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If there’s one thing my experience with the latest Android smartphones has taught me it’s that I dearly wish I wasn’t quite so welded into the Apple ecosystem.
It’s for the most ludicrous of reasons, too. You see, if I lose the ability to copy and paste content from my iPhone to my Mac without any form of Tom Faffery, my production process slows down. That’s it. Everything else is easily replaceable.
This is made all the more frustrating whenever I discover something else about Android with which I fall quickly in love. This is currently happening at a rate of at least one dewy-eyed moment per week.
However, there’s one Android feature that appears to be consistently brilliant and applicable to nearly every new device, yet barely ever talked about.
Today, I’m going to break the silence.
My obsession with battery life
I get stick about two things on YouTube. The first is my obsession with headphone cases. This gets the Headphone Massiv (if you’ve not experienced the wrath of these people, just go and read a selection of comments in any of my Sony headphone reviews) very sweaty palmed. According to them, I’m an absolute imbecile for even daring to suggest that the case is the most important aspect of a pair of headphones.
It isn’t, obviously. It’s very important, don’t get me wrong, but I do play on this to wind up those Headphone People as much as possible. Because it’s fun.
The second is my obsession with battery life and, in particular, standby time. While the ‘feedback’ I receive on this particular point of reference isn’t quite so vitriolic as the headphone case stuff, some people simply don’t understand why I think it’s so important.
You charge your phone when it’s not in use, right? Surely, it’s how long a battery lasts while you’re using the phone that matters?
In my opinion: nope, it really isn’t.
Why standby time is king
The rate at which a smartphone devours battery life while in use is dependent on so many factors. The task in hand, any background activity, the age of the phone, the weather conditions – the list goes on. It makes testing that facet of smartphone performance incredibly difficult and monumentally boring.
Which is why I don’t bother.
The problem is that, even if a smartphone has incredible battery life, it is next to useless if the standby time isn’t epic. Let’s not forget that our phones spend most of their time waiting to be used, and that’s why their ability to sip battery life considerately trumps the in-use stamina.
I don’t understand why so many people in my position completely ignore this during their reviews. The less time we all spend hunting for charging ports or carrying battery banks, the better the ownership experience.
The good news, if you’re not an Apple person, is that it appears most Android phone manufacturers – and, indeed, Google itself – are acutely aware of this.
The best Android battery performers
There are several devices I’ve used recently that have excelled with their standby battery performance.
King of the Standby Jungle is the Samsung S23 Ultra. I swear that thing practically turns itself off when not in use. Leave it off charge overnight and it’ll only chew through a couple of percentage points while you’re sleeping. It’s bonkers.
Honourable mentions must also go to the Honor 90, Nothing Phone (2), and every Google Pixel device made within the last couple of years. Even the Sony Xperia V 1 completely smashed the standby barrier during the time I spent with it a few weeks back while shooting countless gigabytes of 4K footage.
Is this standby performance down to Android or the manufacturers? Arguably, it’s a bit of both, but the common denominator is definitely Google’s operating system.
Wrapping up: Apple needs to up its game!
My iPhone 14 Pro Max accompanies me practically everywhere and is usually by my side while I’m reviewing Android devices. What always staggers me is the fact that Apple’s flagship smartphone regularly falls into second place in the battery stakes.
This happened earlier this week in London where I was testing the camera capabilities of the Nothing Phone (2). That was the device I was using more consistently throughout the day, with the iPhone only making an occasional appearance to shoot some b-roll or engage with the aforementioned Apple ecosystem.
By the end of the day, the iPhone needed charging. The Nothing Phone (2), on the other hand, happily sailed through to the next morning with 20% remaining.
That’s not good enough, Apple. Something needs to change.
