. And the audio jack. And the microSD expansion.

Most importantly, the Xperia 5 V delivers on every camera promise. It snaps some of the best photos a smartphone can offer in both day and night conditions, across all cameras at that - primary, ultrawide, selfie. Furthermore, the 2x zoom turned out excellent for photos and good in videos, too. All of that – wrapped into this small compact body. Nice!

Nothing Phone (2a) is a more budget or rather midrange device, like the original Nothing Phone (1). That being said, we have to commend the company on preserving much of the experience of the flagship Nothing Phone (2) and carrying it over into the much cheaper Nothing Phone (2a). And it has a superb battery life!

Ignoring hardware specs for a bit here, we have to admire the consistency and dedication to the overall design and UX that Nothing is displaying. These are truly the unique parts of the Nothing formula, and they seem to be not going anywhere.

As for the Nothing Phone (2a), we really liked our time with it. As we said, all of the unique Nothing design and aesthetics are there. We can safely say that the Nothing Phone (2a) hardware platform that is powering the experience does not disappoint. There is enough power under the hood to keep everything running smoothly. The display, while not industry-leading, is colorful, vibrant and smooth. The camera setup is also perfectly satisfactory. In general, we found no glaring faults. And sure, you can probably get better value for money in this price bracket, but nothing quite as unique as the Nothing Phone (2a).

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.

High-end Honor handsets can easily get overlooked in a crowd of more famed top-tier offerings. But just because their Magic lineup may not be the one you think of first, it doesn't mean you shouldn't seriously consider the Magic6 Pro.

It's not perfect, that's for sure. For its cameraphone aspirations, the Honor's video quality is a bit… unreliable. Certain specific circumstances can trip its camera in stills too, but those aren't that bothersome. Similarly, a few minor software peculiarities had us irked along the way. But that's really the magnitude of the 'problems' we had with the Magic6 Pro.

These are easily outweighed by the phone's strong points though. The Magic6 Pro's display is truly great, even for the class. The battery life is towards the top of the chart, charging is quicker than the latest Samsung. None of the Android competitors has 3D face unlock hardware either. Perhaps best of all, the impressive numbers in the camera specsheet do actually translate into nice photos.

With all that in mind, we think that the Magic6 Pro deserves a spot on your short list if you're after a high-end smartphone in 2024.

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 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.

The Oppo Find N3 Flip seems like the most all-round Flip phone on the market right now. It has a useful cover screen and a great foldable one, a sturdy design with splash proofing, great battery life with super-fast charging for this segment, and the best camera kit among the Flips to date. Plus, the rear cameras excel in everything, and their photos are among the best we've seen.

The Find N3 Flip impressed us with performance and software, too, and we are glad Oppo will be taking care of this phone for five years. It definitely deserves flagship treatment, just like any other phone.

The Find N3 Flip is not perfect; no phone is. High-refresh rate gaming is absent on the N3 Flip, much like on all other BBK phones, and the phone throttles big time as an overheating prevention measure. Another very BBK thing is the mediocre selfie camera that uses a Quad-Bayer sensor and then saves upscaled photos.

But even with these issues, the Oppo Find N3 Flip is still one of the best Flip foldables right now. It has some niceties that no competitor has - such as the speedy charging and the 2x zoom camera, while the IPX4 splash-proofing and new glass panels are welcome build quality improvements.

Overall, we liked the Oppo Find N3 Flip a lot as it managed to surprise us more than once. It's a solid smartphone with the most feature-rich Flip specs sheet, and even better - it delivers on the official promises.