What’s the most important feature on a smartphone today? Battery life, right? Sure, we want the latest and greatest chipset, which usually results in lower battery life. But what if you could have both? That’s essentially what realme is doing.
The new realme GT 7 sports the MediaTek Dimensity 9400e, which is a more efficient version of the Dimensity 9400. So obviously that helps with the battery life here. But you know what else helps? Having a 7,000mAh capacity battery. That’s one of the largest batteries we’ve seen in a smartphone so far.
And as someone from the US, who basically has to choose between Apple, Google and Samsung for a new phone, it shows just how far behind those three are. The Galaxy S25 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, Pixel 9 Pro XL has a 5,060mAh battery and the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a 4,685mAh battery. That means that the realme GT 7 has about a 2,000mAh capacity battery larger than the competition here in the US.
Samsung is still scarred from the Galaxy Note 7
Samsung has done a great job with optimization on its recent smartphones, like the Galaxy S25 Ultra with its 5,000mAh capacity battery. But just imagine if Samsung had that optimization with a 7,000mAh capacity battery? It would be definitely a two, maybe three day phone. But instead, Samsung is sticking with a 5,000mAh battery here, which is likely due to the Galaxy Note 7.
For those that might not remember, the Galaxy Note 7 had to be recalled twice over the battery. It was catching on fire, and even was banned by airlines. It’s also a big reason why batteries are not allowed in checked bags now.
Samsung, it’s time to move past those fears. You’ve done a lot to ensure that your batteries are safe, so now give us a larger battery. And adopt silicon-carbon. That’s how companies like realme, OPPO, OnePlus, HONOR and others have been able to pack such large batteries into such thin frames.
For what it’s worth, Samsung does offer some of the fastest USB-C PD charging speeds. Most other phones that offer incredibly fast charging speeds, are doing so over USB-A. Like the realme GT 7 that we’re talking about here. It uses SUPERVOOC charging, at 120W, over USB-A. Which is honestly one of my main complaints with OPPO, OnePlus and realme devices. As that means I need to carry their charger with me when I’m traveling, to get these fast speeds.
Why won’t Google and Apple adopt larger batteries?
This likely comes down to cost, and possibly down to R&D. Apple does optimize their devices quite well, so despite launching with smaller battery sizes, the iPhone does rival most Android phones in terms of battery life. Google on the other hand? It’s hard to say.
Neither company has adopted silicon-carbon yet, though we hope that they will soon. Seeing how thin these silicon-carbon batteries can be, and how dense, it makes it truly incredible for a smartphone. Just take a look at the OPPO Find N5. This is a foldable that is just 4.2mm thick when unfolded, and it still holds a 5,600mAh capacity battery inside. that’s larger than the Galaxy S25 Ultra which is not a foldable, and is about as thick when the N5 is folded.
Of course, Apple is never first to adopt a new technology. A big part of this is because Apple needs to be able to secure tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of units for the iPhone. Because the iPhone is sold in such a high volume. This is why they were late to doing OLED displays, or Always-On Display, or even USB-C. Though, USB-C was more about not wanting to switch the port on users again so soon after switching to Lightning.
Just how long can a 7,000mAh battery last?
A very long time.
In our review of the realme GT 7, we found that the battery test lasted longer than on any other smartphone we’ve reviewed so far. And if that wasn’t enough, realme is also planning to launch a 7,500mAh capacity battery smartphone later this year – likely the realme GT 8 Pro.
I’ve been using the GT 7 over the past few weeks, and it’s nearly impossible to kill this phone in a single day. I’m typically getting 10-12 hours of screen-on time, without turning anything off, limiting the refresh rate, or changing the screen resolution. This is also without any sort of power saver mode. So the battery lasts a very long time.
How can we tell Apple, Google and Samsung we want larger batteries?
Of course, the easiest way to tell these companies that you want larger batteries, is to not buy their phones. Buy phones with larger batteries. Voting with your wallet is the best way to get your message across. And Eventually, these companies will get the message.
Currently, these three have become quite comfortable with their slot in the smartphone space, especially in the US where these Chinese companies are not available. Which has led to less innovation. And that’s why we’ve seen the same size batteries for 3-4 years from these flagships.
