So which smartphones have the best battery life?

posted by Alan F.

Apr 29, 2012, 12:32 AM

So which smartphones have the best battery life?

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Thanks to its massive 3300mAh battery, the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX scored the best battery life among smartphones in a test conducted by GSM Arena. The site measured the battery life of a number of handsets in three different categories: Web Browsing, Video Playback and Talk Time. So how did some of your favorite handsets make out in the test?

In Talk Time, the top ranked Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX lasted 20 hours and 24 minutes, surpassing the 12 hour hours and 14 minutes that you could chat non-stop using the overseas edition of the Samsung GALAXY Note. The LTE variant of the phablet lasted a much shorter 8 hours and 2 minutes. In case you were wondering (and we know you were), the Samsung Galaxy S II came in at 8 hours and 25 minutes while the Apple iPhone 4S lasted for 7 hours and 41 minutes.

The Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX consistently scored the best battery life

When it came to web browsing, the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX let the testers surf for 7 hours and 23 minutes before conking out. The HTC Radar was second and lasted 7 hours and 17 seconds. Lasting for 6 hours and 56 seconds, the Apple iPhone 4S was third. The Samsung Galaxy S II was further down the list with a score of 4 hours. Strangely enough, the LTE version of the Samsung GALAXY Note out lasted the overseas variant of the phone when it came to browsing the web. The 4G LTE model let you go online for 5 hours and 24 minutes before shutting down compared to the paltry 3 hours and 35 minutes on the international model.

The last category, video playback, also belonged to the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX which let you watch 14 hours and 17 minutes of video, or 28 episodes of Two and a Half Men, before the battery died. The Samsung Rugby Smart finished second with a score of 9 hours and 34 minutes. The Apple iPhone 4S was fourth, but just 10 minutes off the second place score. The Samsung Galaxy S II lasted for 8 hours.

Has Motorola made a statement with the 3300mAh cell it put in the DROID RAZR MAXX? Will we see the manufacturer try to squeeze the same cell into another model? Battery life on smartphones was like the weather, everyone complained about it but no one was willing to do anything about it. Now, consumers have the choice of buying a phone that can last all day without a charge and the success of the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX could lead others to copy Motorola.

source: GSMArena

Battery life on popular handsets - So which smartphones have the best battery life?

Battery life on popular handsets

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Related phones

View Full specs

PhoneArena Rating:

8.5

Read Full Review

User Rating:

8.7

Based on 22 Reviews

Display 4.3 inches
960 x 540 pixels

Camera 8 MP (Single camera)
1.3 MP front

Hardware TI OMAP4430, 1GB RAM

Storage 16GB, microSDHC

Battery 3300 mAh

OS Android 4.1.2

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61 Comments

47. phish4brains

Posts: 3; Member since: Dec 07, 2011

Just got my Droid Razr Maxx Limited Edition....Lovin It! Im on this thing all day. Havnt seen a charger in two days. Still got 30% left! My Droid3 with extended battery woulda been KO'd after half a day. Cant say enough a about this device. I do miss my keyboard though...

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 1:31 PM 5

48. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

i feel your pain! -.- i'm a previous Droid 3 owner too. it's freaking great keyboard has effected all of us.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 1:38 PM 4

44. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

Motorola really has always been trend setters. they were the ones that made everyone start wanting to make the smartphone thin and sexy with the Razr and the Q series and now they're going to start a battery life trend. ;)

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 1:07 PM 5

45. protozeloz

Posts: 5396; Member since: Sep 16, 2010

a trend worth everything! maybe the S3 will come with a battery life that uppers op the one on the RAZR, I'm ready to see reviews Looking forward battery life more and more and maybe by years end we have a phone that last a 2+ days with partiality heavy usage. that will be awesome

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 1:12 PM 3

46. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

yeah, i'm definitely all for OEMs to push the limits set by the MAXX especially by Samsung with the Galaxy S III. that'll REALLY get everyone's attention. it'll be exciting to see this take off. i might have to get another phone sooner than i thought i would. i wish Moto would sell battery upgrade kits for the original Razr. o:

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 1:23 PM 3

51. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

oh and not to mention the Droid, the phone that started it all.. xD

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 3:58 PM 1

43. networkdood

Posts: 6330; Member since: Mar 31, 2010

Love the original DROID RAZR battery life - 24-30 hrs a charge depending on usage...

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 12:34 PM 3

42. Sinaps

Posts: 60; Member since: Jul 27, 2010

I can make it through the day comfotable with regular use on my Droid X2. Super happy with it!

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 11:15 AM 3

41. xtremesv

Posts: 299; Member since: Oct 21, 2011

We need better battery life that's for sure but at the same time people want thinner phones. Moto MAXX compromised its RAZR profile to let that batt fit in. In my case I prefer higher battery capacity.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 10:37 AM 5

54. sgogeta4

Posts: 394; Member since: Feb 02, 2011

I'd rather have an unlocked bootloader.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 4:49 PM 1

40. sorcio46

Posts: 435; Member since: Jul 27, 2011

what about the eccelent results of Galaxy Note in battery life not mentioned in its biased review !!!

