Android smartphones have, till recently, been notorious for their terrible power management and resulting awful battery life. This problem became apparent with earlier high end smartphones like the Nexus One and HTC Desire HD, became worse with 4G LTE devices like the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon, improved a little with the Galaxy Nexus and has now, finally, reached a state where one can use a Galaxy S III and One X without carrying an extra charger to work. This is mostly thanks to newer hardware that sips less power.
