Battery life is one of the most important factors to consider when buying a phone. Worry less by buying the Galaxy S7 edge, which offers the best combination of battery life, performance, and speed.
Best overall
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
See at AT&T See at Sprint See at T-Mobile See at Verizon See at Amazon
Battery life is subjective, of course, but having a bigger battery cell certainly helps. That, coupled with efficient software, is the recipe for all-day battery, and sometimes longer.
The Galaxy S7 edge has 3,600mAh cell that rivals much larger phones. It's amazing how slim and light the phone is considering how much juice they were able to fit into the device. Samsung also employs some software optimizations to ensure the phone keeps chugging along all day, too, including a very smart Power saving mode, and a last-resort Ultra power saving mode, which many other companies have since copied.
Bottom line: The Galaxy S7 edge does everything you want it to — speed, beauty, and camera quality — but if you're looking for all-day battery life, it's especially worth considering.
One More thing: This highly-rated device is available at all four major carriers in the U.S., but if you'd rather live dangerously and contract-free, Samsung offers an unlocked model that also works overseas.
Why the Galaxy S7 edge is the best
A great phone that lasts all day, and does everything you need it to.
Battery life is a hard thing to accurately predict. Many companies say they have phones with the biggest batteries, or the most efficient chips. But after using the Galaxy S7 edge for the past six months, it's clear that Samsung found a winning combination of efficiency and performance.
It starts with a 3,600mAh battery cell, which alone is bigger than many of the competition in the same size and price range. But somewhere along the line, Samsung tightened up its software too; Marshmallow on the S7 edge is extremely smart about when to engage the phone's processor, shutting down components until they're absolutely needed.
Plus, Samsung makes its own screens, beautiful, low-power AMOLED displays, which lets it optimize power use for to those exact specifications. The result is a phone that bucks the trend of poor battery life on Android devices, and reinforces Samsung's position as market leader in the Android space.
Best for less
Moto Z Play
The Moto Z Play starts quickly and keeps going. It's actually quite amazing to witness. Thanks in part to the super-efficient Snapdragon 625 processor, which is built on a new 14nm process, the phone rarely gets hot, and with eight cores, works smarter, not harder.
With a 3,510mAh battery inside, along with software that feels as light as a feather, the Moto Z Play is the longest-lasting $400 phone we've used. It's also a pretty great smartphone, featuring a bright 5.5-inch display, a great 16MP camera, and support for Moto Mods.
Bottom-line: The Moto Z Play doesn't sacrifice much from its more expensive, much thinner Moto Z sibling. If you can deal with the added girth, and a slight hit to processing abilities, you get one of the best, longest-lasting Android phones around.
One more thing: Pair the Moto Z Play with Incipio's 2,220mAh OffGrid battery pack, and you have a whopping 5,730mAh combination that should last two full days, or longer!
Best for smaller hands
Honor 8
You wouldn't necessarily think of the Honor 8 as a phone with a long-lasting battery — it is quite a small device, after all — but Huawei, Honor's parent company, packed a 3,000mAh cell in there, along with a number of software optimizations to ensure it sips battery throughout the day.
Moreover, the Honor 8's Kirin 950 processor, built in-house by Huawei itself, finds the right balance between speed and efficiency. Couple that with the rest of the phone's excellent hardware — dual 12MP cameras, a bright, sharp 5.2-inch display, and plenty of storage — and you have a recipe for one of the best all-round Android phones on the market today.
Bottom-line: The Honor 8 is a great phone for anyone looking for at a smaller device without having to sacrifice battery life.
One more thing: You can buy the Honor 8 unlocked from a number of places, but Honor's website offers three months of screen protection warranty.
Conclusion
Most phones claim to have "all-day battery life," but few actually make it to bedtime. The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge actually backs up its claims, and does so while excelling in almost every other area.
Best overall
Samsung Galaxy S7 edge
See at AT&T See at Sprint See at T-Mobile See at Verizon See at Amazon
Battery life is subjective, of course, but having a bigger battery cell certainly helps. That, coupled with efficient software, is the recipe for all-day battery, and sometimes longer.
The Galaxy S7 edge has 3,600mAh cell that rivals much larger phones. It's amazing how slim and light the phone is considering how much juice they were able to fit into the device. Samsung also employs some software optimizations to ensure the phone keeps chugging along all day, too, including a very smart Power saving mode, and a last-resort Ultra power saving mode, which many other companies have since copied.
Bottom line: The Galaxy S7 edge does everything you want it to — speed, beauty, and camera quality — but if you're looking for all-day battery life, it's especially worth considering.
One More thing: This highly-rated device is available at all four major carriers in the U.S., but if you'd rather live dangerously and contract-free, Samsung offers an unlocked model that also works overseas.
