Which phone has the best battery life in 2017?
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Which phones had the best battery life in 2017? And does battery life on phones ever improve or does it stay roughly the same throughout the years?
At PhoneArena, we do a standardized proprietary battery test on all phones that we review. We test every device diligently: we make sure that its screen is set at the same brightness level and to ensure this we measure brightness level down to the nit with a special colorimeter, we also turn off external notifications and other sources of power drain that might skew the results of our test. For some phones, we double-test if we have doubts about the results. This gives us a comprehensive picture of battery life numbers for all major flagships not just in 2017, but also through the wider lens of time.
As 2017 winds down to a close, we take a look at all the major flagship phones of the year and their battery life performance, and we compare the results to the average battery life of flagships in 2016 and 2015 to see if there is any improvement.
But first, let's look at the list of 2017 flagship phones to see which one scored best in terms of battery life.
Which Phone has the Best Battery Life?
Battery life (hours) Higher is better
|
Apple iPhone 8
8h 37 min (Good)
Apple iPhone 8 Plus
10h 35 min (Excellent)
Apple iPhone X
8h 41 min (Good)
BlackBerry KEYone
12h 26 min (Excellent)
Google Pixel 2
8h 40 min (Good)
Google Pixel 2 XL
8h 57 min (Good)
HTC U11
9h 3 min (Good)
Huawei P10
7h 42 min (Average)
Huawei P10 Plus
8h 18 min (Average)
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
12h 5 min (Excellent)
LG G6
6h 9 min (Poor)
LG V30
9h 34 min (Good)
Motorola Moto Z2 Play
9h 19 min (Good)
Motorola Moto Z2 Force Edition
7h 36 min (Average)
Nokia 8
8h 59 min (Good)
OnePlus 5
9h 18 min (Good)
OnePlus 5T
8h 51 min (Good)
Razer Phone
8h 52 min (Good)
Samsung Galaxy S8
8h 22 min (Average)
Samsung Galaxy S8+
8h (Average)
Samsung Galaxy S8 Active
10h 57 min (Excellent)
Samsung Galaxy Note8
7h 50 min (Average)
Sony Xperia XZ Premium
8h 15 min (Average)
Xiaomi Mi 6
9h 14 min (Good)
Xiaomi Mi MIX 2
9h 5 min (Good)
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*Note: you can add more phones to this list by using the "Add Phone" field above.
2017 average battery life: 8 hours and 53 minutes
There is one devices that scored noticeably higher than all the rest: the BlackBerry KeyOne. It's in a league of its own when it comes to battery life and a true, two-day performer. Then, there are two other devices that score noticeably higher than the rest: the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active and the Apple iPhone 8 Plus, the only other two with a score of more than 10 hours.
There is also one device that easily wins the "Golden Raspberry Award" of battery life, the one with the absolutely worst battery life: the LG G6. It scored just 6 hours and 9 minutes on our test, way below the average.
While there are highs and lows, if you are interested in the overall trend for the industry, you need to look at the average flagship battery life in 2017. The grand average of all flagship phones is a battery life of 8 hours and 44 minutes. This is actually quite impressive. Look down at the charts below and you can see that in 2016 and in 2015, the battery life average was around 7 hours and 5 minutes, so in 2017, we got a solid 26% improvement.
Battery life (hours) Higher is better
|
Apple iPhone 7
7h 46 min (Average)
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
9h 5 min (Good)
Apple iPhone SE
7h 41 min (Average)
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
7h 18 min (Average)
Samsung Galaxy S7
6h 37 min (Average)
Google Pixel XL
7h 19 min (Average)
Google Pixel
7h 45 min (Average)
LG V20
6h 23 min (Poor)
LG G5
5h 51 min (Poor)
Motorola Moto Z Force Droid Edition
7h 9 min (Average)
Motorola Moto Z Droid Edition
5h 52 min (Poor)
OnePlus 3
5h 53 min (Poor)
HTC 10
7h 10 min (Average)
Sony Xperia XZ
6h 41 min (Average)
Huawei P9
6h 51 min (Average)
Xiaomi Mi 5
7h 27 min (Average)
|
2016 average battery life: 7 hours and 3 minutes
Last year, in 2016, there was only one phone to break the 9 hour mark and even a few phones under 6 hours.
