Battery life or performance: What's your priority in a smartphone?

The first wave of Snapdragon 8 Elite phones recently launched, and Qualcomm’s new processor offers major performance gains on paper. However, colleague Rob Triggs also found that the new chipset brings significant battery life gains in practice.

What’s more important to you, though? Do you prioritize performance or battery life? Let us know by voting in the poll below and leaving a comment!

We can understand why you might prioritize horsepower. Recent Android devices are quite powerful, but the last few generations of flagship Android phones still lagged behind iPhones in this regard. More horsepower is also great for demanding games and emulators, as well as niche use cases like video editing or desktop modes. In fact, Apple showed what’s possible with more performance recently when newer Resident Evil titles were ported to iOS.

Then again, better battery life is always a welcome addition. The ability to eke out a few more hours of usage can bring some peace of mind, particularly if you’re away from your charger. Colleague C Scott Brown is also in favor of battery life over performance, feeling that incremental performance gains aren’t going to make a big day-to-day difference.