Battery Life: Phones that Punch Above Their Weight

One of the most frustrating experiences for smartphone users is having their phone battery zero out during a busy day away from home or the office. The costs of insufficient battery level are myriad: sometimes an urgent work email could be missed; at other times, friendships can be strained when messages or meet-ups are seemingly ignored. Most of us lean on our phone to get us through the day — it's our constant companion in work and in leisure, so losing access to it is tantamount to losing touch with our surroundings.

Smartphone battery drain is such a widespread phenomenon and persistent worry that there's now a flourishing market for portable chargers. But power banks come with an obvious downside. While they've become increasingly portable, it's still not ideal to carry around another device for an entire day, on the off chance that you might need it.

The logical temptation for many users, especially those with a busy schedule and extensive travel, or intensive gamers, is to simply purchase a phone with a soaring battery capacity in the range of 4,500 or 5,000 mAh. However, big-battery phones tend to be heavy, making the additional gaming or viewing that they enable physically strenuous. Even less intensive users tend to handle their phone dozens, if not hundreds, of times a day. So even a few grams of extra weight can have a cumulative effect, taxing your hand, wrist and overall mental state.

Fortunately, with software improvements, a hefty phone with a sky-high capacity should no longer be a priority. It's possible to enjoy exceptional battery life on an ergonomic and affordable phone, with a somewhat more modest capacity that works on your behalf to optimize its available charge.

The HONOR 9X is a recent release that checks all of the boxes for value-driven battery efficiency. It packs a 4,000 mAh battery, and supplements this with an effective Power saving mode which enables users to milk hours of additional usage without having to go to the trouble of manually adjusting display and device settings. Power saving mode dims the display slightly while limiting background apps and auto data syncing, but allows for messages and notifications to be received. It's quite possible to enable Power saving mode and hardly notice that it's in effect. An "Optimize battery" function is also quite useful. When activated, the system will propose further remedies that you have the option of implementing on a case by case basis.

Early reviews indicate that the HONOR 9X provides a day and a half of heavy use on a single charge, including 20 hours of video streaming. It's inevitable that with strategic use of these settings, battery life is only further boosted.

The HONOR 9X is simply a prominent example of an entry-level phone that offers a solid balance between availability, portability and affordability. When it comes time to purchase your next phone, take all three factors into consideration rather than simply looking for the largest battery capacity or ignoring the issue altogether. By doing so, you can save yourself the awkwardness of carrying around a bulky power bank or an unwieldy phone.