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Ask HN: What smartphone would you recommend with superb battery life?

43 points by ng-user ↗ HN
As the title suggests, I'm in the market for a new smartphone and the sole thing I care about is battery life. I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, I unplug it at 08:00 with 100% and find by 10:00-12:00 the battery is already significantly drained ~50-70% remaining. It's quite unacceptable and I can honestly say if I don't charge it throughout the day it will die around 15:00-16:00.

I've had the device for two years and what I've learned most is that I'm NOT buying another Samsung. The amount of irremovable bloatware, including the f*cking Facebook app I NEVER use is irritating. Something with a microSD card slot would be nice, removable battery too, obviously it'd be cool to have a fingerprint scanner but it's definitely not necessary.

I would love to hear what the HN crowd recommends, I'm willing to do a lot (i.e. ditch the phone contract, purchase from Amazon/Ebay etc.) to ensure I have a good lasting phone I'm not going to regret in 3 months.

101 comments

[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 157 ms ] thread
Swinx43
I have previously had a great experience with the LG G3. Its battery would last me at least 2 days with basic use and definitely an entire day even with quite considerable use.

I have no idea what the G5 or G6 will be like.

dman
LG V20. Lasts me a day and a half without fail.
howlett
I'm on the same Samsung boat, have an S5 mini (3 years now) and want to move away from it.

Battery-wise, the "best" one I've found is the Lenovo P2 which has 5100mAh (S8 Plus has 3500) but not sure if its hardware is any good. I'm planning however to get OnePlus 3t which has 3400mAh and seems like a better long-term choice.

itamarst
My phone lasts more than a week. Here's how to do it:

1. Turn off data.

2. Turn off GPS.

3. Turn off wifi.

4. Only use it for phone calls and SMS. Turn on data/wifi/GPS when you actually need them.

As a bonus you can now switch to a cheap pay-per-MB plan like http://ting.com and save some money too.

(It's a Moto E, 2nd generation - $60 on EBay.)

speedcucumber
The question was to do with smartphones tbf
tluyben2
Not sure why downvoted: why buy a smartphone in this case? I use my phone for stuff I used to do on my laptop and doing that 1 day is max for most phones. The Oukitel k10000 is the only exception but that is too heavy really. It does go for days with continues internet, 4g, chrome, wechat, whatsapp etc.

I never call; I have bad tinnitus and if there is any sound from the phone or around me I only hear hissing...

dvfjsdhgfv
It's a reasonable question. For a long time I was using two phones for exactly that reason: a Nokia 6310i for phone calls and an iphone for everything else. Unfortunately 6310i got damaged (the battery was still able to keep the phone running for more than 10 days!) and I bought a smartphone to act like a phone (a popular Android device). It's obviously superior to 6310i in several ways - for example text messages can be typed faster. However, the phone lasts only two days. With Nokia, I charged it once and forgot about it for two weeks. With a smartphone, I need to always remember to make sure the battery is at a reasonable level. If I had a chance to buy a genuine (not refurbished/clone) 6310i, I'd do it straight away.
jorgemf
If you only use the phone for calls and SMS, why do you have a smartphone? A simpler phone will make your battery last much longer
test1235
it's nice to have the option available, I guess
jorgemf
Your comment make the Diogenes syndrome come to my mind. I prefer not to have something that I do not use it. I find it "distracting"
itamarst
Because sometimes I do need it, to check if an important email arrived, or to do map navigation. So it's nice to have the option.
jorgemf
That functionality also exits in some dumb phones. The experience is crap, but I guess it wouldn't matter if don't use it frequently.
itamarst
Yeah, but you can get a not actually that bad smartphone for $60, so dumb phones aren't worth it.
nunez
you realize that this isn't a practical solution for most people right?
itamarst
We have survived as a species for hundreds thousands of years without being permanently connected to the Internet! A few more hours a day won't kill you.
praneshp
It's slightly unfair to use this argument in a thread asking about smartphone recommendations, IMO. He/She needs to be connected a few more hours a day.

We also survived thousands of years without fire/pasteurization/hospitals. Doesn't mean life was good.

guilhas
Same phone here. Also try to have as much turned of if not needed. Keep screen light at minimum. Also use:

Face slim, Privacy browser, Smarter wifi manager, Dimmer, Materialistic :D (writing the this comment)

All sorts apps, I just try to avoid the ones that keep running on background, or autostart. Unless I really need it.

My realtime communication availability is obviously sms and phone call.

The phone has 1 year. Charged it this morning. It is at 80%. Been on web, facebook, hackernews...

neversorry
My Samsung galaxy S7 easily lasts a day. With full sync for my gmail and Outlook.

