8 phones with astonishingly good battery life

Size matters. Or at least that is how it seems with the excess of massive mobile phones hitting the market in recent times. These devices have gigantic displays and power-hungry processors with most of their users frequently testing their limits. With the latest models feebly standing on the border of “mobile” phones, the question of battery life becomes quite significant. So let’s take a look at the phones with the best balance between high quality, performance, and most importantly excellent battery life.

LG Optimus G Pro

The LG Optimus G Pro has a great balance between retail price and battery life. It has a 5.5-inch full HD screen (1920×1080) with 16M colours, and a stunning 400ppi display, as well as a powerful Snapdragon 600 processor. Its 3140mAh battery gives you a notable talk time of just below 22 hours. Beyond that it becomes more reasonable than extraordinary. When browsing the web it lasts about 7 hours which is an hour and a half better than the standard Optimus G. When on video playback the G Pro can hack it for about nine hours.

HTC One Max

The HTC One Max is one of HTC’s most successful phones, selling remarkably well (for HTC) since its release November 2013. It is a rather large phone but its slim design and curved back hides it well. It has a 5.9-inch super LCD3 touchscreen display fed by a non-removable Li-Po 3300mAh battery and comes out on top when compared to its market rival the Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It’s a great device for those who use their phones for movies or gaming. As for talk time, it’s got an amazing 25 hours of 3G talk time and can go for over 11 hours when browsing the web. When tested with the looping video it managed 13 hours and 11 minutes, just a few minutes short of the Galaxy Note 3.

Nokia Lumia 1520

Nokia’s Lumia 1520 is one of the most solid and smartest looking Windows phones you can find on the market. This model sports a massive 6-inch full HD (1920×1080) display, with brilliantly vibrant colours, and is powered by a 3400mAh battery and a Snapdragon 800 processor. It achieves a very impressive 28h of 3G talk-time. When connected to WiFi and with the 6-inch screen constantly lit-up it had a battery life of just below 13 hours. If you leave a looped video playing then the 1520’s battery will last for 12 hours and 30min. Taking Nokia’s full HD screen into account, it still boasts an extremely generous amount of battery life.

LG G2

The LG G2 is a monster of a device. It has immense processing power with a Snapdragon 800 processor coupled with a 2.26Ghz quad-core Krait 400 CPU. It has a non-removable Li-Po 3000mAh battery with a 5.2-inch LCD display giving you 424ppi. It reached an astonishing 25 hours of talk time on 3G, proving marginally better than the Sony Xperia Z Ultra with the same Snapdragon 800 chipset and a 3050mAh battery. When tested with a constant web browsing it managed 11 hours and 20 minutes. But when it comes to playing an endless video loop the G2 was a bit disappointing, especially after the previous results, managing about 12 hours of battery life.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is a remarkable all-round phone. It has great battery life, excellent performance and a high quality display. It has a 3200mAh battery and a Snapdragon 800 chipset that powers its 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display. When calling on a 3G network it amounted to a little over 18 hours of talk time. If you played a video loop it reached 13 and a half hours of battery life and on constant web browsing it achieved nine hours, which is very impressive for an AMOLED screen.

Sony Xperia Z Ultra

Sony’s Xperia Z Ultra has a 3050mAh Li-lon battery with quite an impressive battery life for such a powerful and large phone. It has a colossal 6.7-inch, 1080p display and a Snapdragon 800 chipset. It accomplishes 25 and a half hours of talk time on 3G and a reasonably good battery life of just under nine hours when on continuous video playback. When it comes to web browsing the Xperia Z Ultra does not astonish at all, and lasts a mere five and a half hours. But this is understandable when the battery has a 6.7-inch display to feed.

Motorola RAZR Maxx

The slim, 9mm, Kevlar back, RAZR Maxx is one of the greatest contenders in the battery life contest. It has a decent 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display that’s protected by Corning Gorilla Glass and fed by Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortec A9 and a 3300mAh Li-lon battery. When testing its talk time on 3G it reached over a whopping 21 hours. If you look at its uninterrupted web browsing time it ran for almost 2 hours more than the DROID RAZR Max, reaching 9 hours and 12 minutes. Finally the video playback achieved a very impressive 16 and 35 minutes. The RAZR Maxx might not be the latest model on the market but its results make it more than worthy.

Oppo N1

The Oppo N1 has a great balance between top-notch quality performance and outstanding battery life. It has a massive 5.9-inch IPS LCD multi-touch display with 16M colours. It is equipped with the reasonably fierce Snapdragon 600 and it powered by a rather immense 3610mAh battery. It can do talk time of 25 hours that puts it on level with the LG G2. On non-stop web browsing it hacked it for nine hours and it accomplished just over 11 hours on a continuous video loop, which is pretty darn good for something with such a huge display.

Image via Pete Slater