This mid-range phone’s battery just left Samsung and Apple flagships in the dust

There have been rapid improvements in batteries across the smartphone industry lately, especially due to silicon batteries overtaking traditional Li-ion batteries. To that end, Vivo is going to release the mid-range Y500 very soon, and its battery leaves Samsung and Apple flagships in the dust.

The Y500, according to a recent leak (translated source), will feature a battery capacity of a whopping 8,200 mAh. These numbers aren’t actually anything new for 2025, but the continued trend of massive batteries in super affordable phones spells trouble for Samsung and Apple in many regions around the world.

Recently, many Chinese phone manufacturers have introduced batteries in their phones that put the Galaxy S25 and the iPhone 16 to shame. One example is the Honor Power: a phone that has a battery capacity of 8,000 mAh. Shortly after that model, Honor also released the X70 — another mid-range smartphone — that came with an 8,300 mAh battery pack.

The new OnePlus 13, an excellent phone in more ways than one, also features a 6,000 mAh battery. Similarly, other Chinese flagship phones are also shipping with batteries much larger than Samsung’s tried and tested 5,000 mAh cells. Realme, for example, is currently working on a battery that might have a capacity of over 10,000 mAh.

Unfortunately, there are still a few reasons that sticking with Samsung or Apple phones may just serve you better anyway. It’s not like the two companies want to keep using smaller batteries, but certain regulations are, at this point in time, forcing them to do just that. Even if Samsung switches to silicon carbon batteries, it will probably only do so just to make its phones even slimmer while still keeping the 5,000 mAh capacity.

There’s also the problem of silicon carbon batteries wearing out much faster than Li-ion batteries. Samsung and Apple both promise longer software support than many Chinese manufacturers, and so need to use batteries that can last that long.

Lastly, it’s still the case that many U.S. carriers don’t properly support Chinese phones, making it needlessly difficult to purchase and set one up. So, while mid-rangers like the Vivo Y500 are definitely overtaking the top dogs in certain aspects, American consumers may have to stick with Samsung and Apple for the foreseeable future.

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