Maybe look into battery usage and see what is consuming so much battery.

samdung
http://www.mi.com/in/redmi3s/ Do not know if we can get it outside India.
t0mislav
I'm Xiaomi user also (Mi4C). Battery lasts 2 days (day + night + day), with 2 sim cards active and 4G and wifi enabled also. All automatic refresh (mail for example) is disabled, Facebook app deleted etc. However, I think good battery life is due to xiomi.eu rom.
StavrosK
I have a Nexus 6P, and, with Doze and all the new stuff, your battery shouldn't be dropping more than ~2% overnight (since you aren't using the phone). If it does, it means some app is waking the phone up constantly.

I use Greenify to kill unnecessary apps running in the background, but the MIUI flavor has that built-in.

ggoss
OnePlus 3T.
paufernandez
Seconded (though I have the OnePlus 3, not the 'T'). I get ~5.5 hours of screen-on time since the last update. Given my usage, I charge the phone every two days quite often.
miketalley1980
This phone is amazing with battery life! First phone I can use two days without charging overnight
vollmond
I've had good luck with my Pixel XL. I basically only charge it on my commute (half hour each way). Usage details: lots of screen on time, but not a lot of data usage (mostly ebooks and saved podcasts/music).
harel
The answer to this question is really dependant on your usage pattern. One person might get a day of battery from one device, while the same phone will give you 3/4 of a day.
bluedino
I normally come home from a day of work with my battery in the 60-70% range. I take it off the charger at 6:30am and arrive home by 5:30pm, so 11 hours.

If I'm busy and working, and not playing around on my phone, I might have 80% off. I have a couple phone calls and am using my phone a lot for email in meetings, etc, I might be down to 40%.

The other big factor is where I sit in the building. If I'm in another part of the building with worse reception, I'll be 20% lower than usual.

I have a charger at my desk but I only use it if I forget to charge the night before.

FroshKiller
Maybe you should consider buying a good battery pack instead. That would free you to consider phones' other merits.
Kurtz79
Keeping a battery pack charged is useful when you forget charging it, but it really shouldn't be something that you are required to use on a regular basis just to make it last throughout the day.

It makes little sense to make a phone as thin as possible and then expecting you to carry an additional cable and battery pack, it's just bad design IMHO.

mkarliner
I use a Huawei G7 for exactly this reason. It will always last two days, and treated gently, will go to three. I think the key is a large'ish battery, and relatively low resolution display.
Outpox
Nexus 6 owner, with the wifi, the Bluetooth, and the high precision GPS always enabled I usually last from 8am to midnight without charge. I mostly use it to browse Reddit and HN, text + phone calls and music.
mixedCase
Anything supported by ZeroLemon, Hyperion or similar extended battery brand.

I'm still carrying a Galaxy S3 because of it. Lasts 3-6 days depending on use. Only phone that has caught my eye since then is the V20, my only problem being that it's humongous and the extended battery makes it thicker.

xmstr
It's a little old now but the Motorola Droid Turbo has served me well. Even though the phone is over three years old it holds a charge for the entire day (17 hours) and still has a 30-35% remaining at the end of the day.
apricot13
iPhone 6s lasts me all day. Charged overnight, 5am (100%) - 10pm (30%) at weekends I don't charge overnight.

Its always in battery saving mode I don't need any background processes. Only whatsapp, emails, slack and sms notifications. wifi only on when at home. Bluetooth only on during commute (about 4/5hrs a day).

I've had it a year, it used to do two days but I relented and enabled email notifications.

halloij
Nokia 3210. Battery charge lasts a week or two.
Kurtz79
"What SMARTPHONE would you recommend".

The 3210 it's a fantastic phone, that you would definitely be able to keep using if all you want is voice calls and SMS, but by no stretch of imagination could be classified as a smartphone.

geff82
Among the iPhones, the SE has a very usable battery capacity.
twobyfour
Yup. Mine regularly makes it home at the end of the day with >70% left. Rarely have to charge it other than overnight.
Kurtz79
I'm quite happy with my Moto G4 plus, it lasts me easily a couple of days, with a light/medium usage.
coroxout
I have a 4-year-old Samsung S3 Mini. I keep wi-fi, bluetooth, data, GPS turned off by default, make few calls, don't send or receive many texts, and if I don't use wi-fi or play games the battery will last several days - probably 5-6 days when the battery was new and now a bit less.

However, I do usually turn wi-fi on for 10-20 minutes a day (e.g. look at HN and follow links to a few different news articles - news sites can be quite processor-intensive) and that knocks at least a day off the battery life. If I play a game, even fairly simple puzzle games, I need to charge it that day.

