Smartphone with best battery life

[It's Not Lupus]

What smartphone has the best battery life with a normal size battery capacity in your experience?

 

[Kelvinz]

iPhone 5S, Galaxy S4 and LG G2.

The winner is LG G2, but all three are close.

 

[5150Joker]

Nokia 1520 has one of the best if not best battery life around.

 

[kpkp]

I do not know how you define normal, but if you mean it as average, then I guess Moto G is one of the top candidates.

 

[Oyeve]

My note 3 outlasts my iphone 5.

 

[podspi]

Which carrier?

 

[paperwastage]

S4 (and several other phones with removable batteries) have extended battery versions (9000mAh), would last you a few days with heavy usage

Of course, it doubles the size of the phone

I would go for the lg g2, or the droid maxx if you are on Verizon (think g2 is better. You could buy the Korean version with smaller removable battery, then replace the battery if you need to)

 

[yh125d]

From what I've seen (I don't know anyone with the G2) nothing beats my Droid Maxx with their stock batteries. I can easily get 3 full days without limiting my usage, and can get about 5 days with less than my normal usage

 

[zerogear]

Note 3 and LG G2

 

[Concillian]

G2 is pretty good. I have it, but you have to watch what's running. My wife and daughter like to play Bejeweled Blitz and that thing kills the battery if it's in the background. Normally I'd lose maybe 5% battery overnight, but if this was in the background, it'd go from full to zero in about 8 hours listing mediaserver as the culprit. "Dots" seems to do similar damage, but not as bad.

Once I learned to kill these from Task Manager, battery life is exceptional.

I don't know if it compares to the Maxx or something like that, but it's better than my wife's iP4s.

 

[Radeon962]

Note 3

 

[s44]

Note 3, but I'm not sure it's "normal" anything.

 

[T2urtle]

My s4 and my gf's nexus 5 has been the best ones to date we owned.

Good couple hours over and iphone5. And we have wireless charging.

 

[Kelvinz]

Guys the OP asked in terms of phones with "normal sized batteries".

This eliminates the Galaxy Note 3 out of the question. Hence why the LG G2 is the best closely followed by the iPhone 5S/Galaxy S4.

We all know that the Galaxy Note 3 has the best battery life.

 

[AHamick]

My droid maxx outlasts m wife's note 3 every day and I use my phone more often

 

[corkyg]

Moto Droid Maxx.

 

[ncroadster]

I'm getting great battery life with my Xperia Z1. Better than my previous GS4.

 

[openwheel]

Droid Maxx and Note 3

 

[Yuriman]

I'm going to vote Droid Maxx, with Note 3 and G2 as contenders.

I'm pretty happy with my Moto X though. On Thursday I got 8.5 hours of screen on time, and I keep an external battery pack in my car in case I need to top off (ie away from a charger for several days).

 

[dguy6789]

Droid Maxx definitely has the best battery life of any smartphone on the market unless you go for one of those insanely huge 4000+ extended batteries. Droid Maxx and Droid Razr Maxx HD both have better battery life than every other phone mentioned in this thread.

 

[Kelvinz]

But the Droid Maxx is older than the current-gen phones so it doesn't count.

 

[lopri]

Any phone with the S800 has a leg up on the rest by default. (esp. if LTE is in the equation)

 

[yh125d]

But the Droid Maxx is older than the current-gen phones so it doesn't count.

True that it isn't top-level hardware, but unless you need to be on the razor edge it's not a problem. Not saying power users don't get anything extra out of faster phones, but we're getting to the point where even middle tier hardware would be indistinguishable from the best of the best to a good 75% of users.

I haven't used a Note 3 but compared to a GS4 you have to be paying close attention to find a performance difference. However the battery life is clear. There's something very comforting about spending 10 hours going through airports, listening to music and reading news, doing some sudoku and then navigating to your hotel and having 65% battery when you get there. Or going all weekend without charging and having some to spare



Maybe this is just an advertisement for the Maxx now, but I think it's the most underrated phone in quite awhile. I understand why the tech geeks don't love it (not top level hardware) but I would have thought the general public would have liked it more. They don't really notice the hardware difference, but everyone loves battery life. And the Maxx is the best in hand feeling of any phone I've held. Maybe it just hits my buttons for some reason. Also I love the actual capacitive buttons. The only thing I like less than on screen buttons is hardware buttons (iphone or galaxy).


I really hope Moto keeps the line alive (at least spiritually, I don't care about the droiz/razr, just the huge battery in a normal phone). I had the OG Razr a couple years ago, which was perfect except for battery life. The Maxx now is even better (for me).


If not, at least it's good to see a trend of big batteries in flagship phones of late

 

[npaladin-2000]

The best-lasting phone available on any carrier is the LG G2. LG's got some freaky battery magic going on, it'l significantly outlast a Galaxy S4. Easily, and handily. No contest. LG's Android builds just tend to be better optimized for power savings, maybe because they're using a Snapdragon build, whereas Samsung is using a phone and build originally designed for Exynos, and running it on a Snapdragon in the US.

On Verizon, the Droid RAZR MAXX will get better battery life than the G2, but with less powerful older-generation hardware and by using an insanely large battery. It's a trade-off, but depending on your needs it might be a good one. Assuming you have Verizon. If you don't, well, it's not available through anyone else at all, which is why most people kind of ignore it.

Galaxy Note 3, when used right, can have decent battery life, because it has a humongous battery. But it also has a humongous screen, which, when used, causes humongous power drain.

 

[dawheat]

The best-lasting phone available on any carrier is the LG G2. LG's got some freaky battery magic going on, it'l significantly outlast a Galaxy S4. Easily, and handily. No contest. LG's Android builds just tend to be better optimized for power savings, maybe because they're using a Snapdragon build, whereas Samsung is using a phone and build originally designed for Exynos, and running it on a Snapdragon in the US.

On Verizon, the Droid RAZR MAXX will get better battery life than the G2, but with less powerful older-generation hardware and by using an insanely large battery. It's a trade-off, but depending on your needs it might be a good one. Assuming you have Verizon. If you don't, well, it's not available through anyone else at all, which is why most people kind of ignore it.

Galaxy Note 3, when used right, can have decent battery life, because it has a humongous battery. But it also has a humongous screen, which, when used, causes humongous power drain.

Nothing magical about the G2 - it has a 3000mAh battery which is significantly larger than its direct competitors (S4, One) as well as having the improvements with the S800. The Note 3 actually has a 3200mAh battery while sporting a much larger screen.

The Note 3 doesn't get G2 level battery life, but still gets impressive on-screen time considering its screen. I've gotten 8 hours of on-screen time when only on wi-fi and 5 hours of on-screen time when mostly on horrible cellular connection.