As the Phones Editor at Android Police, I have the chance to use more smartphones each year than most people have (or should) in their entire life. Using as many phones as possible helps to give me a good perspective on the entire industry — not to mention some pretty good answers to everyone’s favorite age old question, “what phone should I buy next?” It’s also cemented something that I think has become quietly true over the past few years: smartphone battery life is really good these days, and I think we take it for granted.
I couldn’t tell you how many smartphones I’ve used as daily drivers over the past couple of years, but nearly all of them have had one big thing in common: solid battery life. Sure, some phones outperform others; practically every OnePlus phone can reach multi-day battery life, at the cost of some pretty aggressive background task optimization. But devices from companies like Motorola and Samsung are pretty universally battery champs, getting through at least a full day’s worth of heavy use before finally powering down.
There is, unfortunately, one exception here: Google. I’m not trying to call out every Pixel for having bad battery life — that’s certainly not true — but I would say Tensor-powered Pixels have unreliable battery life. Largely speaking, I’ve had pretty good luck with the Pixel 8 series, as Tensor G3 seems to be far less power-hungry than its predecessor. But over the past month and a half, I’ve spent the majority of my time using the Pixel 8a, and there have been a few days where it’s struggled to get through 12 hours on a single charge, seemingly for no reason.
And as I mentioned, Tensor G2 in particular was pretty power-hungry. My Pixel 7 Pro managed to hold out well enough, but the Pixel Fold struggles with its dual displays, and the Pixel 7a’s battery life was so bad, I originally held off on giving it a score in my initial review. Still, though, outside of some rare cases, it feels like battery banks aren’t quite the necessity they once were, even if you’re planning on being away from an outlet for hours at a time.
I’m curious how AP readers feel about their own phones. We’ve asked this question a couple of times before, and comparing 2015’s extremely mixed results with the more positive marks earned in 2019, it’s clear Android’s been on the right path for battery optimization throughout the last decade. So, are you happy with your current phone’s battery life?
And, if you feel like expanding in the (brand new!) comments section below, do you feel like it’s come at the cost of timely notifications? I, for one, definitely notice even my collection of Pixels tend to be a few seconds behind on, say, Gmail alerts compared to my desktop. It’s certainly a trade-off worth considering.
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