Survey explains why smartphone brands keep delaying real battery breakthroughs

Buying a new smartphone is almost as tricky as picking a new car. Do you go for size, economy, or raw power? For me, the most important aspect for me was certainly economy, followed by utility, and finally ease of use, and that’s likely how my smartphone purchasing decision hierarchy stacks up, too. But we’re all different, and each person will have one aspect they simply won’t sacrifice for anything else. For my colleague Mitja, it’s all about design. But what do you think?

We asked readers in a recent poll what their most important checklist item is, and the results shed light on why some smartphone manufacturers spend so much time on stage and hours in the lab working on two critical aspects.

This survey received over 1,800 votes during its run, and the lion’s share of voters chose just two of the six available answers.

The most important thing our readers look for in a phone is performance, and by some margin. This option was chosen by just short of a third (30%) of respondents, underscoring why chipset talk remains a core part of smartphone marketing, even as many of the same generation devices use the same silicon.

I’d argue that there’s no such thing as a genuinely slow phone in 2026. Even mid-range chips have enough grunt to run the latest apps, and the vast majority of consumers don’t need a Snapdragon Elite or MediaTek Dimensity chip to use their devices. Sure, many companies artificially limit cutting-edge features to top-end devices, and performance may be a critical factor for smartphone gamers, but I somehow doubt that every single one of the for-performance voters actually needs the horsepower they crave.

The next most important facet of a smartphone is its camera array, with over a quarter (26%) of respondents choosing it. And once again, modern camera performance is genuinely difficult to fault, especially if all you require is a snapper for social media.

Battery anxiety is real, but speed and photos still matter more

What about the other smartphone checklist items?

“Design” came in third with 17.5% of the vote, and, rather remarkably, “Battery” received support from only 16.6% of respondents. That’s genuinely surprising, given that another recent poll we conducted suggested that 41% of the over 6,000 voters struggled to make their phones last the entire day.

The demand for features like performance and camera quality demonstrates why smartphone makers kick battery development down the road — it just isn’t as important to consumers as a good selfie.

Only “Display size,” with 7.1% of the vote, received less support from readers than battery life, while another 2.1% weighed in with other checklist items they deemed more important.

How do you feel about these results? Be sure to leave a comment below with your must-have checklist item when picking a smartphone.