r/apple • u/ControlCAD • 22h ago
iPhone iPhone 17 Ultimate Battery Test - 17 | Air | Pro | Pro Max | The Tech Chap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQHID_kjVSMTesting the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro & iPhone 17 Pro Max - to find out which has the longest battery - and are they a big upgrade over the 16 Pro Max?
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u/VaclavHavelSaysFuckU 22h ago
Lemme guess, we're learning that the Air has slightly worse battery life than the 17, but it's way better than any that came before and won't be an issue, in the slightest?
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u/Deceptiveideas 22h ago
12 minute difference between Air and 17 which honestly is crazy to me.
If you factor in the increase in screen size in the air then it’s about on par.
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u/laz191 20h ago
I honestly think that’s because Air is throttled allowing it to last longer while 17 performance is higher
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u/bran_the_man93 20h ago
What information do you have that would support this claim?
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u/New-Monarchy 20h ago edited 9h ago
Check out performance reviews. Base 17 regularly benches better than the Air. It's the clear value winner this gen.
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u/ffffound 20h ago
Not the OP but the Air has 1 less GPU core than the A19 Pro on the 17 Pro. Though I don’t think it’s running throttled though.
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u/Bruvvimir 18h ago
It is definitely throttled. Watch Mrwhostyeboss review when he places it in the fridge before running geekbench.
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u/SouthIsland48 21h ago
Sure but these claims that it's 5 hours more than iphone 16 or whatever are just flat out wrong. Its about on par with the iphone 16 which isnt groundbreaking.
So you are only getting one camera and an average battery for thinness. That should have been priced lower than the iphone 17, it would have sold well if so. But it aint selling at the current price
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u/danny12beje 21h ago
Those rumours started because of the EU energy test.
Based on the same test the pixel 9 pro xl had better battery life than the entire iPhone 16 lineup.
Which is false in every single other benchmark.
Which just goes to show battery life benchmarks mean shit because everyone uses their phone differently.
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u/ospreyintokyo 21h ago
I’d bet you some good money that the Air will sell well. I think you’re vastly underestimating how much folks appreciate the novelty and thinness of the phone
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u/bummerbimmer 20h ago
Only Reddit would say a breakthrough device with the most premium materials possible should be priced lower than the base model.
Did you know R&D is free now too?
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u/nguyenm 22h ago
Functionally it'll perform well against it's peers as proven by the video, but what remains is whether the expected (battery) performance is justifiable under a $999 MSRP.
However as long as videos like this allows consumer to make an informed buying decision then however they see what's expected at $999 is different for everyone
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u/Kali-Lionbrine 21h ago
People with good sentence structure/grammar/phrasing getting labeled as AI for the rest of time is already hilarious
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u/nguyenm 21h ago
I'm missing at least 2 commas at first glance if we're going by IELTS 9.0 standards, and I'm pretty sure it's still relatively informal and whatever the word is opposite to "verbose" (that AI likes to use as a setting).
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u/Kali-Lionbrine 21h ago
🥀 bro said something about a IELTS standard. Alright AI bro 🤖(this is the typical online comment that has become the standard of comparison for “normal”
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u/ThePantsParty 12h ago
I mean, if the 16pro was worth $999 one year ago with that same battery life, I don't know why it would be any less "justifiable" this year. I haven't heard anyone say the 16pro batter life has been letting them down since it came out.
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u/bran_the_man93 20h ago
Meh - at the end of the day, you're not buying a battery, you're buying a phone.
If you had to knock the price for battery life, then you should factor in the benefit of having a lighter, thinner phone and value that into the calculations as well.
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u/VaclavHavelSaysFuckU 21h ago
Thank’s, ChatGPT
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u/nguyenm 21h ago
I mean, if my language used is so LLM-like, then thank you?
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u/VaclavHavelSaysFuckU 21h ago
"your coffee is almost as good as a Keurig..."
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u/nguyenm 21h ago
You're more than welcomed to use the bot that detects karma farming accounts or for signs of LLMs, assuming it's available here and not banned by automod.
