I Tested a Low-Cost Phone With One of the Biggest Batteries We’ve Seen Yet

Silicon-carbon batteries are in the lead phones to stunning battery life, and the Realme P4 Power includes one of the biggest batteries we’ve seen in a phone. It sets an even higher benchmark with a 10,001 mAh battery. In comparison, that’s double the capacity we see in more mainstream phones like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultrawhich includes a 5,000 mAh battery.

The Realme phone outperforms what we’ve seen on other phones with this battery type, including the OnePlus 15the 7,300 mAh battery and the RedMagic 11 ProThe 7,500 mAh battery. Phones with batteries of this size offer up to two days of use and often have faster charging speeds.

The Realme P4 Power is currently available in India – it’s unlikely it’ll ever come to the US – but despite its unrivaled battery capacity, it’s relatively cheap at INR 25,999, or around $285. That’s just a bit bigger than the 10,000 mAh battery in the Victory of honorwhich I was able to try last year, but I didn’t have more time to really test it.

That’s why I was excited to put my SIM card in the Realme P4 Power, during which I was able to put this phone through all of CNET’s battery tests, using it as my primary device and even as a power bank for my iPhone along the way.

All that battery without any major drawbacks

The best part about the Realme P4 Power is that it doesn’t sacrifice comfort for extra battery capacity. It’s not a thin and light phone, but at 9.1mm thick and weighing 219g, it’s lighter than some large flagship phones, including the iPhone 17 Pro Max And Google Pixel 10 Pro XL.

Realme’s TransView design features a translucent look around the camera module, which accentuates its “Power” branding. I love this distinct design and in-hand feel. It features curved corners as well as slight curves on the back that make it easier to hold. (Please take note, Samsung.)

The Realme P4 Power has a plastic back and frame, while the front is protected by Gorilla Glass 7i. It’s also rated for durability with dust and water resistance ratings of IP66, IP68, and IP69. This means it can survive immersion in fresh water and high-pressure water jets and is also protected against small dust particles.

On the front, you get a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,800 x 1,280 pixels, a refresh rate of 144Hz, a brightness of 1,800 nits, and a peak brightness of 6,500 nits for HDR-supported content. Like many phones, you have to manually set it to a higher resolution and refresh rate to take advantage of these features.

I had no issues with the screen and using a curved panel after a long time was a refreshing experience. It was easily readable outdoors and I enjoyed watching videos. However, I don’t like the lack of stereo speakers. The device has only one speaker at the bottom; even if the sound is loud, you will need to connect your headphones for a better cinematic experience.

I used the Realme P4 Power in everyday life, which included scrolling on social media apps like Instagram and It comfortably lasted me up to two days of regular use and a day and a half of heavy use. And when you need to recharge it, you can use the included charger to recharge the battery at 80 watts.

To better judge the new Realme phone, I put it through CNET’s 3-hour video streaming test and 45-minute battery endurance test.

In the video streaming test, where I streamed video over Wi-Fi with the screen at full brightness and the battery starting at 100%, it lost 3% battery per hour and ended at 91%. This puts it at the top of CNET’s rankings alongside the iPhone 17 Pro Max, followed by the OnePlus 15 (90%) and the iPhone 17 (89%).

It also performed well in CNET’s 45-minute endurance test, during which we played games, streamed videos, browsed social media, and took a video call with the battery starting at 100 percent. The Realme P4 Power ended up losing just 1% battery, sharing first place with the iPhone 17 Pro Max at 99%.

And everything else?

The Realme P4 Power features a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Ultra chipset, paired with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. (The base model has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.) It’s more of a mid-range chip that’s in a similar class as the Motorola RazrThe Dimensity 7400X. It handles daily tasks smoothly and has no major flaws. As for minor issues, I noticed that apps sometimes took longer than usual to load and the camera app took a few seconds to process, but these issues aren’t a deal breaker.

Realme’s user interface is smooth, snappy and highly customizable. It is similar to OnePlus and Oppo. However, you get several preloaded apps. (I uninstalled them as soon as I set up the phone.) Overall, this Realme UI 7.0 (based on Android 16) is fast and responsive. You’ll get three years of Android OS upgrades and four years of security upgrades.

The Realme P4 Power has dual rear cameras and a 16-megapixel selfie shooter on the front. You get a 50-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor on the back. There are many AI-powered tools available to help you enhance or edit a photo.

It offers a satisfying camera experience. In daylight, the P4 Power can take beautiful photos. Colors are mostly accurate, contrast is balanced, and dynamic range is decent. It digitally processes 2x portraits, which works well for the most part, but sometimes certain areas can have a cut-out feel, like you’ve been pasted onto a background.

Overall, the Realme P4 Power is a great phone for its excellent battery life. I expected it to perform well with its 10,001 mAh battery, but I didn’t expect it to outperform all other Android phones in our testing. I like it more because this battery innovation is accessible to the general public, thanks to its lower price and is not reserved for more expensive models.

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