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

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 15, #980

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 15 #980.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is kind of tough. I just lucked into solving the purple category. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Look it up.

Green group hint: Nostalgia time.

Blue group hint: Psychology 101.

Purple group hint: Call me up.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Reference books.

Green group: Something that brings back memories.

Blue group: Kinds of complexes.

Purple group: Starting with ways to reach someone via phone.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is reference books. The four answers are atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia and thesaurus.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is something that brings back memories. The four answers are echo, reminder, trace and vestige.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is kinds of complexes. The four answers are Electra, inferiority, Oedipus and superiority.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starting with ways to reach someone via phone. The four answers are buzzard (buzz), calliope (call), dialect (dial) and ringmaster (ring).

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 15, #510

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 15, No. 510.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition pays homage to the Winter Olympics. The purple category is tough, as always — and today it expects you to hunt out hidden words inside longer words. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Lillehammer is another one.

Green group hint: Great White North.

Blue group hint: Think Chloe Kim.

Purple group hint: Look for a hidden word.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Previous Winter Olympic hosts.

Green group: Canada men’s hockey players.

Blue group: Snowboarding terms.

Purple group: Ends in a piece of winter sports equipment.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is previous Winter Olympic hosts. The four answers are Albertville, Chamonix, Oslo and St. Moritz.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Canada men’s hockey players. The four answers are Celebrini, Crosby, Marner and McDavid.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is snowboarding terms. The four answers are cork, frontside, goofy and McTwist.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a piece of winter sports equipment. The four answers are cheapskate, chopstick, Lipinski and milestone.

Technologies

The Google Pixel 10 Pro Might Have the Best Phone Display for Gaming

While lagging behind in other areas, Google’s flagship is a standout in showing gameplay.

Google launched its latest Pixel 10 series, including the standard model and the more powerful Pixel 10 Pro, back in September, offering iterative hardware upgrades and new AI features. But for those of us who love to burn through our battery life playing games on premium phones, there’s another concern: How is gaming on the Pixel 10 Pro?

As a flagship phone with the most powerful specs Google has ever put into a (nonfolding) phone, the Pixel 10 Pro exceeds the baseline expectations for a $999 phone. (As I write this, you can buy a Pixel 10 Pro for $799 — $200 off.) It has a sharp OLED display and high-performance specs, so it has little trouble playing the latest games.

But some of Google’s hardware choices make the Pixel 10 Pro limited in ways that the OnePlus 15 and iPhone 17 Pro are not — namely, in storage and charging. Google’s phone also has a lot to live up to with its gaming capabilities, as previous Pixel phones haven’t been known for their processing power and graphics rendering, regularly scoring lower on performance benchmarks than Apple’s and OnePlus’ flagship phones, which pack some of the most powerful processors available today. Ultimately, the Pixel 10 Pro isn’t quite the absolute best pick for gaming among the best phones you can buy today.

Yet there are a few ways the phone shines as bright as — if not literally brighter — than the best Android phones and iPhones. Its gaming aptitude adds value to an already powerful phone with standout photo and AI capabilities.

How it feels to play games on the Pixel 10 Pro

On a basic level, the Pixel 10 Pro is great for firing up games and playing to your heart’s content. Its design is easy to hold, with flat metallic sides and curved corners that fit my fingers nicely when I rotate the phone horizontally to play most games. When I want more analog control with buttons and triggers, the handset slides in securely to my Backbone One external controller.

Games on the Pixel 10 Pro are a sight to behold. Its 6.3-inch OLED display shows sharp details with its 2,856×1,280-pixel resolution, and colors are vivid with its HDR10 Plus support. Action is smooth with the screen’s 120Hz refresh rate, whether in slower platformers or fast-moving first-person shooters like Call of Duty: Mobile.

Best of all, its 3,300-nit maximum brightness makes the screen easily seen in full daylight and nearly lights up a room in full darkness. This makes hues really pop in vibrant games like Dead Cells — it’s a true leg up over other smartphones with screens that don’t get as bright. The latest premium phones have gotten similarly bright (the iPhone 17 Pro Max tops out at 3,000 nits), but even phones a year or two older are substantially dimmer, with my personal iPhone 15 Pro Max reaching up to 2,000 nits brightness.

The Pixel 10 Pro’s Tensor G5 chip may not have topped our charts in benchmark tests, falling more in line with performance from 2024’s flagships, but it’s plenty powerful enough to run the games I tested on it. The phone’s 16GB of RAM contributes to that smoothness: I cranked Genshin Impact up to its maximum graphics settings, and despite a warning that my phone might overheat (I didn’t notice it get that much warmer), it handled 60 frames per second gameplay just fine.

The phone’s other capabilities were fine for gaming, including serviceable speakers and a respectable battery life. The latter surprised me, as older Pixel phones seemed less efficient and drained faster than competing premium handsets — and indeed, the Pixel 10 Pro ranks below the top 10 phones with the best battery life released last year, according to our lengthy battery tests of 2025 phones. While playing games, the battery didn’t drain particularly quickly, losing around 2% for each 4-5 minute match in Call of Duty: Mobile.

The Pixel 10 Pro’s gaming challenges, and where it sits for us

The Pixel 10 Pro’s biggest gaming flaw is its storage. It’s pretty shocking to see it start at $1,000 yet only pack 128GB, while most other premium phones have bumped their starting storage up to 256GB for the exact same starting price.

When some mobile games can be 50GB or more, this is a paltry amount, which shrinks quickly for people who take a lot of photos and videos at high resolutions. As I was loading up games on my Pixel 10 Pro, I was shocked that I had run out of space to download graphical extras in Call of Duty: Mobile and had to go delete some videos I’d taken.

A lesser issue lies in keeping the phone charged up. The Pixel 10 Pro’s battery gets decent but not spectacular life, with a 4,870-mAh capacity that’s surpassed by many of its premium rivals, especially the 7,300-mAh OnePlus 15.

But topping off Google’s flagship phone takes time, as it has a maximum 30-watt wired charging speed or 15-watt wireless charging. That likely means it’ll take over an hour to get it back to full from 0%, which takes a lot longer than some of the faster-charging phones out there, like the OnePlus 15, which went from 1% to 73% in half an hour thanks to its 80-watt wired charge rate. Compare that to the Pixel 10 Pro, which added 44% in the same amount of time.

Read more: The OnePlus 15 Is One of the Best Mainstream Phones for Gamers

Unlike some other premium phones, the Pixel 10 Pro does have its own MagSafe-like magnets aligned in a circle on its rear cover, called Pixelsnap, which is convenient for wireless charging, even if it’s slow. Google phone fans can get faster charging with the Pixel 10 Pro XL, which supports 45-watt wired and 25-watt wireless charging, though they’ll have to pay more for the bigger phone.

Neither of these issues are huge setbacks that impede the Pixel 10 Pro’s gaming capability — there’s just nothing in its features that make it stand out above other premium phones, aside from its bright and vivid display. That’s not surprising, as Google’s phone excels in nongaming aspects, including AI photo features like Auto Best Take and Camera Coach.

If you’re a Pixel fan who also plays games, you’ll enjoy firing them up on the Pixel 10 Pro, which is a good all-around device. For those who want a phone with features that are specifically better for gaming, there are other handsets that’ll satisfy, like the OnePlus 15.