I'm also on my third battery for it as the previous two eventually got to the point where they couldn't hold a charge at all, so I'm very reluctant to upgrade it to a model without replaceable battery, but alas, that leaves few options. I'd also like a new phone to fit in my pocket like the S3 mini does, and as far as I've seen those two criteria knock out every recent-gen phone.

I can only hope that sooner or later a company decides people like me are a big enough market segment to reach out for again, but I suppose people who are happy to keep a phone for 4 years are not good enough customers and need to be forced to buy a new phone every year by the battery dying.

danielbarla
I used to do something similar on my S2. With most things switched off, I frequently got 2 weeks without a charge. Others I know used some 3rd party apps to automatically switch wifi / data on for a few minutes every so often, to allow apps to sync. It's fairly easy to tap things on and off nowadays.

On the other hand, if you absolutely can't live without all the features turned on all the time, there are a variety of power banks and other ways to get a few more hours out of a battery.

majewsky
> news sites can be quite processor-intensive

Have you compared battery usage with and without adblocker? (A good adblocker on mobile is uBlock Origin on Firefox for Android.)

deevus
I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4. I usually get 2 days off a single charge unless I use it very heavily. It's also a budget priced phone, even though it has impressive specs. Can recommend!
StavrosK
Just two days? I'd have expected more from the 4100 mAh battery. My dad's 5S lasts more than that, and it's got a 3000ish battery. Of course, he only uses it for calling, so YMMV.
icebraining
The 5S has a 4" screen, the Redmi has a 5.5" screen. That's almost double the screen area, which needs more power. Plus it has an higher DPI.
deevus
It wasn't dead by the end of the second day. It could probably go 2.5 days. I reckon if I had a few quiet days it would go for 4.
Artlav
Hm, interesting thing is, i got a Galaxy Note, and it lasts for a week on one charge after all the software garbage was removed.

Battery life might be more of a question of software than hardware these days, so getting familiar with Android hacking would the best bet - there is no such thing as "irremovable" bloat.

kabdib
You can have this problem with any smartphone. Usually it's some app that's pegged a CPU, or (worse) the data connection. Don't know about Android, but on iOS you can pretty quickly identify an app that's gone nuts (the last time "60% at 10AM" happened to me, it was Apple's cloud sync), and there are readily available tools if you want to dig deeper.

A few years ago the same thing happened on a Windows phone (a fine phone, oaky? :-) ). Some system process, maybe a driver, was pegging the CPU, making the device hot to touch. With no system updates on the horizon, all AT&T could do was say "We can replace the phone with exact model under warranty."

"But the new phone will have exactly the same software, and that same bug."

"That's all we can do." I'm pretty sure the salestype was foggy on the concept, and frankly I'm not sure what I expected a salestype to say. When you're powerless you're not necessarily rational, on either side of the fence. I wound up with a discount on another brand of phone, the market in action, I guess.

InitialLastName
My OnePlus 3T is new and I mostly charge it at night, but when I forget it still ends up lasting about a day and a half. That's not heavy use, but it still lasts. It also really does charge fully in about half an hour with the included charger.

There's no microSD, but the internal storage is pretty big, and there's pretty much no bloatware.

dguo
Moto Z Play. Multiple reviews confirm the (relatively) extraordinary battery life.

I got a Samsung Galaxy S7 last Thanksgiving because of a Black Friday promotion, but I wish I had ignored it and just gotten the Play anyway (for the battery life).

JediWing
The battery life is excellent by all accounts, and keep in mind also that most of the reviews you find will be without the extended battery 'mod' that fits fairly well with the phone and often runs as a deal.
SomeGermanGuy
For the last few years I have been a big fan of the Motorola smartphones. I just bought a Moto G5 Plus. Basically has everything you wish for, but the removable battery.

It is nearly stock Android and has a good mix of specs. I have everything on (Wifi, Bluetooth (running a MiBand 2), GPS. I have a moderate usage and plug in the phone in the evening between 50 and 70%. There is Zero Bloatware on the thing. The fingerprint reader actions are just great. I have a work iPhone and caught myself using the same gestures on the iPhone, I even think they are better than the iPhone ones.

Before that I had a Moto G (1st Gen) and even that did last me a whole day without a problem. I just replaced it because my mother broke her phone, so she got the Moto G and I had a reason to buy the beauty Moto G 5 Plus.

I would recommend going for the plus, due to better specs. Runs smoothly and I have currently no point to complain. (Okay maybe missing compass, which makes finding the ISS in the night sky a bit hard. You also can't use augmented reality apps very much, because they use the compass for orientation (like flightradar24 or google googles)

ap46
What? They couldn't put in an IMU with a compass? My XPERIA M from 2013 didn't have a compass....such progress. Moto does some real awkward stuff like not having a simple flash LED on the E a while back.