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John V. is back again with the end of year results of the Tom’s Guide Battery Test, ranking the best phones for battery life based on our official benchmarks. All of the smartphones on this list launched in 2025, and while these aren’t our rankings for the best phones of the year overall, this list hones in battery life performance. Some are flagship handsets you’ll definitely recognize like the iPhone 17 Pro and Galaxy S25 Ultra, but then we’ve got Moto G 2026 and even the Razr Ultra. It was a very good year for OnePlus when it comes to battery life testing, too!
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0:00
Hey guys, it's that time again. The Tom's Guide Battery Life Test has closed for this year
0:04
and now the list of the best battery life phones of 2025 is officially locked in
0:09
In this video, I'll be counting down 11 different smartphones based solely on battery life results
0:14
and of course, we'll talk about those results, give them some context. This is going to be a fun one. I think a lot of you guys are going to be surprised by the final rankings
0:22
So let's get into it. For those of you watching the Tom's Guide Battery Life Test for the first time
0:28
Welcome to the channel and this series where we run a standardized battery test across every phone, aptly called the TomSky battery test
0:35
For this test, the phone screen is locked to 150 nits, the phone's on 5G, and it just keeps surfing the web until it dies using an app developed in-house
0:43
That way, the results are consistent and easy to compare and lets us make videos like this
0:47
With everything tested under identical conditions, the leaderboard gets interesting. Case in point
0:53
In 11th place, the iPhone 17 Pro. The iPhone 17 Pro lasted 15 hours and 32 minutes in our battery life test
1:00
Now, we're actually not used to seeing the standard Pro model on this list, but the new iPhone 17 Pro design lets Apple stash more components under the camera plateau at the top
1:09
The iPhone 17 Pro ended up beating the iPhone 16 Pro's time by around one-half hours
1:14
That's a big gain, which also results from the upgrade to a more efficient A19 Pro chipset
1:18
Spoiler, we will see talk of this again when we get to the iPhone 17 Pro Max later in this video
1:23
In 10th place, we actually have a foldable phone, the only foldable that made the list, in fact, the Motorola RAZR Ultra 2025
1:31
You guys know I love the RAZR Ultra, and battery life does play a factor in that
1:35
It lasted 15 hours and 42 minutes in our test. That's roughly 3 hours and 20 minutes longer than the Galaxy Z Flip 7
1:42
We ran the RAZR Ultra's test on the default Smart and Balanced setting, but when we switched to Efficiency Mode, which locks in a lower refresh rate for the phone's display
1:50
battery life fell just a few minutes short of 19 hours. It's an incredible result if you know how foldable phones struggle to keep up
1:57
Whatever the 4700 mAh battery and Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset are doing together this thing definitely works out in Motorola favor In ninth place we got our first Samsung device the Galaxy S25 aka the middleman of the S25 family
2:11
It has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip we find in the Razer Ultra. So even with the same battery size as the Galaxy S24+
2:17
the S25+, lasts nearly an hour longer than our tests. We benchmark 16 hours and 55 minutes
2:24
We got that battery test result with the S25+, set to its default adaptive refresh rate
2:29
Turn that feature off and the battery test result topped 18 hours
2:33
You don't always want your display's refresh rate clocked at 60Hz, but it's good to know that you can extend the phone's battery life if you have to
2:40
Still, I'm glad you don't need to have an ultra-level Samsung phone to get good battery life
2:44
In 8th place, another Motorola phone, the Moto G Power 2025. The Moto G Power has typically been the model to get when you value battery life over everything else
2:53
However, this year's edition, shockingly, isn't the longest-lasting entry in Motorola's budget lineup
2:58
An obvious hint of what's to come higher in the rankings. But this phone still lived up to its name
3:03
It lasted 17 hours and 13 minutes. Any 17 hour plus result is very impressive
3:08
And this model can do something the standard Moto G 2025 can't. It includes wireless charging support
3:14
Throw in greater durability and decent cameras. And there's a lot to like about this phone
3:19
Long lasting battery life included. In 7th place we have the Galaxy S25 Ultra
3:23
This is the last Samsung phone you'll see in this video. And I already basically spoiled it
3:27
but it lasts 17 hours and 14 minutes in our test. Now, the Galaxy S25 Ultra had a high bar to clear
3:34
but it was able to beat the S24 Ultra by more than 45 minutes, even though its battery capacity hasn't changed from 5,000 milliamp hours
3:41
