Mobile Battery: Best Smartphones With Long Battery Life [October 2020]

Everyone loves a smartphone with good battery life. This usually means more usage and less time spent charging it. While battery technology itself hasn’t really changed much over the years, we have been able to get better battery life from modern phones, partly thanks to hardware and software optimisations, and partly due to cramming in higher capacity batteries. Other technologies such as fast charging and wireless charging have also greatly eased the mundane task of charging your phone.

Most smartphones these days easily offer at least a full day’s worth of battery life, no matter your usage style. However, for this list we’ve rounded up smartphones that offer significantly more than a day’s worth of battery life in our testing experience.

How we chose the smartphones

The list consists of phones that managed to run well above 20 hours in our HD video battery loop test. We also looked at battery capacity and the amount of runtime we got with regular use, based on our experience when we reviewed these phones. Other features such as quick charging and wireless charging weren’t considered too much, since the purpose of this list was to simply have phones with the longest battery life. We also mainly looked at the recent offerings which are the most relevant in the market.

Best phones with long battery life

OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro

The OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro feature the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC, and yet managed to push past the 20-hour mark in our HD video loop test, which is quite impressive. Both phones ran for nearly 22 hours, playing an HD video clip on a constant loop till they shut down. The OnePlus 8 features a 4,300mAh battery, while the OnePlus 8 Pro has a 4,510mAh battery. Both phones support 30W Warp Charge 30T fast charging and the 8 Pro can also be charged wirelessly. If you are looking for a premium phone with strong battery life without compromising on the SoC, OnePlus’ 8-series does the job.

Realme X3 SuperZoom

The aggressively priced Realme X3 SuperZoom packs in powerful hardware and yet managed to run for a good 21 hours and 42 minutes in our loop test. This is with a 4,200mAh battery, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ SoC, and a full-HD+ 120Hz LCD display. The battery also charges quickly thanks to Realme’s 30W Dart Charge technology. This makes it another very good option for anyone looking for a high-end SoC in a smartphone, plus super-long battery life.

Samsung Galaxy M51

With its ‘monster’ 7,000mAh battery, the Samsung Galaxy M51 ran for an eye-watering 32 hours in our loop test. If that isn’t impressive enough, it managed this with a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display and a fairly powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G SoC. It easily lasted for more than two days with regular use on one charge, in our experience. There’s support for 25W fast charging too, which is helpful.

Realme 7 and Realme 7 Pro

Realme’s recent 7-series smartphones have delivered impressive battery results. In our loop test, the Realme 7 ran for a little more than 24 hours, while the Realme 7 Pro ran for a little over 22 hours. The Realme 7 features a massive 5,000mAh battery along with support for 30W fast charging. It also has a powerful SoC and a 90Hz display, which earns it its spot on this list. The Realme 7 Pro has a comparatively smaller 4,500mAh battery but comes with a 65W charger in the box. Both are fairly powerful smartphones for two different price segments and manage to deliver equally impressive battery life.

Samsung Galaxy M31s

The Samsung Galaxy M31s is the follow-up to the Galaxy M31 and continues to sport a large 6,000mAh battery. We managed to average about two full days before having to even think about charging it when we tested it. The phone lasted a little over 24 hours in our video loop test. One of the reasons for this excellent battery performance is the slightly underpowered Exynos 9611 SoC. The Samsung Galaxy M31s ships with a 25W charger in the box, which helps fill the large battery relatively quickly.

Realme Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A

The first phones which kick-started Realme’s Narzo series, the Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A delivered impressive runtime in our battery loop test, running for well over 24 hours. The Narzo 10 features a fairly powerful MediaTek G80 SoC but the display only has an HD+ resolution. The 5,000mAh battery does support 18W fast charging, which is good. The Narzo 10A targets the entry-level segment of the smartphone market, and it too has a 5,000mAh battery but doesn’t support fast charging.

Realme C12 and Realme C15

The Realme C12 and Realme C15 share a lot of similarities, including a 6,000mAh battery. Thanks to this, a low-power SoC, and low-resolution displays, both smartphones lasted for around 32 hours in our battery loop test. This translated to roughly two full days of usage when we tested them. It does take a while to charge these phones though. The Realme C15 ships with an 18W charger in the box, which helps speed up charging a bit, but the C12 takes a lot longer due to the 10W charger that comes bundled with it.

Is Android One holding back Nokia smartphones in India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.