Which is where the Huawei P30 Pro comes in. It possesses a game-changing battery and fast charge option (of which more later) set to revolutionise battery expectations among consumers.
First, though, why is it that phone batteries are often so weak and provoke so much charging irritation?
Easy. They are more powerful and can thus operate more apps and many other functions. So they also suck up more juice. We run more apps than ever in the background – so while we get our notifications on time and our photos automatically sync to the cloud, our phones are continually consuming power.
Phones are also thinner than ever; it's the fashion and makes them easier to hold and pocket. It also means there's less room for internal workings, so many manufacturers slip a smaller battery in.
Not the P30 Pro. It has been surprising reviewers and consumers since its recent launch with a battery that stubbornly seems to keep on keeping on.
Read what the Guardian's Samuel Gibbs said in his review about the P30 Pro and battery life: "Huawei has made a name for itself with long battery life and it continues to stand head and shoulders above the rest.
"With heavy usage it lasted just under 35 hours between charges, meaning it would make it all the way from 7am on day one until 6pm on day two. That was as my primary device with the usual deluge of email, messages and push notifications, lots of browsing, five hours of Spotify via Bluetooth headphones, watching 90 minutes of offline movies, 30 minutes of gaming and shooting about 20 photos a day."
Another reviewer, Vlad Savos, of well-known magazine The Verge: "All of the above [Huawei P30 Pro features] is underpinned by a humongous 4,200mAh battery that lasts beyond a day and a half no matter what I throw at it. Marathon gaming sessions, hours-long photo shoots, wireless music listening, extended YouTube streaming, everything that would exhaust lesser phones and have them begging for a power cord is taken in the P30 Pro's stride."
Meanwhile the UK's Techadvisor website set up an experiment to find the best battery life, performing a test of phones with all subject to the same conditions and with all test functions blazing away until the batteries ran dry. Three of the top 5 products were Huawei, with the P30 Pro coming in third behind the mid-range Moto G7 Power (not available in New Zealand) and the Huawei P20 Mate.
Heavy users can thus be assured of prolonged good times. Light users have it even better. We spoke to Peter Jamieson, of Auckland, who is a light user only – internet, email, messaging and photography mostly, no gaming, movie watching, few live apps and only a little live streaming.
"I was gobsmacked," he says. "I kept waiting for the battery to run out. I'm not kidding – it took a week. So I upped my usage and it still kept ticking over for 5-6 days."
Another previous irritant for phone users was the time needed to recharge the battery. The P30 Pro features 40W super charge capability. Translation: You go from 0-70 per cent battery in 30 minutes.
The battery is so good, you can use it to recharge or top up other devices wirelessly with a feature called reverse wireless charging.
Which basically means you don't ever have to worry about running out of battery – on any device.
