Forget cameras, AI and chip upgrades – you really want better battery life on the phone

I’ve covered a lot of phone launches – almost too many to remember – and the general themes of them are to present upgrades in performance and camera quality alongside design changes, new features and, more recently, AI integration. But what often only gets a cursory glance is battery life; whether it’s a big boost in capacity or efficiency that allows more charge to be squeezed out of a package that’s the same size as before.

But last month I ran a poll asking, “What’s the most important phone feature to you?” And the most popular answer was battery life, with 40% of respondents valuing battery over other features like performance and cameras.

Speaking of which, cameras come in second with 25% of the vote. I would have expected cameras to come out on top, especially now that we live in a world where it seems like every third person is a content creator.

Interestingly, clear calling came in as the third most important phone feature with 12% of the vote. Now this may seem pretty obvious, but smartphones have undoubtedly evolved beyond portable phones and more into portable do-it-all computers. Yet, despite the proliferation of instant messaging and multiple social networking platforms, it seems that making a clear call is still important.