Since the early days of phones — with the Nokia 9XXX Communicator range — big and thick devices have always been correlated with good battery life. As smartphones took over the scene and multi-day battery life disappeared, the adage that a big phone meant a big battery continued to apply, especially as product lineups like the Galaxy Note (and its successors, like theSamsung Galaxy S23 Ultra) brought larger batteries back into the mix.
The smartphone industry eventually homogenized enough that all-day battery life meant a day with average usage, and even phones with the best battery life still required charging once per day. Thankfully, this has improved with the launch of foldable phones.
Traditional slabs struggle as ever-increasing camera sizes, displays, and other components mean less space to incorporate large batteries. Foldables offer a considerable alternative, thanks to their increased internal space, an expectation that they can be thicker than a regular phone, and clever engineering that allows a split battery to act as one.
The end result is incredible battery life — or, at least, that’s what each foldable maker promises. Do they deliver, though? I’ve been testing the best foldables on the market over the past couple of months, so let’s find out!
Here are the battery specs for the four phones I’ve included in this test.
Galaxy Z Fold 5
OnePlus Open
Google Pixel Fold
Tecno Phantom V Fold
Battery Capacity
Charging speed
Wireless charging?
The charging tests
Foldable phones are, understandably, not budget smartphones. They top every best phone list when price is no object, but whereas thebest Android phonewill cost you around $1,000, thebest foldable phoneswill cost you $1,600 or more.
Much of this extra cost goes into the larger internal display, but do you still get the same amount of value when it comes to charging? I ran a charging test to find out and looked at the total charging time and the % charged in 15 minutes and 30 minutes. All tests were conducted with each phone starting at 0%.
Here’s how each phone performed in the 15-minute and 30-minute charging tests:
Full charge
As you can see, the 67W charging speed on the OnePlus Open tops every other folding phone by a considerable margin in all three tests. What makes this test interesting, however, is that theTecno Phantom V Fold— which, at $1,000 is the cheapest foldable in this test — comes second, whereasSamsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5— the most expensive foldable in this test — comes in last place.
One common trait among Samsung phones is that they charge quickly for the first ~70% and then slow down considerably for the remaining 30%, which is also prevalent with the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
The time taken to charge to full isn’t the most accurate when considering each number independently, as battery sizes vary between phones. To standardize, I divided the phone’s capacity with the time taken (rounded to the nearest minute) to give us a mAh/min rating. Here are the results:
Time taken (min)
These results are interesting, as while the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Phantom V Fold charge to the same percentage after 15 minutes, the Phantom V Fold powers up considerably faster overall. The Phantom V Fold is 91% as fast as the OnePlus Open, despite thecharging speedsbeing a third slower.
These charging tests also show that while there is a considerable overall difference between the 67W charging on the OnePlus Open and the 25W charging on the Galaxy Z Fold 5, the latter can still charge in a respectable 77 minutes. The biggest surprise is theGoogle Pixel Fold, which takes 93 minutes to charge to full despite offering 30W charging and lags significantly behind the competition here. It’s something the company will have to improve on in afuture Pixel Fold 2.
The video playback test
Battery life is quantitative and qualitative, as while you’re able to measure it, each person’s actual usage varies enough that overall battery life will be considerably different. When testing battery life under objective conditions, I’ve found that the best way is to conduct a few tests of vastly different resource usage and environments.
To run our video playback test, I loaded a 4k YouTube video and looped it until each phone depleted its battery from 100% to empty. I picked a YouTube video — versus a local playback file — as, these days, most of us stream video versus storing it locally. This also meant an ongoing connection: each phone was on airplane mode with Wi-Fi enabled.
Here’s how each phone performed:
Battery Test Result
14 hours 39 mins
15 hours 32 mins
12 hours 13 mins
14 hours 22 mins
As you can see, the OnePlus Open wins this test, with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in second, followed by the Tecno Phantom V Fold. The Google Pixel Fold was the biggest surprise, as I expected it to perform significantly better than it did in this test. The Phantom V Fold was also surprising, managing to match the Galaxy Z Fold 5, although it does have a larger capacity.
Basemark Web 3.0 battery test
The video playback test is a static test that only tests one key part of the overall optimizations around battery life but isn’t completely reflective of day-to-day usage. The Basemark Web 3.0 test is a well-recognized benchmark that measures performance, and the battery portion runs the same series of benchmark tests on a loop until the entire battery is depleted. This includes testing the graphical performance, web rendering, video playback, and more.
Here’s how each phone performed in these tests:
4 hours 58 mins
5 hours 55 mins
4 hours 11 mins
4 hours 35 mins
Once again, the OnePlus Open was significantly better, and it outperformed the second-placed Galaxy Z Fold 5 by almost an hour. The Phantom V Fold didn’t quite match the Galaxy Z Fold 5 here, but the Pixel Fold was in last place again.
Which foldable phone has the best battery?
There’s more to the battery life than just the performance in one environment. First, each phone needs to handle various scenarios and tests. Second, and more importantly, each phone needs to be able to replenish the battery at speed, especially when you’re in a rush.
Overall, the OnePlus Open has outshone the competition throughout these battery tests. It offers the best overall charging speed and the longest video playback, something also proven in day-to-day testing, where it can regularly last well over a day even with heavy usage. The OnePlus Open is undoubtedly the foldable battery champion.
Beyond that, however, the results aren’t as clear-cut. The Phantom V Fold offers the second-best charging speed and is fairly strong in the battery tests, whereas the Galaxy Z Fold 5 has average charging speeds but strong overall battery life. The Pixel Fold is the biggest surprise here, and clearly the Tensor processor struggles compared to the Qualcomm and MediaTek chipsets powering the other devices in this test.
Now consider the price of the Phantom V Fold. At $1,000, are these differences in the overall results worth saving $700 over the Pixel Fold or the Galaxy Z Fold 5? Similarly, when it comes to battery, is the Pixel Fold or the Galaxy Z Fold 5 worth buying when the OnePlus Open is priced $100 lower at $1,700, even before adjusting for the guaranteed $200 minimum trade-in? All these are things to consider when deciding which foldable to buy, but if you want the best battery life, look no further than the OnePlus Open. Much like ourrecent foldable camera shootoutfrom the world’s tallest building, OnePlus’ best phone is more than a match for any other foldable.
Last year’s Google Pixel Fold may not have dazzled us on release, but the company has made many improvements to the device over time. Android 15 has the Pixel Fold running well, and it’s a fantastic deal for sub-$600 if you’re comfortable with a renewed device. It’s an excellent choice for picking up a foldable on a budget.
OnePlus' first foldable packs an impressive specs sheet and boasts some equally remarkable features. The lightweight design, the super-bright cover and folding screens, the high-end internals, and the triple-camera setup make the OnePlus Open a great alternative to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold lineup.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
The Z Fold 5 is here, and it’s nothing short of splendid! While it doesn’t particularly blow us away with what it offers, we surely appreciate the subtle improvements it sports over its already-decent predecessor, the Z Fold 4. Even though we didn’t get to see some of the changes we’d hoped for — such as improved battery life — the disappointment was compensated by a powerful chipset, an aesthetically pleasing hinge, and an upgraded camera setup.