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 10:24 AM 3

34. kadalil

Posts: 20; Member since: Oct 26, 2011

U guys didn't even notice the HTC one s was third in the video playback category thanks to iphonearena who can't do without trying to make the iPhone look good even when it's clearly loosing.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 9:07 AM 2

32. APPLE-ROYALLY

Posts: 5; Member since: Apr 27, 2012

We were proud to be 1st. We are still second. We like that@.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 8:18 AM 0

33. u-suck-more

Posts: 529; Member since: Aug 26, 2011

this b*tch again?! -.-

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 8:47 AM 4

35. Sniggly

Posts: 7305; Member since: Dec 05, 2009

You weren't first.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 10:01 AM 5

30. u-suck-more

Posts: 529; Member since: Aug 26, 2011

Id like to point out tt the charts here are not e complete ones. To see e full list of phones, u have To go to blog.gsmarena.com and click on battery tests. It is on the right sight of the screen with a lot of other symbols

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 7:26 AM 1

28. taco5OO

Posts: 3; Member since: Apr 29, 2012

If you look at the results everyone can notice the iPhone is the winner among phones using ios.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 6:40 AM 3

38. protozeloz

Posts: 5396; Member since: Sep 16, 2010

not a copy.... dude not cool :/

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 10:08 AM 6

21. ILikeBubbles

Posts: 525; Member since: Jan 17, 2011

i'd rather have a removable battery than a little more battery life...

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 4:06 AM 2

20. danilson

Posts: 1; Member since: Apr 29, 2012

I can get massive browsing time on my Galaxy Nexus by reversing colours. Most websites have a white background which will become black. Phones with oled technology can have massive browsing time this way. I wish someone would test this.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 4:03 AM 2

23. mrochester unregistered

This is the real kick in the teeth for OLED screens; if they have to display anything bright, they absolutely kill the battery. It would be interesting to see what the battery times are like with the colours reversed, but at the end of the day, it's a poor solution to the problem at hand. OLED screens need to be made infinitely more power efficient when displaying bright colours.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 5:03 AM 2

18. grif_

Posts: 61; Member since: Apr 28, 2012

To bad other manufacturers are more concerned about form over function= thin phone with a small batter. I don't see the point of having such thin phones. bring on the bigger batteries. +2500mah ftmfw!

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 3:45 AM 3

19. Sniggly

Posts: 7305; Member since: Dec 05, 2009

The reality that the other phone manufacturers have to deal with now, including Apple, is that Motorola has combined form AND function by packing a 3300 MAh battery into a phone that's thinner than the iPhone.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 3:51 AM 9

22. mrochester unregistered

Don't forget that the Maxx is considerably wider and taller than the iPhone 4S. Also, don't forget that there are two different paths to better battery life; you either put in a bigger battery, or you make the device more efficient. Android devices tend to need to take the bigger battery approach because they are usually very inefficient when it comes to battery. Conversely, Apple can achieve great battery life with a relatively small battery because they use the power very efficiently. You can see the exact same thing with hardware specs too; Android devices need much higher specs to achieve the same level of performance as the iPhone. Now if we could just get the best of both worlds, we'd have a device that had both a huge battery and was incredibly power efficient. I can see an iPhone with a larger screen doing just that.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 4:59 AM 3

37. protozeloz

Posts: 5396; Member since: Sep 16, 2010

not necessarily, usually the least battery efficient devices are HTC phones. 1. Android phones carry out bigger screens and faster data chips than the iPhone 2. android phones have higher clocks and more Ram added to the equation comparing battery life with the iPhone is impossible, and iOS 5 seem to have made the iPhone even less power efficient than before, at least the 4S while 4.0.3 had made android devices more efficient.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 10:07 AM 9

49. mrochester unregistered

There are a huge number of variables involved so it's never possible to directly compare. This is quite an interesting link. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5770/lava-xolo-x900-review-the-first-intel-medfield-phone/6 It seems to show that despite what you might read in the tech press, the iPhone 4S has better battery life than previous iPhones. It appears to achieve this by being more efficient in using the power available.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 2:16 PM 1

50. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

of course it does. it's multi-core cpu is much, much, much more power efficient than the single core cpus in the previous iterations and with it's conservative clock frequency of 800MHz and it's Exynos roots it's even more power efficient than most Android devices however the OMAP4 is no slouch when it comes to power efficiency either and the MAXX's SAA display and it's Pentile properties also uses power way more efficiently than the much brighter IPS display on the iPhone 4/4S which is a pretty big factor however the MAXX's LTE connectivity is another big power draining factor at work here but with a battery over twice the size, forget about it. my OG Droid Razr with it's 1730mAh battery and LTE turned off can stay alive as long as a 4S. i know because i've seen it. most of my friends own the iPhone 4S.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 3:56 PM 2

53. protozeloz

Posts: 5396; Member since: Sep 16, 2010

I think there are two aspects android has grown lately and both are performance and power efficiency. I take the 4.0 build for example I makes Gingerbread feel like its 1.0 performance might still not be on pair with the iOS5 but is damn close. any 4.0 build even in beta can easily show a huge difference

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 4:19 PM 1

55. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

i did notice like a 15% increase in battery life going from 2.3 to 4.0.3 on this Razr even though the battery indicator is a little wonky in this leaked build.

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 5:56 PM 1

52. protozeloz

Posts: 5396; Member since: Sep 16, 2010

as I've said before variables are too hard to compare, usually where the iPhone keeps the crown is mostly web browsing, but with the screen size I think that's the trade. putting that aside the android battery efficiency is dated information, android caused battery drainage mostly around 2.1 or 2.2 (some versions) but with the 2.3 builds seems to get better and 4.0 is quite a good at both performance and battery. the stellar scores on the nexus where mainly dived there because of software

posted on Apr 29, 2012, 4:14 PM 1

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