Best moderately-priced Android handset?

[Sarsippius]

It's anecdotal but older phones seemed to last longer, my S6 was still pretty good after two years but I've noticed both Pixels I've had had this noticeable drop after about 6 months. It could be usage though, my S6 would last me a couple days on a charge but I think I watch more youtube and stuff nowadays so I have to charge every day. It also could be that battery tech is evolving towards smaller sizes with higher capacities and this reduces longevity, I'm just guessing here though.

[w00dsy]

You were lucky with your S6, that had the worst battery life for me off any phone. I was lucky to get to the end of the work day.

[ysu]

I think it's a bit of a game of luck, but they seem to engineer these phones to last ~3 years. If you are lucky, they will last longer, but if not, they'll die on you.
Same with the battery.

Also; there's a lot of confusion about how to keep the battery life up. Charge it often? Leave it drain, then charge? etc...

Anecdotally:
we are Samsung people so far; S2,S5,S7,S9 - of these, the S2's were proper workhorses, one is still around for visitors, the other we've finally chucked due to a completely demolished screen as well as a dead battery. But the battery does not last anymore in the 'good' one either. We've even dropped one into water (not supposed to be water resistant) and after drying it out it kept working.

My S5 was a bit of a flop, broke down on me, then later wife's S5 gave up. Twice. Mine was still within warranty, got fixed. Hers wasn't the 2nd time, so she got an S7 a couple of years back; that still lasts, altho the screen is battered (I don't know what's wrong with her, she brakes every screen, I don't )
My replacement S5 lasted some 5 years I think when I've finally changed it, the battery life was crap on that as well. The phone originally went 2 days w/o a charge (I'm not using it much) but by the end, it barely got through a normal day.

Now the S9+ is great again, two days easy with my light usage, even when moving around, changing cells. Occasionally some fucker of an app takes a chunk out of it, but the battery seems pretty darn decent so far.

[KNAPPO]

The Nexus 6P has a hardware fault with its battery that Huawei & Google have been taken to court over.
If I was in the US or purchased it from the Google store I would be able to claim a new phone via the class action lawsuit...

The phone was on contract via Optarse and is now paid in full which doesn't leave me many options I think. Ill get a new handset soon, as the 6P is 2.5yrs old and lasts about 1/2 to 3/4 of a day but as I work at a computer I can leave it on charge thru the day. Biggest thing that can sting me is using the camera, it smashes the battery and the phone reguarly shuts off when im shooting and have 30-40% battery left. PITA!

I was given a S7 with a small crack in its screen which would be a good short term solution but ive loaded that up with a bunch of VR games for myself and the kids.

[KNAPPO]

Well the 6P finally pissed me off enough to get a new phone. The thing would shut down at 60% battery left and if you were to use the camera any where under 80-90% it was a game of Russian roulette if it would stay booted up...

Grabbed a Pixel 3a 64gb. Pretty impressed, the camera is outstanding. Like some fucking crazy wizardry shit levels of outstanding!!!

[w00dsy]

They seem to be taking the mid price range by storm now. Not many bad review about it.