Best phone battery life in 2020: The longest lasting smartphones
Pick a device with the best phone battery life, and you’ll never need to worry about having to find a place to recharge your handset ever again.
Battery life remains a major consideration when you’re buying a phones, even as the sizes of those power packs continue to grow. Recent flagships from Samsung and LG feature massive 5,000 mAh batteries, offering the promise of phones that can go all day on a single charge. But which devices can really boast that they provide the best battery life on a single charge?
In our battery test, we have phones continuously surf the web over LTE or 5G until they run out of juice. The average phone lasts around 10 hours, but the phones we’ve highlighted here held out for at least 11 hours. The kind of endurance where you’re less reliant on one of our best portable charger picks.
The Moto G Power is our reigning battery champ, toppling its predecessor, the Moto G7 Power. Those G Power breaks the 16-hour mark on our battery test, thanks to its 5,000 mAh battery. The G7 Power, which has a 5,000 mAh power pack of its own, is no slouch at 15.5 hours. (In fact, Motorola phones tend to do very well on our test, as they make up six of the top 15 devices, and the Motorola Edge Plus just missed out on making the best phone battery life list.)
Here are all the top performers we’ve tested in the last year-and-a-half.
Best phone battery life at a glance (hours:minutes)
- Moto G Power: 16:10
- Moto G7 Power: 15:35
- Asus ZenFone 6: 15:01
- LG V60 ThinQ 5G: 12:46
- Moto G Fast: 12:17
- Moto G Stylus: 12:13
- Motorola Edge: 12:12
- Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra: 11:58
- iPhone 11 Pro Max: 11:54
- OnePlus Nord N10 5G: 11:48
- LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen: 11:46
- Moto Z4: 11:31
- iPhone 11: 11:16
- TCL 10 5G UW: 11:07
- OnePlus 8 Pro: 11:05
The best phone battery life in 2020
1. Moto G Power (16:10)
There’s a new handset with the best phone battery life, and it’s the Moto G Power, which takes the crown from the very phone it replaces. Like last year’s Moto G7 Power, this new version of Motorola’s budget phone features a 5,000 mAh battery. And the Moto G Power makes the most of it, lasting more than 16 hours on our battery test. That’s a half-hour better than the Moto G7 Power did.
Don’t expect fast charging from this phone. After 30 minutes of charging a depleted battery, the Moto G Power’s battery indicator only showed a reading of 21%. Then again, 5,000 mAh is a mighty big power pack to fill, and it’s not like you’re going to need to charge this phone frequently.
The Moto G Power retains one other attractive feature from the G7 Power — its $249 price. That’s a bargain when you get a phone that can last all day in return.
Read our full Moto G Power review.
2. Moto G7 Power (15:35)
After a year in the top spot as the device with the best phone battery life, the Moto G7 Power slips down to second place. Still, that’s a pretty lofty position, considering it’s one of three phones that we’ve tested in the past two years to feature more than 15 hours of battery life — and two of them come from Motorola.
Considering that the Moto G Power features newer specs and multiple cameras, it’s hard to get as excited about last year’s Moto G7 Power, unless you can find that older phone at a significant discount from its original $249 price. T-Mobile has marked the phone down to $200 as of this writing, and you can get the G7 Power for less than $200 at Verizon-owned Visible.
Read our full Moto G7 Power review.
3. Asus ZenFone 6 (15:01)
The camera on last year’s Asus ZenFone 6 grabs all the attention — it swivels around so that the same lenses pull off double-duty as both the front and rear cameras — but to us, this phone’s endurance is the real story.
The ZenFone made our best phone battery life list by lasting more than 15 hours on our battery test — not a surprise given the beefy 5,000 mAh power pack inside the ZenFone 6. Throw in fast charging and an efficient Snapdragon 855 processor, and that’s a lot of power for a phone that starts at less than $500.
Read our full Asus ZenFone 6 review.
4. LG V60 ThinQ 5G (12:46)
It’s time to put LG’s reputation for producing phones with less-than-stellar battery life to rest. The LG V60 ThinQ 5G continues LG’s recent spate of long-lasting phones, even with this handset boasting power-hungry 5G compatibility.
LG went big with the battery, putting a 5,000 mAh power pack inside the V60. That helped the phone last nearly 13 hours on our battery test, making it the longest-lasting flagship phone since last year’s Huawei P30 Pro.
