When it comes to the best smartphone battery life, nothing beats the iPhone 17 Pro Max. This follows from a comparison of 35 smartphones from different companies. But Apple’s second-place model might surprise you.
Not a single Samsung model appeared in the Top 10, but OnePlus did quite well.
iPhone 17 Pro Max offers the best battery life – beating 34 other smartphones
Smartphone battery life is one of the most important features as our phones now function as cameras, wallets, navigation systems, entertainment centers and work tools. A phone that dies in the middle of the day interrupts communication, disrupts travel and can even cause safety concerns. Strong battery performance also allows people to use power-hungry features like 5G, GPS, and video streaming without having to constantly worry about power. As smartphones become more capable, long battery life is no longer just a convenience – it’s an essential part of reliability, productivity and peace of mind.
And if you want to last as long as possible without the need to recharge, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the smartphone for you. Overhang compared 35 models available in the United States, and Apple’s flagship took top honors.
“The 5,088mAh battery capacity wasn’t the biggest, but it shows how efficient the Apple A19 Pro chip and iOS 26 are,” he noted Overhang.
Silver in the competition went to another Apple model: the basic iPhone 17.
“iPhone 17 has the smallest battery capacity of any high-end phone, proving that battery size doesn’t matter,” Overhang he said – further proof of the efficiency of Apple’s processor and software.
These two come out ahead of phones from Samsung, Motorola, Google and OnePlus.
iPhone 17 Pro was in the 4th place of the Top 10 list.
The testing process
Battery life varies widely between phone users. Someone who frequently watches video over 5G will need a charge much sooner than someone who primarily texts over Wi-Fi, even if they both own the same phone model. Cnet’s battery life comparison takes into account different use cases.
“To standardize our testing and minimize variables as much as possible, we run each phone through an unofficial stress test and video streaming test, starting with 100% battery. The results of each test show the remaining battery percentage,” he said Overhang. “We averaged the two results to determine the overall score.
OnePlus and Motorola have done relatively well
Image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac
After averaging the battery life scores of cell phones made by each company, Apple again came out on top.
The OnePlus 15 performed third best in the individual competition, and OnePlus itself finished second in overall battery life. Motorola finished third. Its best individual offering was the Motorola Edge, which placed fifth in a head-to-head battle.
Samsung was in fourth place in the overall competition and Google was in fifth place. Nine Samsung phones and five Google phones were tested,
but neither makes a model with long enough battery life to appear in it OverhangTop 10 list.
Truly excellent battery life helps explain why the iPhone was the world’s best-selling smartphone in 2025.
Ed Hardy He has been writing about the technique full-time for 25 years and has been using it for much longer. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but he now uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. It is written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthandas well as other sites.