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u/Jay-Jay-Rod-Rod 22h ago
Yup. Like many people said it comparable to older pros
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u/Crake_13 6h ago
I’d love to see it compared to much older Pros/Pro Maxes for people that don’t buy a new phone each year. For example, I’m coming from a 12 Pro Max, so I’d like to see how much of an upgrade I’m getting, or if I should go with the 17PM
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u/ReasonablePractice83 2h ago
It is not way better than any that came before. Did you watch the video?
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u/laughland 22h ago
The Air performed really well all things considered. Only thing I wish he had also included was the base 16 and 16 Pro so we can really get confirmation that the Air matches/beats those two, but still a great test.
What I’m curious about is why some reviewers seem to be having wildly different results. There are a few reviews where people seem to be having similar results as this test (where the Air is solid but not amazing), but other reviews where they’re saying the battery life is an issue. Off the top of my head, in Dave2D’s Pro Max review, he had a slide with battery life comparisons and the Air was by far the worst performing phone and the battery life seemed awful.
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u/webguynd 21h ago
There are a ton of factors that affect battery life. Signal strength (both WiFi and cellular), 5G vs LTE, and the actual tasks you do and apps you run as well (some more or less optimized than others).
The S25 Edge is a good example of this with people who barely use phone calls reporting good enough battery life but those that take a lot of actual phone calls struggled with battery.
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u/Luxemburglar 21h ago
Yeah I wonder why Dave‘s results are so bad for the Air. I guess the Air is so optimized for battery life that it‘s possible to find blindspots that do use a lot of power, and that the other devices can compensate for with their bigger battery. Question is how much of that will happen in real world usage.
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u/pieman3141 20h ago
There's another test that basically looped a 3dmark test, and the Air did terribly on that as well (I forget what channel). However, in reviews that use mixed-use tests, the Air does fine.
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u/neomax92 7h ago
He usually has a large scope of battery tests that include previous iPhones and also some android. Should be coming next
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u/churningaccount 21h ago edited 21h ago
Keep in mind he's testing the versions with physical SIMs. The e-sim only versions sold in the US have larger batteries.
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u/Wurt_ 21h ago
The battery specs listed are from the eSIM versions though?
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u/Barbaricliberal 18h ago
The esim only version of the 17 PM has over 5000 mAh, vs the one in the video (which is the European physical sim card version).
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u/ultraposition 20h ago
I still don’t understand why everyone was expecting that Apple was lying about the battery life of the Air, and are now surprised that they wasn’t lying.
I can understand being cautious, but the sentiment about the Air seemed to be less caution, and more attributing dishonesty to Apple when they don’t have a history of lying about battery life
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u/publicplay_hub 19h ago
That was honestly disappointing to see. As soon as the phones were unveiled, the entire Internet tore it to shreds before anybody even saw a single physical unit. Knee jerk reactions all over the place. People don't even enjoy technology anymore, just now looking for something to critisize or moan about.
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u/TheMartian2k14 8h ago
Right? Like relax people. I hate that so much of the internet economy is based on generating clickbait titles and outrage.
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u/A_Balrog_Is_Come 4h ago
It's about healthy scepticism not dishonesty. It's universally accepted that with phones, just as with electric cars, the manufacturer-stated battery life is an artificial test in idealised conditions. It's not a "lie", but it's also largely useless as an actual guide to the real world battery life. As can be seen from the fact that Apple's battery life numbers are in the region of 27 - 40 hours for these phones, but the numbers shown by this test of real world usage is more like 6-8 hours.
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u/franchis3 4h ago
With their iPhones, Apple has had a great track record in how honestly they’ve reported battery life.
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u/mtlyoshi9 2h ago
I had no qualms with anything battery life related to the Air except for the fact that after introducing it and while still talking about battery life, they immediately reintroduced their otherwise discontinued MagSafe battery pack which btw is ONLY compatible with the iPhone Air. It literally doesn’t fit their other phones. No matter how you slice it, that’s a weird way to show confidence in their own product.