Again, credit to that Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. If you're looking generation over generation for all these devices
3:47
it consistently is delivering improvements to power efficiency. Apple's been cooking up some of its own improvements with the A19 Pro chip
3:54
We find in our sixth place phone, the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Apple's biggest iPhone lasted 17 hours and 54 minutes
4:01
Kind of annoyingly just shy of that 18 hour mark but no matter it still the longest lasting iPhone we ever tested beating the iPhone 16 Pro Max record by more than half an hour While Apple doesn release battery sizes it seems pretty clear that the iPhone 17 Pro Max benefits from a larger power pack
4:17
Again, the new design of the Apple's Pro phones leaves more space for the battery. The A19 Pro chipset powering the phone is more power efficient than previous Apple Silicon
4:26
and a new vapor chamber helps the iPhone 17 Pro Max deliver more sustained performance than before
4:32
So no doubt, this is the best iPhone battery life, but there are still five more phones on this list that beat out Apple and Samsung
4:38
I'll get to those in a second, but let me know what you think of the video so far, and if any of the rankings have surprised you
4:43
Ranking fifth place, the Moto G 2025. Motorola sets the standard for low-cost phones that last a long time on the charge
4:49
The 2025 edition of the Moto G cost $200, but certainly didn't skimp on battery life
4:54
The 5,000 mAh Power Pack helped this budget phone last 18 hours and 32 minutes on our test
4:59
Locking the screen at 60Hz added a few extra minutes to the Moto G's time
5:04
but no matter how fast the refresh rate, you can count on a long-lasting phone
5:08
However, there's still one more Motorola phone coming up, so stay tuned. In fourth place, we have our first OnePlus phone, but not our last
5:15
This is the OnePlus 13R. It's technically a step down from the OnePlus 13
5:19
It has the same 6,000 mAh battery as its flagship sibling, but sports the slightly older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to keep down the cost
5:27
It lasted 18 hours and 49 minutes in our test. Absolutely epic
5:32
Yeah, there's not much really else to say about the OnePlus 13R. I'm not going to get too much into it
5:37
but it does offer support for up to 80 watt wire charging speeds in the US
5:41
Although, no wireless charging. Let me know if you consider that a deal breaker. And wow, we're finally getting to the three best battery life phones of 2025
5:49
In third place, this is actually the last phone we tested in 2025, and it's the Moto G 2026
5:54
So yes, Motorola released the 2025 and 2026 G series in the same calendar year
6:00
Same $200 price, can't speak to the strategy with that, but at least the new one comes with an even better
6:05
battery life 19 hours and 12 minutes I haven spent too much time with this phone at the time of this video recording but again Motorola does budget phones very well The MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor keeps costs
6:17
down, but hey, it also clearly helps the battery life story here. Our runner-up in second place
6:23
the OnePlus 13. On the flip side, this was actually one of the first phones to be released
6:28
and tested in 2025, and definitely sets a high bar. It lasted 19 hours and 45 minutes in our tests
6:34
Certainly, the 6000 mAh Power Pack and the Snapdragon 8 Elite combination plays a big role in that longevity
6:40
OnePlus loves to hype up charging. Using an 80-watt charger, we got a drained OnePlus 13 up to 92% charge after 30 minutes, which is very impressive
6:50
Look at OnePlus showing up big in these rankings. Now, we've made it to our first place, the best phone battery life of 2025 winner
6:58
Can I get a drumroll? The OnePlus 15. Yes, similar to Motorola, we had two flagship refreshers in the same calendar year from OnePlus
7:07
And this one pretty much broke our battery life test. I actually did a full video about the OnePlus 15 battery life results
7:14
So if you caught that episode of the TomSky battery life test series, I guess you probably had this whole video spoiled for you from the start
7:21
But anyway, our winner clocked in or out, I should say, at 25 hours and 13 minutes
7:26
Such a large margin between this and the number two phone, OnePlus was basically just in competition with itself this year
7:32
This title comes down to several factors, but the most important is the 7300mAh battery that uses advanced silicone nanostack technology
7:40
I'm definitely curious to see if other phone makers are taking note of this because, wow, a new standard has been set
7:45
And that wraps up the official Tom's Guide Battery Life leaderboard for 2025
7:50
Let's take one more look at the final rankings. I love it all! The shocks, the upsets, the absolute monsters of battery life
7:57
If you do too and want to see more deep diving testing like this, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss our next video
8:04
I'm Jon V and I'll see you in my next video
#Computers & Electronics