One of the major battlegrounds in the world of smartphones this year has been the battery. The wider adoption of Si/C (silicon-carbon) batteries has been particularly evident this year, with some manufacturers putting capacities of more than 7,000 mAh in regular smartphones.
In fact, our all-time battery life rankings are now dominated by models released this year. With the exception of the iPhone 16 Plus, the rest have been revised in 2025.
A number of laptops have broken the 20h Active usage score barrier, with the OnePlus 15 topping the charts with a score of 23:07h. Its close sibling, the Oppo Find X9 Pro, took second place, and the iQOO 15 rounded out third place.
An interesting trend is that almost all of the phones on this list are flagship phones, which wasn’t always the case. This is easily explained by the fact that Si/C batteries still have a premium, so they haven’t dropped in price yet.
While the Honor Magic8 Lite and iPhone 17 Pro Max didn’t make our all-time top 10, they share the 10th spot in 2025.
In case you came here for some specific advice, here are some.
Those who care more about call time should consider the Realme GT 8 Pro or the iQOO 15. The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max also performed great in our call test.
For navigation, the Find X9 Pro, the iQOO 15 and the Realme GT 7 recorded the highest battery life.
For video playback, the iQOO 15 is the undisputed champion, but the GT8 Pro, Xiaomi 17 Pro Max and Find X9 Pro also achieve impressive numbers.
The nubia Z80 Ultra and nubia RedMagic 11 Pro, along with the Poco F8 Ultra, deserve an honorable mention as they occupy 7th, 8th and 9th place with overall excellent active usage scores, performing equally well in all categories.
Expectations are to see even larger battery capacities in 2026 and to find them even in more budget-oriented and mid-range phones. Good times indeed!
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