When it comes to the best smartphone battery life, nothing beats the iPhone 17 Pro Max. That’s the judgement of a comparison of 35 smartphones from a range of companies. But the Apple model that comes in second might surprise you.
Not a single Samsung model showed up on the Top 10 list, but OnePlus did fairly well.
iPhone 17 Pro Max offers best battery life — Beats 34 other smartphones
Smartphone battery life is one of the most important features because our phones now function as cameras, wallets, navigation systems, entertainment centers and work tools. A phone that runs out of power halfway through the day cuts off communication, disrupts travel and can even create safety concerns. Strong battery performance also allows people to use power-hungry features like 5G, GPS and video streaming without constantly worrying about power. As smartphones grow more capable, long battery life isn’t just a convenience anymore — it’s a core part of reliability, productivity and peace of mind.
And if you want to go the maximum amount of time without needing a recharge, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the smartphone for you. Cnet compared 35 models available in the United States, and Apple’s flagship took top honors.
“Its 5,088-mAh battery capacity wasn’t the largest, but it shows just how efficient Apple’s A19 Pro chip and iOS 26 are,” noted Cnet.
Another Apple model took the silver in the competition: the base iPhone 17.
“The iPhone 17 has the smallest-capacity battery of any of the top phones, proving that battery size doesn’t matter,” Cnet said — another testament to the efficiency of Apple’s processor and software.
These two come out ahead of handsets made by Samsung, Motorola, Google and OnePlus.
The iPhone 17 Pro was No. 4 on the Top 10 list.
The testing process
Battery life varies considerably between phone users. Someone who frequently watches video over 5G will need a recharge much sooner than someone who primarily exchanges text messages over Wi-Fi, even though both own the same handset model. Cnet’s battery life comparison factored in a variety of use cases.
“To standardize our testing and minimize variables as much as possible, we run each phone through an anecdotal stress test and a video streaming test, starting with the battery at 100%. The results from each test show the remaining battery percentage,” said Cnet. “We averaged the two results to determine an overall score.”
OnePlus and Motorola did fairly well
Image: ChatGPT/Cult of Mac
After averaging the battery life scores for the handsets made by each company, Apple came out on top again.
The OnePlus 15 did the third best in the individual competition, and OnePlus itself came in second in overall battery life. Motorola came in third. Its best individual offering was the Motorola Edge, which came in fifth in the head-to-head matchup.
Samsung was in fourth place in the overall competition, and Google was in fifth place. Nine Samsung handsets were tested, and five Google phones,
but neither makes a model with long enough battery life to appear in Cnet‘s Top 10 list.
Truly outstanding battery life helps explain why iPhone was the best selling smartphone globally in 2025.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
