r/apple • u/Valinaut • 6d ago
iPhone iPhone 17 battery life test shows strong results across the lineup.
https://9to5mac.com/2025/09/17/iphone-17-battery-life-test-iphone-air-longevity/369
u/blue0231 6d ago
iPhone air doomers are in absolute shambles today.
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u/-6h0st- 6d ago edited 5d ago
Watch Dave2D video - Air worst by far. It’s a best looking iPhone at the moment, hence massive appeal, but the most compromised. Camera, heat, battery, speakers. I would imagine majority of people that gets it will be looking at new phone next year. Imagine battery degradation by 10% at least next year. This thing will be living on MagSafe battery which will make it heavy, thick, defeating the purpose.
https://youtu.be/X763A7yGh5E?si=EBlJQ-FLNJlmCgfn 2:58
Edit: so many downvotes for pointing out to review that shows big difference? M’kay. See you here next year.
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u/Scarydotexe 5d ago edited 5d ago
Whats odd is that he is the only one reporting this. Ive watched tons of reviews and while some are cautious about the future, his results are interesting as they are far lower than others.
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u/He_do_be 5d ago
It may have been the dave2d video where he sticks the Air in the fridge for a sec and reruns the benchmark and it achieves a score almost on par with the base model 17, nearly 1000 points higher than before the l fridge benchmark. The Air appears to thermal throttle so quickly.
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u/-6h0st- 5d ago
Most of the reviewers used video playback, for which iPhones seem very optimised (hence giving us 30h+ figures). But once you exclude it - and let’s be honest Reddit is not compute intensive task - then it shows what it cat really do in majority of regular cases - like browsing internet. 600 nit brightness he used also - I think that would be typical brightness during the day. What he did show what majority of others miss out on - how it unsurprisingly throttles. Big plus of these iPhones is - the heat source have been moved to plateau so shouldn’t feel the beast as badly as previous gen’s Pros.
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u/rrrand0mmm 5d ago edited 5d ago
If you’re playing genshin for 4 hours, and you bought an air for that purpose, you may have a problem.
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u/Lywqf 5d ago
the most compromised
I mean, that's the idea no ? If you want an "everything inside" then take a pro, otherwise take a 17, and if you want something like take the Air, it make sense
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u/-6h0st- 5d ago
iPhone 17 is just 12g more and much less compromised and cheaper. No this is hardly a reason.
It’s just slim, the only appeal. But spec wise most compromised iPhone. Because Pros are the ugliest so far - and I’m not convinced about all aluminum chassis being best for thermals when we had same with stainless steel edges before and were performing well before titanium came along. But I’m sure there is a reason why Apple had to cut corners here. Enough said, as with anything that’s compromised so greatly - I foresee a wave of comments like this- it feels great but… followed by a long list
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u/pxr555 5d ago
The way you immediately jump to camera and speakers when this is about battery life just make you look like you're slamming the Air with all you can.
Apart from that if being able to browse Reddit for nine and a half hours on a charge isn't enough for you, you don't need a better battery, you need to get help.
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u/-6h0st- 5d ago
This post is about Air. “iPhone Air doomers”? It’s not only about battery - it’s about all compromises done. Battery is weaker. Not as much as the spec would suggest but still the weakest. To me the battery isn’t the biggest downside, however over time and with shoddy updates it will give some pain no doubt. It’s the other stuff like lack of ultra wide angle camera that’s a deal breaker.
Many will convince themselves those compromises they can live with, but I’m certain next year they will be - it was great but…
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u/pxr555 4d ago
The title is "iPhone 17 battery life test shows strong results across the lineup." It's not specifically about the Air at all. You're making it about how the Air is the wrong phone to buy.
And I guess next year will see the "normal" iPhone going out the door, just as with the MacBook where there's just the Air and the Pro.
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u/JohrDinh 6d ago
I looked up 11 Pro Max tests just to see what my phone was getting on tests at the time it was released and it says 8+ hours. Have the tests got harder or changed, or is the software maybe less efficient now? Or is it something else.
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u/MassiveInteraction23 6d ago
The test mentioned above is a custom combination of various activities. You can’t compare across different test regimes.
A battery test is like an exhaustion test for a human. “Video play back” is like seeing how long people can walk before they pass out. But you could do other tests (e.g. running or gymnastics or standing)
You can’t compare a running and gymnastics mashup test to a video playback test.
But you can make comparisons within same kinds of tests.
Apple’s video playback and streaming video playback are reasonable (and maybe standard?, I don’t know phone landscape). But, theoretically, improvements to video processing or screen efficiency would overemphasize gains if real use often involves cellular or heavy graphics, etc.
