Top 5 phones with the best battery life

Ever since we traded phones with buttons for tiny touchscreen computers 10 years ago, we've complained about smartphone battery life. 

We've gained great cameras, apps and mobile games that look better than some console titles - but we've also inherited the need to charge our phones every day. And we're still not happy about it.

TechRadar reviews just about every major phone that makes it to shelves in the Middle East. We know about the phones that will keep partying 'til 3am, and those that might pass out before you finish work if you dare to listen to a podcast or do some gaming on your lunch break.

You might wonder how some of these phones are doing well with smaller batteries - that's because it's not about the size of the power pack, but how well optimised it is. Here are the top phones of the moment we've tested for battery life.

As well as being a fantastic phone all-round, the Mate 10 Pro has the best battery result we've seen from any flagship of the last year. It lost just 9% of its battery from a 90-minute video played at full screen brightness.

It's the only top-tier phone from the big names that we've found to realistically last two days. You still won't get that sort of stamina if you're a heavy user, but perhaps Elon Musk can tackle that one once he's reinvented public transport.

The phone has a 4000mAh battery, so it's no surprise the Mate 10 Pro lasts as long as it does.

Read our in-depth Huawei Mate 10 Pro review

The BlackBerry Motion is a fairly conventional Android phone with a chunky 4000mAh battery that loses just 10% of its charge after a playing 90 minute video. This is the kind of phone you can hammer and still be sure it'll have some charge left at bed time.

Going from a phone with average battery life to this is a revelation.

Other neat elements of the Motion include a customization function button on the side and a design inspired by classic BlackBerry phones. However, we aren't in love with absolutely every element of the phone, with uninspiring core hardware (aside from the battery) and a so-so camera the main complaints.

However, if a phone on which you can rely is the main concern, jump right in.

Read our in-depth BlackBerry Motion review

The phone that costs this much had better be special in every respect. And, thankfully, it is.

Its battery is far better than the iPhone 8 Plus's, as well as many Android phones, according to our battery test. It lost just 11% charge after playing a 90 minute video with the screen brightness maxed. 

And that's with just 2716mAh to its name, capacity lower than that of all flagship Androids. Part of this comes down to Apple's famous software efficiency. However, Samsung also deserves some of the credit here too. 

It makes the Super AMOLED display panel of the iPhone X, and it's very easy on the juice. Of course, if you must make animoji videos all day long, your iPhone isn't going to last forever between charges.

Read our in-depth iPhone X review

You might expect the top-end Galaxy Note 8 to last longer than the Samsung Galaxy S8. But it doesn't.

This more conventional phone actually has a great battery with a slightly smaller screen. It's a 3,000mAh unit, slightly smaller than that of our old favorite the Galaxy S7 Edge. You can expect it to last a solid day without thinking too much about when your phone will switch off.

It lost 11% in our 90 minute video benchmark test. Battery recharging from flat also takes just 1 hour 11 minutes, using Samsung's Adaptive Fast Charger.

Read our in-depth Samsung Galaxy S8 review

The LG V30+ can be thought of as a half-year update to the LG G6.  It has a newer processor and a slightly larger screen, but because this  is a V-series phone rather than a G-series one, LG didn’t need to try  to blow the doors off the phone's design with this model.

That  said, it is pretty costly for an LG phone these days, so you'll need to  want to all the power hidden inside if you choose this model.

Its  fairly conventional sounding 3,300mAh battery does very well in our  video run-down battery test. This is something we do with all our review  phones, making them play a 90-minute video at maximum screen brightness  to see how much the battery level drops.

The LG V30+ loses 13%, where some phones with mediocre stamina might lose more than 25%, making this a solid all-day mobile.

Read our in-depth LG V30+

posted by Campus94