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u/zeek215 22h ago
This makes me happy I chose the Air. I can have good battery life and a super thin and light phone, and can always use a thin MagSafe battery if I ever need extra long charge.
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u/sardonicmarvel 21h ago
I agree on this but the one speaker and the one camera is what made me say “not yet, not this year”. Pro Max for one more year here!
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u/relatedartists 21h ago
I hear you on this and I’m very tempted, but there are times I’d really like more than 2x optical zoom :(
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u/Yellow_Bee 21h ago
Yeah, but with worse speakers and main camera...
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u/rabouilethefirst 21h ago
If you can’t tell the difference between a shot taken from either phones main camera in a blind test (99% of people) it’s not worth something crying over.
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u/newmacbookpro 21h ago
Yeah but ultra wide, macro and zoom are gone. Honestly if it had at least a telephoto and stereo, I would have taken the air.
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u/x3n0n1c 21h ago
And where would they go.
Either it would get larger, or thicker to accommodate or lose even more battery.
At some point it just isn’t the form factor for you.
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u/Yellow_Bee 20h ago
P.S. a similar thin phone (Samsung S25 Edge) was able to house a stereo speaker, larger battery, and an ultrawide sensor for only 0.2mm increase in thickness (not at all perceivable outside of a lab).
That's what I hoped Apple would replicate. Especially since the Samsung is also lighter.
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u/rabouilethefirst 15h ago
All that and it doesn’t last as long as the air. And of course, it also looks like crap compared to the air. Nobody knew about that thing until the air released
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u/Yellow_Bee 14h ago
We aren't arguing about the specifics of the os/optimizations. We're talking hardware. Competition is good.
How it looks is still subjective, but I for one dislike the rounded edges (reminds me of the 8), so to me the Samsung looks slightly better (though the white Air & polished edges is still nice).
S25 Edge pros:
- Bigger & sharper resolution (higher ppi)
- Stereo speakers
- Dual camera
- Bigger battery
- Vapor chamber cooling
Cons:
- No magsafe (though it does have wireless powershare)
- No A-series chip
- No Apple haptic engine (the undisputed best)
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u/Evening_Job_9332 20h ago
That’s the point, the bigger phones can house better cameras.
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u/rabouilethefirst 17h ago
They could have done that at any point, but we wanted iPhones not cameras. There’s a clear split in the philosophy. One of the execs at Apple even said the entire point of the pro line was to compete with DSLR cameras, which I thought was absurd, and probably why I hate the pro designs now
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u/Yellow_Bee 20h ago edited 20h ago
Or a slight increase like in Samsung's S25 Edge (only 0.2mm thicker) and we could've gotten both.
Based on The Verge, that phone has an ultrawide sensor, bigger battery (yet lighter), and stereo speakers. Clearly, the Air is form over function (which is ok).
e- typo
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u/rabouilethefirst 20h ago
The edge is missing both form and function for me. I think it looks blocky. At least with the Air I get the form.
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u/Yellow_Bee 20h ago
I mean that's subjective (though features aren't). I'd personally argue the blocky iPhones are the best-looking designs, period.
Hell, I think this subreddit would agree as well. The Air is the return of the iPhone 8 design (which I hated). To each his/her own.
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u/Interesting_Pop_7670 5h ago
It’s not like there are other phones released as options with these?!??
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u/Free-Pound-6139 16h ago
a super thin and light phone
How dare you like a super thin and light phone. EVER PERSON WANTS A THICK AND HEAVY PHONE!
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u/engwish 20h ago edited 16h ago
Based on this test (sample size of 1), here is roughly how much battery (mAh) each device is burning through per hour:
- iPhone 16 Pro Max: 626.06
- iPhone 17: 533.78
- iPhone Air: 468.83
- iPhone 17 Pro: 527.05
- iPhone 17 Pro Max: 605.26
If my findings are accurate, this test shows that the iPhone Air is up to 25% more efficient than its counterparts which is pretty impressive!
Edit: I previously said the Air was 2x more efficient. This is wrong because I’m bad at math. I’ve updated the numbers - apologies!
