Key takeaways:
The iPhone 17 Professional Max has excellent battery life that simply lasts all day with cost to spare.Our unique lab information exhibits you needn’t pay over a grand for glorious battery life. The $829 iPhone 17’s battery lasts simply so long as the $1,099 iPhone 17 Professional.The ultrathin iPhone Air, with a modest battery capability, outlasted Samsung’s premium Galaxy S25 telephones.
You may say that battery life is only a small consideration when shopping for a brand new iPhone or Android telephone now, however that stance will get shaky once you’re staring down a sliver of pink within the battery gauge and have nowhere to plug in. After reviewing smartphones for over a decade, I’ve discovered that longer battery life is the one characteristic folks persistently need from their telephones.
When Apple launched the brand new iPhone 17 sequence and iPhone Air, it spent appreciable time touting the longer battery lifetime of the iPhone 17, 17 Professional, and 17 Professional Max, as in comparison with their predecessors.
My fellow CNET reviewers and I’ve now had the possibility to check these claims.
When introducing the iPhone Air and its tremendous slim design, Apple confirmed a slide throughout its keynote stating that it has all-day battery life. Nevertheless, the corporate undercut its declare on the subsequent slide when it introduced a brand new MagSafe battery pack designed for the Air, which fed into fears {that a} thinner design may point out a major sacrifice to battery life.
Your telephone’s battery life is affected by a number of variables, like how shiny you retain your show or in case your telephone has a weak sign out of your provider. How you utilize your telephone has a huge impact, too. Somebody who’s obsessively on-line could have a a lot completely different expertise with their battery life than somebody who has their telephone of their bag at work and checks it on breaks.
So, how have you learnt whether or not the battery life is nice on the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 sequence?
CNET examined the brand new Apple telephones’ battery life 3 ways: via an anecdotal stress check, a video streaming check and observing battery life after on a regular basis use. We additionally examined wired and wi-fi charging. Our lab information confirmed sturdy battery life for the iPhone 17, 17 Professional, 17 Professional Max and even the Air, particularly in comparison with older iPhone fashions.
Do not miss any of our unbiased tech content material and lab-based critiques. Add CNET as a most popular Google supply.
The iPhone 17 Professional Max has glorious battery life
The iPhone 17 Professional Max runs on Apple’s new A19 Professional chip, which, mixed with a vapor cooling chamber, iOS 26, and a big battery, permits the telephone to final a day on a single cost.
Larger batteries do not at all times imply superior battery life. There’s extra to battery life than the bodily measurement or capability. Apart from Huawei, Apple is the one main smartphone maker that builds its personal {hardware} and software program and might tune its telephones to work off smaller batteries than most Android telephones have.
The iPhone 17 Professional and 17 Professional Max have bigger batteries than final 12 months’s 16 Professional and 16 Professional Max. When you’re utilizing an eSIM-only model of both telephone, just like the iPhone fashions bought within the US, your battery is even larger as a result of it takes up the house the place the SIM card tray can be.
Frustratingly, Apple does not share the capability of the iPhone’s batteries, and a part of the reason being that its batteries are sometimes smaller than these in Android telephones. Happily, the EU requires that Apple publish power labels that embrace the capability of its batteries on its website. Macrumors discovered the capacities for eSIM-only fashions. You may see how the brand new telephones’ batteries examine to those within the iPhone 16 sequence:
iPhone Air: 3,149 mAhiPhone 17: 3,692 mAhiPhone 17 Professional: 4,252 mAhiPhone 17 Professional Max: 5,088 mAhiPhone 16: 3,561 mAhiPhone 16 Plus: 4,674 mAhiPhone 16 Professional: 3,582 mAhiPhone 16 Professional Max: 4,685 mAh
CNET has two benchmark exams (video streaming and stress exams) that permit us to check the battery efficiency of 1 telephone in opposition to one other. And since we have been utilizing these exams for years, we are able to additionally examine a brand new telephone in opposition to older fashions.
For instance, in case you have an iPhone 15 and are contemplating upgrading to an iPhone 17, we are able to inform you that the brand new iPhone could have an extended battery life out of the field than your outdated one.
In CNET’s 3-hour video battery check, the place we streamed a video over Wi-Fi with the display screen at full brightness, the iPhone 17 sequence did terrific, even when the outcomes weren’t dramatically higher than the iPhone 16 sequence.
And not using a Plus mannequin this 12 months, the iPhone 17 Professional Max is the one mannequin with a giant battery (the most important one ever in an iPhone), and it solely misplaced 9% within the check. The decrease the proportion misplaced, the higher. That is the primary time an iPhone stayed in single digits, and I ought to word that the 17 Professional Max tied the Motorola Razr (2024) for the perfect rating since we have been working the check. The Razr has a much less highly effective processor and a smaller principal display screen with a decrease decision and fewer brightness.
The iPhone Air and 17 Professional dropped 15% within the check, the identical because the iPhone 15. And the iPhone 17 misplaced solely 11%, higher than the iPhone 15 and 16.
One thing to bear in mind is that the iPhone 17 has a 6.3-inch display screen that helps a 1-120Hz variable refresh charge and a max brightness of three,000 nits, in comparison with the iPhone 15 and 16, which have a 6.1-inch show with a 60Hz refresh charge and a max brightness of two,000 nits.