There’s a big drop-off in battery life if you keep the V60’s second screen attachment plugged into the phone, though that’s probably not something a lot of people are going to do. Even then, getting 7 hours, 34 minutes of battery life when you’re powering a pair of 6.8-inch screens is a pretty impressive feat. We only wish the LG V60 ThinQ 5G’s charging capabilities were as impressive, with LG’s phone reaching a 51% charge after 30 minutes.
Read our full LG V60 ThinQ 5G review.
5. Moto G Fast (12:17)
It’s no Moto G Power, but what is these days? Instead, the Moto G Fast rides its 4,000 mAh battery to a 12 hour and 17 minute result on our test — nearly four hours behind its Moto G sibling but still among the Top Ten for best phone battery life of the devices we’ve tested in the last 18 months. That’s terrific for a phone that’s available for less than $200
Don’t expect fast charge times from this budget phone. After 30 minutes, the stock charger that came with the Moto G Fast only got the drained phone up to 26%, according to its battery indicator.
Read our full Moto G Fast review.
6. Moto G Stylus (12:13)
Speaking of Moto’s G lineup, the Moto G Stylus may trade in the bigger batteries on the Moto G Power and Moto G Fast in favor of a productivity-boosting stylus, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t capable of lasting a long time on a charge. Equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery, the Moto G Stylus lasted 12 hours and 13 minutes on our test — impressive, even if it’s not Moto G Power-level endurance.
While the G Stylus will go a long time between charges, don’t expect that 4,000 mAh battery to refill quickly. After 15 minutes of charging a completely drained phone, the Moto G Stylus’ battery indicator was back up to 15% and just shy of 30% after half-an-hour. Still, it’s nice to know that for $300, you can have a phone that will last you throughout the day and come with a pretty clever stylus for jotting down notes as part of the bargain.
Read our full Moto G Stylus review.
7. Motorola Edge (12:12)
Motorola’s less midrange 5G phone delivers better battery life than its more expensive counterpart. The Motorola Edge rode its 4,500 mAh battery to an average time of 12 hours and 12 minutes on our test, beating out the Motorola Edge Plus by an hour and 17 minutes. That, plus the $300 price difference between the two phones, makes the Motorola Edge a compelling option.
Note that we recorded that time when the phone’s display was set to a 60Hz refresh rate. Enabling a 90Hz refresh rate on the Motorola Edge reduced its battery life to 11 hours, 35 minutes, which still would have been good enough to land the phone on this best phone battery life list. (We also tested the phone on Verizon’s network, as it had the stronger signal where our reviewer was located. Results may vary on T-Mobile’s network, but not enough to remove the Motorola Edge from this list.)
We wish the Motorola Edge charged faster, as the drained phone only got back up to 36% after a half-hour of using the included 18W charger. Still, if you want a 5G phone with a fast refreshing screen that doesn’t run out of juice as quickly as similar devices, the Motorola Edge is a good option at $699.
See our full Motorola Edge review.
8. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (11:58)
As with many phones that feature a fast refresh rate for their displays, it was a tale of two battery test results when we put the Galaxy S20 Ultra and its 5,000 mAh battery to test. Running our test on Samsung’s flagship phone with the display set to the default 60Hz refresh rate, the phone turned in an average time of 11 hours, 58 minutes — a better result than Apple’s iPhones.
But one of the marquee features on the Galaxy S20 lineup is the screen’s faster 120Hz refresh rate, which allows for smoother scrolling. When we turned on that feature and re-ran our test, the S20 Ultra’s result dropped by 3 hours.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra charges up quickly, thanks to the 25-watt charger that comes with the phone. After 30 minutes of charging, we got the battery back up to 63%.
Read our full Galaxy S20 Ultra review.
9. iPhone 11 Pro Max (11:54)
If you want the best phone battery life from an iPhone, get the iPhone 11 Pro Max — at least where 2019’s top iPhone is still available. It benefits from a larger battery its predecessor as well as the more efficient A13 Bionic processor.
Even better, iPhone 11 Pro Max users can finally take advantage of the iPhone’s fast-charging support from the moment they open the phone’s box. The iPhone 11 Pro Max ships with an 18-watt charger, which allowed us to get a drained phone up to 48% battery life after just 30 minutes of charging.
