Forget cameras, AI and chip upgrades: you really want better phone battery life

I’ve covered many phone launches – almost too many to remember – and their general theme is to tout improvements in performance and camera quality, as well as design changes, new features and, most recently, AI integration. But what’s often just a glance away is battery life; whether it’s a significant increase in capacity or efficiency to extract more charge from the same size pack as before.

However, last month I conducted a survey asking: “What is the most important phone feature to you?” And the most popular answer was battery life, with 40% of respondents prioritizing battery over other features like performance and cameras.

By the way, cameras come in second place with 25% of the votes. I expected cameras to come out on top, especially now that we live in a world where it seems like one in three people is a content creator.

Interestingly, making clear calls came in third as the most important phone feature, with 12% of the vote. This may seem rather obvious, but smartphones have arguably evolved beyond cell phones and become more like do-it-all pocket computers. Yet it seems that it is still important to make a clear decision, despite the prevalence of instant messaging and multiple social media platforms.