Watch this: The iPhone 17 Professional Max Has Unimaginable Battery Life
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The brand new Apple telephones did effectively in CNET’s 45-minute endurance check, throughout which I performed video games, streamed movies, scrolled social media and took a video name. The 17 Professional Max solely dropped a single p.c, the perfect end result this 12 months, however behind the iPhone 16 Plus, which stayed at 100% (the perfect end result for any telephone).
The iPhone 17 and 17 Professional had the identical end result, dropping 2%, making the usual iPhone 17 look much more like an unbelievable worth. The iPhone Air dropped 5%, which matches the iPhone 15 in the identical check. For perspective, the Air did higher on this check than the Samsung Galaxy S25 sequence and tied with the Motorola Razr Extremely.
The iPhone Air will get via a day
The iPhone Air’s skinny design and lightweight weight are its principal appeals. However how a lot battery life might such a skinny telephone have?
After we evaluate telephones, we set them up as our day by day driver to make use of and check them like our private telephones. Actual-world testing is usually the perfect indicator of what a reader can anticipate to get from a telephone.
I began every day with a full battery for the iPhone 17 Professional and 17 Professional Max and tracked how a lot battery I had all through the day. I ended every day with loads of battery left — even after capturing photographs and movies or protecting the display screen at full brightness whereas filming the evaluate video. Under is a chart that exhibits how the iPhone 17 Professional Max’s battery carried out for the primary 5 days I had it.
Equally, CNET senior expertise reporter Abrar Al-Heeti highlights that the iPhone Air she reviewed repeatedly ends the day with about 20% to spare (after beginning with a full battery). She mentioned it will drop under 20% on heavier-use days by the point she was prepared for mattress.
“Impressively, the iPhone Air has persistently lasted all day during the last a number of weeks I have been utilizing it,” Al-Heeti mentioned. “However I’ve hardly needed to contact that MagSafe battery pack to increase battery life through the day, which is reassuring.”
Apple’s promoting a $99 MagSafe battery accent for the iPhone Air.
In our testing, a fully-charged MagSafe battery added 69% to the iPhone Air’s battery. After I requested her whether or not she’d advocate folks purchase the $99 MagSafe Battery for the Air, Al-Heeti mentioned that she recommends it for somebody who makes use of their telephone usually and does not need to hunt for an outlet.
“I do not like the thought of getting to lug round an additional battery, regardless of how skinny or smooth it’s, so I do not have a tendency to hold it with me until I do know I’ll have a protracted day away from residence,” Al-Heeti mentioned.
Watch this: iPhone Air Assessment: A Pleasure to Maintain, at a Price
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She additionally reviewed the usual iPhone 17 and mentioned it may possibly simply final slightly over a day, even after snapping photographs, scrolling via social media, listening to audiobooks and music, texting and watching movies.
Al-Heeti’s evaluate notes that over a number of days, she’d begin with a full battery, between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m., and have 44% to 47% of a cost 12 hours later. If she did not recharge the iPhone 17 in a single day, she’d nonetheless have about 30% to spare the subsequent morning.
The iPhone 17 sequence prices quick
Listed here are the brand new iPhone fashions (from left to proper): iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Professional Max and iPhone 17 Professional.
There are two methods to cost an iPhone: with a cable or with MagSafe (until it is the iPhone 16E, which does not have MagSafe, simply Qi charging). For wired charging, Apple recommends utilizing a 40W charger with the iPhone 17, 17 Professional and 17 Professional Max and a 20W charger for the iPhone Air. Nevertheless, Apple does not embrace a charger within the field, only a USB-C cable, however the firm does promote a 40W charger for $39 and a 20W charger for $19.
In our 30-minute wired charging check, the brand new telephones, together with the Air, did effectively. The iPhone 17, 17 Professional and 17 Professional Max added 10% or greater than the iPhone 16, 16 Professional and 16 Professional Max in the identical check. Apple says the 17 Professional and 17 Professional Max can recharge to 50% in 20 minutes. In our exams, the iPhone 17 Professional hit 53% and the iPhone 17 Professional Max hit 49% after 20 minutes.
The iPhone Air reached 49% in our 30-minute charging check with a 20W adapter, the identical because the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Professional, beating the iPhone 15 Plus.
In wi-fi charging or MagSafe charging, we ran a 30-minute check with the most recent MagSafe charger and a 30W energy adapter. The iPhone 17 sequence and Air beat each iPhone we have ever examined besides the iPhone 16 Professional, which did higher than the Air and commonplace iPhone 17. I ought to word that iPhones do not include a MagSafe charger or 30W adapter within the field.
Which iPhone must you purchase primarily based on CNET Labs information?
Apple’s 2025 lineup is made up of iPhone fashions aimed to attraction to completely different folks.
Get the iPhone 17 Professional Max if you need the perfect battery life. The usual iPhone 17 has nice battery life and inches out the dearer iPhone 17 Professional. And when you’re on Workforce Air, know that the battery life is not nice, however relying on how exhausting you utilize it, it’s best to get via a day on a single cost.
I must also word that iOS 26 has a brand new Adaptive Energy mode. This characteristic learns your telephone’s use patterns and “adapts” how a lot energy the processor makes use of for particular duties, so it attracts much less from the battery. The brand new characteristic takes every week to start out working. I turned it on after working CNET’s battery exams and can replace this story with any adjustments or enhancements that come from it.
Final, in case you have an iPhone and the one difficulty is that its battery does not cost as a lot because it used to, take into consideration changing it with a brand new one. Doing so is not going to solely be tons of of {dollars} cheaper than a brand new iPhone, however it may possibly prolong your telephone’s life one other couple of years.
