Phones with best battery life 2023 - buyer’s guide

The Sony Xperia 10 V scored the #5 rating in our all-time top 10 battery life chart. If you are a fan of the iconic thin and tall, extra light design on the phone, there is just nothing else out there in the midrange space to offer an alternative. Similarly, the 21:9 display aspect ratio remains a pretty exclusive spotlight feature.

The Xperia 10 V finally has a stereo speaker setup and a pretty good one at that - front-facing, well-balanced and decently loud, with a clean output. Making a return - the great ingress protection rating is hard to come by in midranger space. The same is true for a telephoto camera, let alone one that does a decently good job quality-wise, like we are seeing on the Xperia 10 V.

Unfortunately, the Xperia 10 V has a handful of shortcomings - most of which are carried forward from its predecessor. Things like the lack of a high refresh rate - a 60Hz display are unacceptable on a phone of this price segment in 2023. Then there is arguably the biggest Achilles heel on the Xperia 10 V - the Snapdragon 695 chipset - the exact same chip from the Xperia 10 IV that was hardly an adequate choice then and is even less so now. So much so that the otherwise clean UI of the Xperia 10 V struggles to run and animate smoothly. Plus, the annoying 1080p video capture cap stems from a chipset limitation.

The Xperia 10 V not a bad phone, and it's undoubtedly got a few standout selling points that may tickle you just the right way - like the unusual form factor or the amazing battery. Plus, the Sony badge still has some extra weight to it - enough to mitigate the cost difference with alternative devices. If you are someone who might fancy any of those, then we'd say the Xperia 10 V is worth a (cautious) recommendation.

The Realme GT Neo 3T is one of the best bang-for-the-buck offers right now and while usually the top spot is reserved for a Poco, the Neo 3T won this one for its better power autonomy. It is also a powerful smartphones and among the most dependable performers when it comes to battery life.

The Realme GT Neo 3T has a lot of flagship-grade features - a great HDR10+ OLED screen, 120Hz at that, one of the most powerful Snapdragon chips - SD870 5G, and plenty of cameras.

The Neo 3T has a large 5,000mAh battery that turned out to be quite dependable – it provides the ultimate gaming and/or multimedia experience in one charge. And then you can top up that battery quite fast with the supplied 80W charger.

There are phones that scored better, that’s for sure, but none of these can match the Neo 3T for its all-round package and battery life, especially considering the Snapdragon 870 powerful chipset.

Next on our list is the Sony Xperia 10 IV. It’s a mid-ranger with outstanding battery autonomy and an excellent screen for multimedia. Plus, it is one of the few phones in this price range to offer a dedicated zoom camera.

The Xperia 10 IV wowed us with its battery life – it aced all tests, including standby. It also impressed us with a great HDR OLED screen with 1B colors and dependable triple-camera on the back. The traditional Sony design with IP68-rated ingress protection is always appreciated, too.

The Xperia 10 IV is not an ideal smartphone, though. For its great battery life and versatile camera, you won’t be getting high refresh rate for the display and stereo speakers. The underpowered Snapdragon 695 5G won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Still, the Xperia 10 IV offers smooth Android experience, great multimedia and imaging, too, and with the excellent battery life it earned a spot on our shortlist.

The Realme 10 Pro+ is one of the few mid-rangers that has quite a few upgrades over the previous model. The 10 Pro+ brought us a larger OLED screen with a higher 120Hz refresh rate, more colors (10-bit depth), improved brightness and HDR10+ certification.

We also appreciated the improved chipset, even if the differences between the Dimensity 1080 and 920 are small. But the newer chip and the newer Android 13+Realme UI 4 software suite are probably responsible for the outstanding battery life the 10 Pro+ achieved on our battery life test. Oh, and we cannot but appreciate the slightly faster charging.

The new Realme 10 Pro+ turned out good enough for multimedia and gaming thanks to its great screen and adequate performance. But we also found it to be a good cameraphone, as it consistently delivered great photos and videos with its primary and ultrawide cameras. On the other hand, don't expect good selfies with this one.

Overall, we do recommend exploring the Realme 10 Pro+ if it ticks the right boxes for you. It's a great phone for its money and delivers solid performance across the board.

There's a lot to like about the Camon 17 Pro, but a key selling point is undoubtedly its best-in-class battery life. Its 256GB storage is unmatched by its rivals too. The selfie camera is particularly great and the rear cameras aren't half bad either.

It's not without its flaws - mostly small ones like the missing night mode for the ultrawide camera, or the odd stereo handling of its speaker system. However, a more critical deficiency stands out - the display is an LCD among OLEDs, and it's not even all that good of an LCD. Still, we can see how the Camon can be a sensible choice if your priorities align with its strong points.

We may have some reservations about the Samsung Galaxy A23 5G as an overall package for the money, but what's beyond any doubt is its excellent battery life. It's also got a smooth-running screen, likable design, powerful enough hardware, plenty of cameras, and reasonably fast charging. We appreciate the latest software suite and the various fan-favorite features like a standalone microSD slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, and NFC.

The 4GB RAM model is a bit slow, but it is also the cheaper one, and it makes sense to get it if you are not too fussy about performance and you're in this just for the endurance. The higher-specced Galaxy A23s end up costing as much as a higher-tier Galaxy, and a higher-tier galaxy will get you a lot of stuff that is better than the A23 - OLED display, water protection, proper ambient light sensor, 4K video capture. But for battery life on a budget, from a Samsung - the A23 5G is a great choice.

Another in a list of phones that don't quite entice us in its entirety, the Moto G82 is well worthy of a recommendation if you're after longevity. It's not a bad phone, of course - the Snapdragon 695 SoC performance is about adequate for the price bracket; the 6.6-inch OLED is color accurate and gets very bright; the clean Android experience is attractive too.

