Phones with the biggest batteries

Is bigger actually better? Not always, and definitely not when it comes to the physical size of a phone’s battery. Sure, it’s true that, when comparing phones purely based on battery power, a phone with a larger battery (and therefore more power), will last longer than phones with a smaller battery. However, you then have to factor in other features, such as different processors and other internal hardware, which also affect the performance of a phone’s battery life.

Defining battery power

In theory, more mAh (milliampere-hours) does equal more power, but when put to the test, not all of the biggest batteries performed equally. Let’s start off with defining battery power, though. You know it’s measured in mAh, which indicates how much electric power can be used over time. A battery with more mAh translates into longer battery life. 

The average phone has a battery power of around 2,500mAh. When comparing today’s top phones, you’ll likely see the battery power listed as one of the first features. And, sure, it helps to see that a phone has a large battery, but you’ll want to compare its overall performance with other benchmarks first before making a purchase.

Battery power: Is more mAh really more?

To measure the correlation between battery power and mAh, Android Authority created their own speed test, the Speed Test G. While the test measures the performance of phones’ CPU speed, GPU speed, and overall performance, it also measures battery life performance. The results? Quite shocking (or not so shocking if you’ve been following along with what we’re saying). 

In the test, they recorded how long it took to drain the battery of each phone completely. The Google Pixel 3a XL lasted by far the longest at six hours, but only has a battery power of 3,700mAh. The much larger Asus ROG Phone II, however, which boasts a 6,000mAh battery, only lasted for just over four and a half hours.

So, what’s affecting battery power?

Really, it comes down to what you’re using the phone for and which processor is powering it. Low or even mid-range processors tend to consume far less power. So, if you test the same battery in two phones with different processors, the low-range processor will ultimately ensure that the battery lasts longer; it’s not constantly pulling tons of juice out to power tasks at a faster rate.

While this isn’t always the case, it certainly affects the battery life of phones with bigger batteries. Keep this in mind when comparing top smartphones if your biggest concern is battery life.