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Apple didn’t necessarily make it easy to pick a new iPhone this year. The $799 iPhone 17 comes with features previously exclusive to the Pros, without raising the price; the iPhone 17 Pros, once again, have the best and most varied camera system of the bunch; and the iPhone Air is just cool.
There are a lot of reasons to consider any one of these new iPhones over the others, but things get a little clearer if you zero in on one metric in particular: battery life. Whether you care about taking the best possible photos, or having the thinnest iPhone ever made, you’re impacted by the size and longevity of the battery inside your iPhone of choice. As such, many of us are absolutely obsessed with battery life and battery health.
Comparing the battery life of all four new iPhones
Apple doesn’t share technical battery stats for its iPhones, so we’ll need to wait until certain reviews teardown these new devices to see how large these batteries really are. But what we can pull from is Apple’s odd battery claims for each device. For iPhones, Apple focusing on video playback time as a measure of overall battery life. When using this comparison tool, we can see the following timelines for each new iPhone:
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iPhone 17: Up to 30 hours (27 hours streamed)
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iPhone Air: Up to 27 hours (22 hours streamed)
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iPhone 17 Pro: Up to 33 hours (30 hours streamed)
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iPhone 17 Pro Max: Up to 39 hours (up to 35 hours streamed)
Solely based on these numbers, if you need the device with the longest possible battery life, you need to go with the 17 Pro Max. It crushes all other iPhone 17 models, especially the iPhone Air. As cool as it is, my guess is this is not the iPhone for people who hate worrying about battery life. While 27 hours isn’t bad by any means, that’s just for video playback. If you’re running more demanding tasks, including taking photos or videos, video calling, streaming, or gaming, that’s going to eat into the battery much faster. According to Apple, the Air has roughly the same battery life as the iPhone 15 Plus or iPhone 13 Pro Max, so if you’re coming from one of those iPhones, you can expect similar battery performance here.
I picked up on the Air’s smaller battery during Apple’s announcement, when the company said the Air still had “all-day battery life,” but didn’t actually share any numbers. You can see why. The company did share numbers when discussing the Air’s new MagSafe Battery accessory, which, when used with the Air, nets 40 hours of video playback, or 35 hours when streaming. Technically, an Air with the MagSafe Battery pack has the best battery life out of all four iPhones, but add a battery pack to any of the other three above, and that advantage is instantly erased. As such, I’m not counting that.
What do you think so far?
Zooming out, however, these iPhones do have pretty great battery life across the board—at least compared to last-generation’s iPhones. Here’s how the iPhone 16 series compares:
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iPhone 16: 22 hours (18 hours streamed)
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iPhone 16 Plus: 27 hours (24 hours streamed)
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iPhone 16 Pro: 27 hours (22 hours streamed)
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iPhone 16 Pro Max: 33 hours (29 hours streamed)
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iPhone 16e: 26 hours (21 hours streamed)
Apple managed to squeeze an extra eight hours of video playback on the base model this year compared to last year’s iPhone 16, while the iPhone Air matches the iPhone 16 Plus’ battery life. The iPhone 17 Pro has the same battery life as the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and the whole comparison clearly shows how large the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s battery is.
Things to consider before buying an iPhone for battery life
If you’re only buying your new iPhone based on battery life, you have no other choice than the 17 Pro Max. However, if you have other qualifications to consider, or if the 17 Pro Max is a bit too large for your taste, my recommendation is to use Apple’s comparison tool to see what the battery life of your current iPhone is. Then, consider that against the new iPhones to see how it fares. If you’re coming from an iPhone 14, for example, your phone is rated for just 20 hours of video playback when it was new. Unless you replaced the battery recently, it’s likely not reaching those highs, so any of the new iPhones will likely last longer. But if you’re coming from a 15 Pro Max, with 29 hours of video playback potential, the Air is going to die a bit sooner than you might be used to.