It's mostly its camera results that are giving us pause - the main sensor is probably one of the smallest in the price category, leading to sub-par results. We've also seen faster charging and more comfortable, modern under-display fingerprint readers.

True flagships seldom make the Best battery life list, especially Android ones, but the Galaxy S23 Ultra changes that. It's an unmatched package that includes pretty much everything you could think of wanting in a smartphone, including impressive endurance.

Naysayers will point out that it charges too slowly, but that's relative - it's notably better in this respect than iPhone or Pixel competitors, which is arguably what matters. Maybe the Ultra's worst offence is that it's not all that different than last year's model.

That said, the S23 Ultra offers a couple of incremental upgrades here or there, while keeping the basics that already made the S22 Ultra superb. Small tweaks in the design bring meaningful improvement to handling, while the new 200MP camera is more than just a megapixel increase over the old 108MP unit.

The new camera is just one in a set of five and together they deliver possibly the most capable camera system in a smartphone overall. The S Pen may not have brought any new features, but existing ones are plenty and it's not like there's any stylus-wielding competition. The spectacular display rounds up a top-class showing when it comes to the fundamentals too.

The Realme 9 is one of the most recent smartphone to impress us with battery life. It is an incredibly strong performer when it comes to battery autonomy and for that we can easily recommend it.

The Realme 9 offers a likable 90Hz OLED screen, can charge fast, and it offers dependable main camera.

It’s a phone with a weak chipset, though, there is no ingress protection, no stereo speakers, no 5G either. It is an obvious downgrade from the Realme 8, too. But as far as battery life is concerned, it can last long and it’s not a bad phone to own, too.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 is one attractive budget offer. It has a 6.43" 90Hz OLED screen and relies on the decent even if behind the curve Snapdragon 680 chipset. The camera on the back offers good regular photos, too. The stereo speakers are loud enough.

But the reason we included this Redmi Note 11 is because of its excellent battery life and 33W fast charging. You can watch videos for 20 hours and then some or talk for 37 hours uninterrupted. The Redmi Note 11offers great battery autonomy in addition to its balanced feature set and we do recommend it. Plus, it is very reasonably priced, too.

One of many Redmi Note 11s, the Note 11S 5G stands out with properly excellent battery life. A good (if not particularly bright) budget-friendly 1080p 90Hz display is on board, the stereo speakers are solid for the money, and a full set of small niceties (3.5mm jack, FM radio, IR blaster, microSD slot) is also a welcome sight.

Sure, the chipset may not be a great option for gaming, but does fine for mundane tasks. The other thing is that if you like your videos in 4K, this Redmi isn't for you. But it does take top-class selfies, though.

The Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max managed to ace our battery life test and it had to be on this list. It has a sturdy design, one outstanding display (now with Dynamic Island) and unmatched performance, plus - its triple camera is one of the best options there are right now, especially if video capturing is a priority.

The Apple iOS is not for everyone, and the fast charging is not that fast - this means it's not all good news for the iPhone. Still, for its great endurance rating and flagship traits, it deserves a spot on the list.

We weren't strictly fans of the Galaxy A53 as a follow-up to the A52s, but that didn't stop us from praising its battery life. The Galaxy A54 addresses one of the major shortcomings of A53 - the chipset, and now the new model replaces the old one in this battery champs shortlist with fewer reservations.

One of the pricier options in the class at launch, the Galaxy A54 is a very enticing package nonetheless - an IP67-rated Gorilla Glass 5 sandwich with a great 120Hz Super AMOLED screen, snappy performance, latest Android with long-term software support, reliable versatile camera setup with OIS and particularly nice selfies - there's little to dislike about the A54.

One of those things is the lack of a charger in the box - the phone supports up to 25W fast charging, but the charger is sold separately. Somewhat iffy video recording results are also a bit of a letdown, but hardly a dealbreaking offense either.

Another Galaxy joins the list of our favorite marathon runners. The Galaxy A34 is an excellent mid-ranger with IP67 ingress protection rating, stereo speakers and large battery that also translates into top-notch endurance. Its new 6.6-inch display is now bigger than both its predecessor and the Galaxy A54, and it's 120Hz as well - a nice little upgrade over last year's 90Hz.

The chipset choice on the Galaxy A34 is also working in its favor. While the new Samsung Exynos 1380 does manage to offer a bit higher performance in the A54, the Dimensity 1080 inside the Galaxy A34 holds its own. Plus, it offers great power efficiency, hence why A34 is here. The A34 also rocks the latest Android 13 and One UI 5.1 combo, chock full of extra features, and with years of promised software support.

The Poco M5s is an excellent all-around phone for its nearly entry-level pricing - splash-resistant design, AMOLED screen with high brightness, gaming-friendly chipset, versatile camera, and a large battery with fast charging.

There are some nice perks like stereo speakers, audio jack, IR blaster, FM radio, 3.5mm jack. And we were surprised by its good selfies and selfie portraits; even expensive Xiaomi phones cannot match these features. All these niceties for around €200 make the M5s a killer offer.

Of course, the Poco M5s is not perfect - it offers poor photo quality, and the 60Hz refresh rate for the display may be dealbreakers for many. But even with these two imperfections, we still recommend the Poco M5s for being one of the most feature-rich smartphones within its price bracket, one with an outstanding battery life, too.

A quick look at the specs sheet and the GT Neo 3 150W pricing suggests that it's a device easy to recommend. It has a potent, modern chipset on board, great display, unmatched charging, dependable battery life and good main camera performance. If only it had a better auxiliary camera setup, it would have been our go-to phone in the price bracket.

Sure, the battery life isn’t stellar even if the onscreen times are rather solid. But with a record-breaking charging speed (a full charger in 16mins!), you don’t need a record-breaking battery life, do you?