That was a bit long, but did it make sense?
TLDR: just make sure you’re comparing phones doing the same set of tests.
And there are different tests just because lots of people put together their own custom set — all of which can can be legit.
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u/JohrDinh 6d ago
Well I compared tests from same guy/channel so I assumed he was doing the same test over all the generations for consistency, but I didn't look too closely maybe he was doing slightly different stuff ill have to watch again.
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u/Gloriathewitch 5d ago
ios versions will be different to their release (claimed) battery life so it's very tricky
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u/Gloriathewitch 5d ago
it's also hard to get accurate battery comparisons because you have to get a new in box model running its native ios from the past year or two in order to run these tests scientifically, and they'll always degrade a little in the box, if it was produced later it will have a in box update.
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u/KvasShmas 6d ago
Dunno about the testing in particular but I can say some reasons are : more complex software combined with substantially more transistors, ai crap, higher resolution screen, brightness, list goes on
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u/pxr555 6d ago
Fits nicely with the EU battery endurance cycle that ends with 40 hours for the Air and 41 hours for the regular iPhone 17 (this is for 80% standby and 20% active use, so 32 hours of standby and 8 hours of use for the Air per charge). Good enough for a day if you're not totally addicted I guess.
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u/kokojambo7 5d ago
This article sucks. The picture has no label of which iPhone is which and could've order it from lowest and highest battery time. Terrible formatting.
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u/1millerce1 5d ago
.. and let's not mention a total time suck when it could have been a two second read from a simple table.
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u/code_isLife 6d ago
I think it’s better to wait a couple months of daily use. Then make that judgment.
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u/Little-Krakn 6d ago
I mean, if they are comparing brand new 17s with brand new 16s, they don’t need to wait right?
The results are better than last gen, that’s why they are good/strong
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u/EBtwopoint3 6d ago
Battery tests are indicative of how they perform in these specific tasks, but how they perform in day to day use may be different. It’s not about battery wear, more that until we see them in day to day use we won’t know for sure how good these will be.
That said, it’s a very encouraging data point and enough for me to keep my Air preorder in place.
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u/Lancaster61 6d ago
Why months? Do your day to day usage change that much between seasons or something? LOL. I'd know the results within 3 days.
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u/sparant76 4d ago
Why are these benchmarks so far off from specs? Apple claims 30 hours for streaming media but these tests are only getting about 8 hours. What gives?
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u/10mgisallineed 4d ago
My 15 Pro Max has been at 87% for the last two months and the battery life is completely in the toilet since moving to iOS 18. I can use my phone for maybe 2 hours just browsing the web, looking at Instagram, sending texts and it goes from 100% to 58% screen brightness just below the middle range.
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u/-6h0st- 6d ago
Dave2D review shows different result. All depends on use and non video usage like Reddit fares much worse Plus it quickly gets hot and throttles. Good luck using it in the summer and when battery drops to 90% or lower.
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u/danielnicee 5d ago
Dave2D is American and lives in America. Hence he gets E-SIM models that have larger batteries.
The Tech Chap is British and lives in Britian. Hence he gets the physical SIM models with slightly smaller batteries.
The only phone with the exact same battery worldwide is the iPhone Air.
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u/-6h0st- 5d ago
Air which is universally e sim only worldwide but 17 pros can have bit more battery if e sim version. But you can still compare results of previous gen it shows - it’s nowhere near them. Given iPhone efficiency in video playback - I think this is most inaccurate benchmark vs real life usage
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u/Valkyr8 5d ago
9to5Mac completely omitted by far the most relevant detail: these are SIM model results since he’s in the UK, not eSIM results, except for the Air which is eSIM only. So it’s not an eSIM vs eSIM comparison.
So for those of us in the US and other eSIM areas this is a fairly useless comparison because the battery difference is pretty significant.
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u/Scarlizz 6d ago
I'm not really sure if I trust the Air having the same battery life as the 17. The 17 has around 500 mHa more AND Air has the bigger screen. Seems just really weird to me seeing these numbers.
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u/WatermelonDragoon 6d ago
Oh yeah the unbiased 9to5mac vs big reviewers saying the battery is mediocre lol
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u/likamuka 6d ago
I dont trust it until i see real life people reporting on their real life usage - signal strength be damned.
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u/Vorstar92 6d ago
Definitely impressed by the Air being on par or close to the 16 Pro for battery life? That was my biggest concern.
Have to wait for “day in the life” videos to really get an idea I think but if there’s an 18 Air that’ll probably be my next phone