Does your Android phone last longer, charge faster in 2026?

Android phones have made major strides when it comes to fast charging and battery capacity. Many Android OEMs have offered impressive charging speeds for more than five years now, although companies like Google and Samsung still lag behind.

We’ve also seen the rise of silicon-carbon batteries in the last few years, with brands like HONOR, OPPO, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and vivo all adopting this tech. But again, Google and Samsung haven’t adopted this major battery upgrade just yet.

These upgrades have got me thinking about readers’ charging and battery habits in 2026. I especially wonder whether readers are using power-saving modes more or less often nowadays owing to the rise of silicon-carbon batteries. I also wonder how long it takes for readers to charge their phones today. You can answer these questions via our poll below.

Here are some more questions:

• Are you charging your phone more or less often compared to previous devices?
• Does your phone last longer than your previous handset?
• How big is your phone battery? Is it larger or smaller than your earlier phones?
• Do you cap your phone’s maximum charge? If so, is it capped at 80%, 90%, or something else?
• Do you use bypass charging at all? This allows your charger to directly power the phone, bypassing the battery.
• Have you ever used your phone’s performance mode if it has one? How has this impacted the battery life?

You can leave a comment below if you’d like to answer these open thread questions. You can also leave a comment if you’d like to elaborate on the choices you made in our polls!