Technologies

We Tested 35 Phones and Found the Surprising Winner of Best Battery Life

We subjected phones to extensive testing and found the two leaders.

Key takeaways:

Apple and OnePlus are the best phone brands for the longest battery life in our tests.
Models from Apple, OnePlus and Motorola made our top five phones for long battery life.
2025 phones have longer battery life on average than 2024 models, but only barely.
Nearly half of our top battery-life picks use silicon-carbon batteries.

Does your smartphone make it through the day on a single charge? That’s the rough benchmark for phones sold in 2026, but in reality some people burn through their battery far quicker scrolling through social media and capturing photos and video. As features like cameras get yearly advancements, batteries have largely stayed static. But that is starting to change.

I’ve been reviewing and testing phones for CNET for nearly a decade and heard from many readers that long battery life is a priority. In a CNET/YouGov survey from September 2025, readers ranked «longer battery life» as the main reason to buy a new phone (second only to price).

For better or worse, we are tied to our devices more than ever before and you can’t do much with your phone if the battery is dead. So it’s important to know which phones have the longest battery life before you buy your next handset.

2026 is a turning point for batteries

In the past year, we’ve seen more phone makers adopt a new type of battery with a silicon anode, often called a silicon-carbon battery. This new power source can increase capacity without requiring a larger physical battery. Space is already limited in phones, especially as designs get thinner, so finding a way to increase the capacity without making the battery larger is an incredible advancement.

All of this leads to the question: Do phones sold today have better battery life than previous models? And if so, which phones and brands last the longest on a single charge? We did some testing to find out.

What phone has the best battery life?

Multiple factors, like your carrier’s signal strength and your screen’s brightness, can affect your battery life. How you use your phone throughout the day also has a huge impact. The battery’s capacity and the efficiency of the software and processor also significantly influence battery life. To standardize our testing and minimize variables as much as possible, we run each phone through an anecdotal stress test and a video streaming test, starting with the battery at 100%. The results from each test show the remaining battery percentage. We averaged the two results to determine an overall score and limited our rankings to phones officially sold in the US.

In 2025, CNET tested the battery life of 35 phones, and our overall top performer is the iPhone 17 Pro Max. At a starting price of $1,199, it was the most expensive phone in our top five. Its 5,088-mAh battery capacity wasn’t the largest, but it shows just how efficient Apple’s A19 Pro chip and iOS 26 are.

Among our top five rankings, several were tied. The iPhone 17 and OnePlus 15, which start at $829 and $900, respectively, both finished in second place. The iPhone 17 has the smallest-capacity battery of any of the top phones, proving that battery size doesn’t matter. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 15 has one of the largest on the list.

Notably, OnePlus had three phones in our top rankings, all of which have a silicon-carbon battery for that larger capacity. The only other silicon-carbon battery phone in our top rankings was the Poco F7 Ultra, which you can buy in the US for as low as $649.

The smaller iPhone 17 Pro, which starts at $1,099, landed in fourth place. Rounding out the top five were four phones tied for fifth place: the $400 Motorola Moto G Stylus (2025), the $500 Motorola Edge (2025), the $600 OnePlus 13R and the $700 OnePlus 15R.

In total, only two phones of the nine ranked in our top five cost more than $1,000. The most affordable phone on the list is the Moto G Stylus, which combines a large battery with a less power-hungry screen and processor, resulting in incredible battery life.

Which brand makes phones with the longest battery life?

We averaged the scores from both tests for each phone model, and for any company where we had tested three or more models, we averaged those scores to assign each brand an average. Our lab data showed that Apple and OnePlus were the top brands for long battery life.

Apple’s iPhones and OnePlus handsets dominated our top five for phones, so it’s not that surprising that they rank high in overall battery life for a brand. Oppo was not included despite having two phones that did well in our testing. (OnePlus is a subsidiary of Oppo.) The Oppo Find X9 Pro and Oppo Find N5 foldable scored well, but because we hadn’t reviewed any other Oppo models, we couldn’t include them in the overall brand rankings. Also, neither phone is sold in the US but if you’re abroad it’s still worth getting either phone for the outstanding battery life.

In third and fourth place were Motorola and Samsung. We tested seven Motorola phones and nine Samsung handsets, and the results were tight. Motorola barely surpassed Samsung. I’m excited to keep an eye on these two brands in 2026 and see how their collective battery life compares.

Rounding out our top five brands is Google. We tested five Google phones in 2025, and they get decent battery life, especially the Pixel 10, but there’s a big step up from that to the battery life we got from OnePlus phones. What’s curious is that Google is the only other phone-maker besides Apple to control software and processor design through its combination of Android and Tensor chips, respectively.