Read our full iPhone 11 Pro Max review.
10. OnePlus Nord N10 5G (11:48)
The OnePlus Nord N10 5G is another phone that doesn’t let the demands of 5G impact its battery life. But unlike the other 5G phones on this list of long-lasting devices, the OnePlus Nord N10 5G doesn’t cost very much, selling for £329. (A US price is coming later when the phone ships in this part of the world.) That makes the latest device from OnePlus one of the most affordable 5G devices to hold out for more than 11 hours on our battery test.
Specifically, the OnePlus Nord N10 5G only ran out of battery at the 11 hour and 48 minute mark, an impressive result for any phone. That we got this result with the display’s faster 90Hz refresh rate enabled on the Nord N10 display suggests that OnePlus does a great job getting the most out of the phone’s 4,3000 mAh battery. Charging’s quick, too, thanks to support for the OnePlus Warp Charge 30T technology that gets the phone back to 68% after 30 minutes.
Read our full OnePlus Nord N10 5G review.
11. LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen (11:46)
Before the LG V60 ThinQ 5G flirted with the 13-hour mark on our test, the LG G8X ThinQ came along to show that LG was serious about making its phones last longer on a charge. This 6.4-inch smartphone lasted just shy of 12 hours on our test, and its $699 price makes it one of the more affordable flagship phones you can buy.
One caveat about that 11 hour, 49 minute result, though: it came using just one of the G8X’s screens, and not with the second 6.4-inch removable displayed attached to the phone. Running the test with both of the phone’s screens enabled, we got a far more pedestrian 4 hours and 56 minutes. (Not surprising, since the G8X’s second screen has no battery of its own.) Having two screens is a nice productivity booster, but use it too much and it can drain your phone’s battery.
Read our full LG G8X ThinQ Dual Screen review.
12. Moto Z4 (11:31)
Motorola’s tradition of delivering superior battery life continues with its latest flagship phone. The Moto Z4 features a 3,600 mAh battery, an increase from the 3,000 mAh power pack in 2018’s Z3, and that helped the new model last just past 11.5 hours on our battery test.
You’ll also get 15-watt charging on the Moto Z4, which isn’t as fast as the 18W charging some phones offer, but still should help you charge up the Z4 fairly quickly.
Read our full Moto Z4 review.
13. iPhone 11 (11:16)
The iPhone 11 may be the least expensive of the iPhone models Apple introduced last fall, but it doesn’t skimp on battery life. This $699 phone lasted more than 11 hours on our battery test, even if its time wasn’t as good as the iPhone XR (which remains available with a lower price if you want a phone that comes closer to 11.5 hours).
The iPhone 11 supports fast-charging, but unlike the iPhone 11 Pro Max, you’ll need to spring for an 18-watt charger, as that accessory isn’t included with this model.
Read our full iPhone 11 review.
14. TCL 10 5G UW (11:07)
Don’t let the low price tag of the TCL 10 5G UW fool you into thinking you’ll have to compromise on battery life. This sub-$400 5G phone produced an average time of more than 11 hours on our battery test, giving the OnePlus Nord N10 5G a run for its (limited amount of) money. Don’t expect TCL’s phone to charge up as quickly, though, as we only a 40% charge after 30 minutes. Still, that’s a small price to pay for such a long-lasting device.
Read our full TCL 10 5G UW review.
15. OnePlus 8 Pro (11:05)
This $899 flagship phone from OnePlus lands on our list by holding out past the 11-hour mark on our battery test, with testing performed over a 5G connection. Note that those results occurred when the OnePlus 8 Pro’s 6.78-inch display had its fast refresh rate turned off. When we retested with the 120Hz refresh rate enabled, the OnePlus 8 Pro recorded a much less impressive 9 hours and 2 minutes — a 2-hour hit on battery life.
The story with OnePlus phones doesn’t end with the battery, though. Because OnePlus supports fast-charging, you can top off the battery very quickly. Thanks to an included wired charger, you can get a drained OnePlus 8 Pro to 63% of its battery capacity after 30 minutes. Spring for the $65 Warp Charge 30 Wireless charger and you can quickly charge your phone without any wires, as the OnePlus 8 Pro reached 55% capacity in half-an-hour.
Read our full OnePlus 8 Pro review.