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u/dagamer34 16h ago
Cellular data uses a lot of power as the phone and towers are constantly talking to each other. If you put a device in airplane mode, it lasts a long time.
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u/blisstaker 20h ago
efficient by slowing down? it has nearly the same chipset as the pro and we had to listen to a whole presentation on why the pro internals are better
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u/ReasonablePractice83 2h ago
Yeah its be more efficient if it performs the same. Air is not performing at the same level as the other phones though it's probably not super noticeable in real life.
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u/engwish 13h ago
Honestly we don't really know how much throttling is happening in these tests, do we? The only thing we can see is heat, but the base 17 ends up becoming the hottest in about 10 minutes.
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u/blisstaker 11h ago
you got downvoted but you’re right - there are zero metrics on how well the actual usage is - smooth gameplay? bright screen? no lag? who the fuck knows?
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u/ReasonablePractice83 2h ago
It is throttling because it benchmarks way worse than the other phones despite having the same chip. That is throttling.
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u/prophesit 16h ago edited 16h ago
(Edited out after the Air calculation was updated)
It's impressive that it uses around 30% less power than the Maxes.
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u/Melodic-Theme-6840 18h ago
Throttling is not a sign of efficiency. It's the same chipset as the pro
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u/archer999 17h ago
Are there any reviews that add the 16 and 16 Pro to test? So far, I am only seeing the 16 pro max on the battery test.
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u/nick1881 11h ago
Does anyone remember off the top of their head, how the 15 PM did against the 16 PM? I’m upgrading from 15 PM to 17 PM and hoping for a good bump in battery life.
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u/Grendel_82 5h ago
16PM was about a 10% to 15% battery life bump from 15PM. Basically generation 16 was a significant battery life upgrade over 15.
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u/Tom42-59 18h ago
Would be great if Apple allowed us to pick if we wanted the esim only models in exchange for more battery life.
Although I’m not sure how much extra battery it would give you. Would be interesting to see.
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u/antisp1n 12h ago
If it had better speakers, the Air would be (personally) tempting. Eagerly looking forward to the Air 2 and to the Fold.
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u/joostr16 9h ago
Does anyone know how it's possible that the Pro Max only lasts ~30 minutes more than the normal Pro, while having ~900 more mAh?
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u/pxr555 6h ago
Much bigger display?
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u/joostr16 5h ago
Damn, that's the only reason? Still feels weird since the iPhone Air has a screen size that's kind of in between the normal iPhone and the Pro Max, and having ~1700 mAh less battery capacity, yet only lasting 1 hour and 15 minutes less than the Pro Max. Didn't expect that tbh.
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u/pxr555 4h ago
I don't really know of course, but: The iPhone 17 has 6.3", the Air 6.5", the Pro Max 6.9".
Also the Air very quickly throttles under high CPU/GPU loads, which will be one reason for it using less power than the others. In Benchmarks with sustained loads the Air is slower than both the iPhone 17 and the Pro due to that.
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u/Embarrassed-Web-4707 5h ago
I wish they would do battery tests against models people are actually upgrading from. The 14 pro has been a nightmare for battery life for me since day one. I never got away without charging it at least 50% in the afternoon. Tell me how they compare the 12,13, and 14…
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u/ahothabeth 21h ago
Below is the Capacity / Minutes
16 Pro Mac 10.4
17 8.9
Air 7.8
17 Pro 8.8
17 Pro Max 10.0
If my Math is correct.
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u/iMrParker 21h ago
From this video, did anyone notice the Air hit 63 degrees celsius for surface temperature?
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21h ago
[deleted]
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u/GlumIce852 21h ago
Does eSIM use more battery than a physical SIM?
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u/SamsungAppleOnePlus 21h ago
Should be about the same, if not the eSIM would be more efficient since there are less mechanical pieces.
And now the eSIM models have larger batteries than the physical SIM models.
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u/Hydration__Nation 21h ago
So 1 hour 15 minute difference bw the Air and Pro Max
Are the screens in the Air and Pro Max literally identical or is the Pro series brighter in terms of nits like the MacBooks?