Battery testing results

CNET runs two battery-life benchmarks (video streaming and stress tests) that let us compare phones. In our 3-hour video battery test, where we streamed a video over Wi-Fi with the screen at full brightness and the battery starting at 100%, the iPhone 17 Pro Max was the top performer. Most other phones that performed fantastic in this test were in our overall top five for battery life. A nice surprise is Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Plus, which starts at $999. It did well, tying with the Motorola Edge (2025) for fifth place. Sadly, the S25 Plus didn’t do as well in our second test.

In CNET’s 45-minute endurance test, during which we play games, stream videos, scroll social media and take a video call with the battery starting at 100%, the iPhone 17 Pro Max was again at the very top and joined behind by three other Apple models, including the iPhone 16E, which starts at $599.

We had a lot of ties for the top five results, including a few phones we haven’t seen rank yet. Google’s Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold did great in this test, as did the Motorola Razr (2025) — that’s two foldables in the top five results.

CNET’s buying advice

Because we’ve been using these tests for years, we can also compare a new phone against older models. We were able to see how 2025 phones performed compared with 2024 handsets. We averaged all 35 phones that we tested in 2025 and did the same for 2024. And while 2025 models did have more battery life, it was by less than 1%, averaging 0.78%. Most people don’t buy a new phone every year, but if you’re trying to choose between last year’s version of a phone you like and this year’s model, you likely won’t see a drastic difference in battery life — just go for the cheaper, slightly older phone.

If you like your current phone (iPhone or Android) and the only issue is that the battery life isn’t what it used to be, consider replacing the battery instead of buying a new phone. You’ll save a lot of money and extend your phone’s life by another couple of years.

Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal

Technologies

Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after glitch allowed some vehicles to ‘drive into standing water’

Waymo issued a voluntary recall of about 3,800 of its robotaxis to fix software issues that could allow them to drive into flooded roadways.

Waymo is recalling about 3,800 robotaxis in the U.S. to fix software issues that could allow them to “drive onto a flooded roadway,” according to a letter on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.
The voluntary recall is for Waymo vehicles that use the company’s fifth and sixth generation automated driving systems (or ADS), the U.S. auto safety regulator said in the letter posted Tuesday.
Waymo autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas, were seen on camera driving onto a flooded street and stalling, requiring other drivers to navigate around them. It’s the latest example of a safety-related issue for the Alphabet-owned AV unit that’s rapidly bolstering its fleet of vehicles and entering new U.S. markets.
Waymo has drawn criticism for its vehicles failing to yield to school buses in Austin, and for the performance of its vehicles during widespread power outages in San Francisco in December, when robotaxis halted in traffic, causing gridlock.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday that it’s “identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways,” and opted to file a “voluntary software recall” with the NHTSA.
“Waymo provides over half a million trips every week in some of the most challenging driving environments across the U.S., and safety is our primary priority,” the company said.
Waymo added that it’s working on “additional software safeguards” and has put “mitigations” in place, limiting where its robotaxis operate during extreme weather, so that they avoid “areas where flash flooding might occur” in periods of intense rain.
WATCH: Waymo launches new autonomous system in Chinese-made vehicle

Technologies

Qualcomm tumbles 13% as semiconductor stocks retreat from historic AI-fueled surge

Semiconductor equities reversed sharply after a broad AI-driven advance, with Qualcomm suffering its worst day since 2020 amid inflation concerns and rising oil prices.

Semiconductor stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, reversing course after an extensive rally that had expanded the artificial intelligence investment theme well past Nvidia and driven the industry to unprecedented levels.

Qualcomm plunged 13% and was on track for its steepest single-day decline since 2020. Intel shed 8%, while On Semiconductor and Skyworks Solutions each lost more than 6%. The iShares Semiconductor ETF, which benchmarks the overall sector, fell 5%.

The sell-off came after a key gauge of consumer prices came in above forecasts, and as conflict in Iran pushed crude oil higher—prompting investors to shift away from riskier assets.

The preceding advance had widened the AI opportunity set beyond longtime industry leader Nvidia, which for much of the past several years had largely carried the market to new peaks on its own.

Explosive appetite for central processing units, along with the graphics processing units that power large language models, has sent chipmakers to all-time highs.

Market participants are wagering that the shift from AI model training to autonomous agents will lift demand for additional AI hardware. Among the beneficiaries are memory chip producers, which are raising prices as supply remains tight.

Micron Technology slid 6%, and Sandisk cratered 8%. Sandisk’s stock has surged more than six times over since January.