Battery life (hours) Higher is better
|
Apple iPhone 6s
8h 15 min (Average)
Apple iPhone 6s Plus
9h 11 min (Good)
Samsung Galaxy Note5
9h 11 min (Good)
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
8h 11 min (Average)
Samsung Galaxy S6
7h 14 min (Average)
LG V10
5h 51 min (Poor)
LG G4
6h 6 min (Poor)
HTC One M9
6h 25 min (Poor)
HTC One A9
6h 3 min (Poor)
Google Nexus 6P
6h 24 min (Poor)
Google Nexus 5X
6h 25 min (Poor)
OnePlus 2
6h 38 min (Average)
OnePlus X
5h 57 min (Poor)
Huawei P8
7h 12 min (Average)
Sony Xperia Z5
7h 7 min (Average)
|
2015 average battery life: 7 hours and 5 minutes
And in 2015, the overall state of things was not much different than in 2016. The average scores was about the same.
Which Phone is Fastest to Charge?
Another important aspect of the battery equation is the time it takes to charge a phone.
Fast charging has been around for most phones for years, but the technology is improving. So let's see how fast different phones charged. Note that we use the charger that is in the box for this test. The iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X all support fast charging, but require a new charger in order for it to work. That is why you see their slow charge results, as these are the times that the average users who are not aware of the need to purchase a separate charger will have.
Charging time (minutes) Lower is better
|
Apple iPhone 8
148
Apple iPhone 8 Plus
178
Apple iPhone X
189
Google Pixel 2
111
Google Pixel 2 XL
152
HTC U11
98
Huawei P10
100
Huawei P10 Plus
117
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
102
LG G6
97
LG V30
108
Motorola Moto Z2 Play
132
Motorola Moto Z2 Force Edition
110
Nokia 8
131
OnePlus 5
99
OnePlus 5T
93
Razer Phone
140
Samsung Galaxy S8
100
Samsung Galaxy S8+
99
Samsung Galaxy Note8
102
Xiaomi Mi 6
114
Xiaomi Mi MIX 2
88
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The interesting trend in 2017 is that charging speeds actually went down for many flagships. Even though still fast, compared to last year, it took more time to charge phones by Google (the Pixels), OnePlus, LG and Motorola.
Take a look at the results for 2016 right below:
Charging time (minutes) Lower is better
|
Apple iPhone 7
141
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
197
Apple iPhone SE
155
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
99
Samsung Galaxy S7
88
Google Pixel XL
118
Google Pixel
119
LG V20
86
LG G5
76
Motorola Moto Z Force Droid Edition
110
Motorola Moto Z Droid Edition
72
OnePlus 3
74
HTC 10
100
Sony Xperia XZ
174
Huawei P9
146
Xiaomi Mi 5
139
|
Finally, in 2015 we see more extremes. There were some super fast charging phones: in fact, the LG V10 was fastest in the history of our test, but also the average for most other phones was slower charging.
Charging time (minutes) Lower is better
|
Apple iPhone 6s
150
Apple iPhone 6s Plus
165
Samsung Galaxy Note5
81
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
83
Samsung Galaxy S6
78
LG V10
65
LG G4
127
HTC One M9
106
HTC One A9
110
Google Nexus 6P
89
Google Nexus 5X
100
OnePlus 2
150
OnePlus X
121
Huawei P8
180
Sony Xperia Z5
156
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Conclusion
Summing it all up, we can clearly see that 2017 brought us a big leap in battery life.
On the Android side of things, the big reason for this improvement is the switch to the Snapdragon 835 chip. The Snapdragon 835 was the first mobile chip made on the 10nm manufacturing process, which in simple terms means that it delivers more power at a lower power consumption cost.
In real-life terms, that resulted in a nearly 26% improvement in battery life on our test, the fastest growth in battery life that we have seen in a long while.
Next year, in 2018, we expect a slower growth in battery life numbers, but still growth. While today, we are not quite in two-day battery life territory for mainstream phones, next year, we will be getting closer to that. There will be a new Snapdragon 845 chip to drive that growth on Android, more power efficient displays and further software tweaks that manufacturers will make.

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