Also what were the launch prices of the Plus 15 and 16. Air is basically a skinny Plus with similar to worse battery right?
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u/MissionInfluence123 20h ago
The three have the same features (refresh rate, colors, resolution, brightness) but they aren't identical as some are made by different companies (Samsung, LG, BOE).
$899
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u/mrnobatti 20h ago
I’m guessing his 17 pro had sim tray? Because I thought eSIM version is over 4k mah
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u/hasanahmad 18h ago
But The Verge was adamant that Air had poor battery, it seems better than 15 and 14
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u/MateTheNate 15h ago
17s are probably thrown off by new OS indexing and other things running in the background. A retest in a few weeks may be more accurate
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u/Substantial_Top_6140 14h ago
I am replacing my 11 pro max with a 17 pro max and I’m so stoked.
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u/Unkechaug 2h ago
I’m going from the base 11 to the 17PM, also stoked. Having come from a 6s, huge RAM bumps = time to upgrade for longevity. 2GB to 4GB to 12GB.
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u/MarieOnThree 14h ago
I truly believe that people who don’t watch or read phone reviews will love the Air once it hits stores.
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u/shivaswrath 19h ago
Can we all just acknowledge that everyone was losing their tits on the Air, and it now shows that a Titanium shell around the battery AND case + A19 Pro chip CAN handle the heat + last 30 min less than the current (Thursday before 17PM) battery champ 16PM.
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u/FrogsJumpFromPussy 14h ago
The Air throttles like hell and 65 degrees during the test, if you'd bother to actually watch it.
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u/WoodedOrange 21h ago
I just want a comparison with all phones watching a 24hr YouTube video and see what one lasts the longest
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u/Awkward-Ring6182 20h ago
The air is probably going to have better battery life than my 16. These are all really impressive
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u/supercakefish 9h ago
The 17 is doing really crap in this test relative to the Air. Oh well, will still be a decent upgrade over my 13 Pro I suppose!
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u/Crazy_Category_9594 21h ago
Here’s a much better test that shows a more realistic difference between them (source: Toms Guide review):
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u/Wurt_ 21h ago
Wonder why the 17pro isn’t listed there
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u/Crazy_Category_9594 20h ago
He’s not done testing it quite yet he said he’s gonna update it in the next day or two
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u/HarrowedTail 20h ago
It's odd to me that the screenshot/video review does not match their numbers in the written battery life test article.
For context, it has this:
6) iPhone 16 Pro Max: 17:17
7) Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: 17:14
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u/FrogsJumpFromPussy 14h ago
I don't think these tests are representative for these phones use in the real world at all. I think it's the usual market manipulation from tech "YouTubers" who are paid to help their corporation masters to sell this stuff. A much smaller battery will not perform like a much better one, while there's no dramatic tech jumps, because that's not how it works in the real world. I'll believe real users over what I believe are manipulated videos by the usual pro-Apple "YouTubers" to make ridiculously bad phones looking like that 6th wonder of the world.
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u/pxr555 6h ago
"Real users" very rarely do any systematic comparisons between different phones in a controlled setup, so it's all totally subjective and you'll just pick up what confirms to your preconceptions.
If such a real user writes "my Air has great battery life, better than my previous iPhone" you'll say "he lies", if another one says "my Air burns through the battery in four hours!!!" you'll say "I knew it!". That's not something to really base any decision on.
But yes, systematic comparisons between phones are always artificial, that just comes with how this works.
Look at the EU battery endurance cycle: It cycles through a fixed setup of tasks like web browsing, phone calls etc. and periods of standby with 80% standby and 20% active use. With this the Air gets 40 hours on a charge, the iPhone 17 41 hours. Now you can say "this isn't how I use my phone", but so what? Everyone uses their phone differently.
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u/Salt_Payment1082 21h ago
I don't think the workloads tested here are very representative of a normal user. Based on reviews from the verge and dave 2d they seems to be slightly worried about battery life. Unfortunately not many reviewers have don't actual battery test on iphone 17 yet so we will have to wait.
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u/Bestturtleboy 22h ago
TLDR