The smartphone with a 31-hour battery life

When buying a smartphone or tablet, the battery life is arguably one of the most important things people consider.

Luckily consumer group Which? has taken the guess work out of it by compiling a guide of smartphones, tablets, laptops, Bluetooth speakers and wireless headphones that offer the best and worst battery life.

It turns out some smartphones will die after just 180 minutes of browsing the web – not what you want from a modern phone.

The HTC 10 took top place for the longest battery life of a smartphone.

The $575 phone took a whopping 1,859 minutes of continuous talk time to run out of battery – that’s just one minute short of 31 hours.

Coming in as the worst buy for battery life was the EE Rook, which will run out of juice within three hours of browsing the web.

Looking for a tablet?

Then the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 is going to give you the best value for money when it comes to battery life.

On average, the $250 tablet lasted almost 16 hours before it needed charging again.

The 4:3 aspect ratio screen is also marketed as an ideal tablet for bookworms – so it should give you plenty of reading time.

But if you are planning on using your tablet for lengthy tasks then you should probably avoid the $120 Acer Iconia B1-710 as it will only give you about three hours before powering down.

Which? said: “With a price tag of less than $120, we hadn’t expected the Acer Iconia B1-710 to compete with the big boys.”

“But the three or so hours of battery life you get is frankly pathetic. Never mind Tolstoy, this tablet will barely get you through today’s newspaper.”

For 11 hours of battery use in a laptop, look for the Toshiba Satellite Click 10.

The laptop, which has a detachable keyboard so it can also act as a tablet, will last 11 hours while watching films and 12 for web browsing – all for $365.

Paling in comparison is the Asus Zenboook Pro UX501, which will set you back more than $1,200, but only lasts a miserable two-and-a-half-hours without being plugged in.

It comes amid concerns that advances in battery power have failed to keep up with advances in technology, such as apps, cameras, video streaming and browsing, that puts a strain on the battery’s lifespan.

The latest Samsung debacle of “exploding” Galaxy Note 7 smartphones was put down to a direct result of a systematic battery failure.

The estimated figure of how much the recalled smartphone will cost the manufacturer varies from $2.5 billion to $22 billion, according to Which?.