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

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

However, last month I ran a poll asking, “What’s the most important phone feature for 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’d have expected cameras to come out on top, particularly now that we live in a world where it seems like every third person is a content creator.

Interestingly, making clear calls came in as the third most important phone feature, with 12% of the vote. Now that might seem rather obvious, but smartphones have arguably evolved beyond portable phones and more into pocketable do-it-all computers. Yet it seems like making a clear call is still important, despite the prevalence of instant messaging and multiple social networking platforms.