Smartphone Battery Life: Who Has the Most Juice?
Battery life is one of the most important factors of a smartphone. A phone could be the most elegant device ever created, five times faster than anything on the market, and none of it would matter if you couldn’t rely on it to last throughout the day. It’s important to find a smartphone that offers a balance of performance and battery life, and even more important to find one that suits your style of use.
Smartphone usage typically falls into two categories: light/moderate and heavy. Light and moderate users will use their smartphone occasionally throughout the day, perhaps sending several text messages, making a few calls, and looking up a restaurant or getting directions; the phone generally sits in their pocket, coming out when necessary. Heavy users are almost always on their phone, playing games, constantly replying to E-mails, or perhaps watching YouTube clips; they’re actively using their phone several hours per day.
One smartphone may provide several days of light or moderate use but struggle to achieve a few hours of heavy usage; alternatively, another smartphone may last a full day even with heavy use but fail to last much longer under light use. You need a phone that caters appropriately to the way you intend to use it, and we have a list of a few of the longest lasting smartphones we could find.
The HTC Sensation is the current top dog. With the latest mobile processor technology, it’s not only one of the longest lasting phones on the market, but also one of the fastest. The Sensation is also very well balance for both moderate and heavy usage. Keep in mind that 4G takes a heavy toll on battery life and consider turning that feature off.
Light/Moderate Use: Up to 36 hours
Heavy Use: 12-14 hours
Apple’s iPhone 4 is considerably underpowered compared to current smartphones, but its iOS still provides a fast feeling experience. Because of its lower performance hardware, the iPhone 4 offers great battery life, best for heavy use, but still manageable for the light and moderate users.
Light/Moderate Use: Approximately 24 hours
Heavy Use: Up to 16 hours
The Nexus S runs hardware that is very similar to the iPhone 4, though slightly faster, but due to its power-saving AMOLED display and clean version of the Android operating system, it gets a very different result in terms of battery life. For moderate use, the Nexus S is excellent, but under heavy use, its faster hardware gobbles up more power than is ideal.
Light/Moderate Use: Up to 48 hours
Heavy Use: Approximately 12 hours
The Atrix 4G uses Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor, which is among the fastest mobile processors currently available. As a dual-core device, it can split heavy loads between the two cores, reducing power consumption. This results in admirable battery life under heavy usage, but because of its high-spec processor, it continues to draw a lot of power even while under moderate use.
Light/Moderate Use: Up to 24 hours
Heavy Use: Approximately 14 hours
BlackBerries get some of the best battery life among all of the smartphones; however, they lack much of the functionality and performance found in those listed above. The Bold 9780 is great for light to moderate use, but its small screen and low-power design don’t really allow for heavy use as we’ve defined it.
Light/Moderate Use: Up to 48+ hours
Heavy Use: N/A
