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 need not pay over a grand for wonderful 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 would possibly say that battery life is only a small consideration when shopping for a brand new iPhone or Android cellphone now, however that stance will get shaky if you’re staring down a sliver of purple 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 function folks constantly need from their phones.

When Apple launched the brand new iPhone 17 series 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 prospect 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 following slide when it introduced a brand new MagSafe battery pack designed for the Air, which fed into fears {that a} thinner design would possibly point out a major sacrifice to battery life.

Your cellphone’s battery life is affected by a number of variables, like how shiny you retain your show or in case your cellphone has a weak sign out of your service. How you utilize your cellphone has a huge impact, too. Somebody who’s obsessively on-line can have a a lot completely different expertise with their battery life than somebody who has their cellphone 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 collection?

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.

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The iPhone 17 Professional Max has wonderful battery life

Larger batteries do not all the time imply superior battery life. There’s extra to battery life than the bodily dimension 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 Pro and 17 Pro Max have bigger batteries than final yr’s 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max. In the event you’re utilizing an eSIM-only model of both cellphone, just like the iPhone fashions offered within the US, your battery is even greater as a result of it takes up the area the place the SIM card tray could 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 phones. Happily, the EU requires that Apple publish power labels that embody the capability of its batteries on its website. Macrumors discovered the capacities for eSIM-only fashions. You’ll be able to see how the brand new telephones’ batteries evaluate to those within the iPhone 16 collection:

• iPhone Air: 3,149 mAh
• iPhone 17: 3,692 mAh
• iPhone 17 Professional: 4,252 mAh
• iPhone 17 Professional Max: 5,088 mAh
• iPhone 16: 3,561 mAh
• iPhone 16 Plus: 4,674 mAh
• iPhone 16 Professional: 3,582 mAh
• iPhone 16 Professional Max: 4,685 mAh

CNET has two benchmark exams (video streaming and stress exams) that enable us to match the battery efficiency of 1 cellphone towards one other. And since we have been utilizing these exams for years, we will additionally evaluate a brand new cellphone towards older fashions. 

For instance, if in case you have an iPhone 15 and are contemplating upgrading to an iPhone 17, we will let you know that the brand new iPhone can 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 at full brightness, the iPhone 17 collection did terrific, even when the outcomes weren’t dramatically higher than the iPhone 16 collection.

With no Plus mannequin this yr, the iPhone 17 Professional Max is the one mannequin with an enormous battery (the largest 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 notice that the 17 Professional Max tied the Motorola Razr (2024) for one of the best rating since we have been operating the check. The Razr has a much less highly effective processor and a smaller fundamental display 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 remember is that the iPhone 17 has a 6.3-inch display that helps a 1-120Hz variable refresh price 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 price and a max brightness of two,000 nits.

The brand new Apple telephones did nicely 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 %, one of the best outcome this yr, however behind the iPhone 16 Plus, which stayed at 100% (one of the best outcome for any cellphone).

The iPhone 17 and 17 Professional had the identical outcome, 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 series and tied with the Motorola Razr Ultra.

The iPhone Air will get via a day

After we evaluate telephones, we set them up as our every day driver to make use of and check them like our private telephones. Actual-world testing is commonly one of the best indicator of what a reader can count on to get from a cellphone.

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 images and movies or maintaining the display at full brightness whereas filming the review 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 know-how reporter Abrar Al-Heeti highlights that the iPhone Air she reviewed recurrently ends the day with about 20% to spare (after beginning with a full battery). She mentioned it will drop beneath 20% on heavier-use days by the point she was prepared for mattress.

“Impressively, the iPhone Air has constantly lasted all day over the past 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.”

In our testing, a fully-charged MagSafe battery added 69% to the iPhone Air’s battery. Once 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 cellphone typically and does not wish to hunt for an outlet.

“I do not like the concept of getting to lug round an additional battery, irrespective of how skinny or smooth it’s, so I do not have a tendency to hold it with me until I do know I will have an extended day away from house,” Al-Heeti mentioned.

She additionally reviewed the standard iPhone 17 and mentioned it may possibly simply final somewhat over a day, even after snapping images, 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 following morning.

The iPhone 17 collection costs quick

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 embody 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 nicely. 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 newest MagSafe charger and a 30W energy adapter. The iPhone 17 collection and Air beat each iPhone we have ever examined besides the iPhone 16 Professional, which did higher than the Air and customary iPhone 17. I ought to notice that iPhones do not include a MagSafe charger or 30W adapter within the field.

Which iPhone do you have to purchase based mostly on CNET Labs information?

Get the iPhone 17 Professional Max if you’d like one of the best battery life. The usual iPhone 17 has nice battery life and inches out the costlier iPhone 17 Professional. And should you’re on Staff 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 notice that iOS 26 has a brand new Adaptive Power mode. This function learns your cellphone’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 function takes per week to begin working. I turned it on after operating CNET’s battery exams and can replace this story with any modifications or enhancements that come from it.

Final, if in case you have an iPhone and the one challenge 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 won’t solely be tons of of {dollars} cheaper than a brand new iPhone, however it may possibly prolong your cellphone’s life one other couple of years.