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iPhone Air vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Life Compared in New Test

Tom's Guide this week published the results of its iPhone Air vs. iPhone 17 vs. iPhone 17 Pro vs. iPhone 17 Pro Max battery life test, which involves continuous web browsing over 5G. Each model was set to 150 nits of display brightness.

iPhone 17 vs Air and Pros Feature
Here is how long each iPhone model lasted on a full charge:

  • iPhone Air: 12 hours and 2 minutes
  • iPhone 17: 12 hours and 47 minutes
  • iPhone 17 Pro: 15 hours and 32 minutes
  • iPhone 17 Pro Max: 17 hours and 54 minutes

For this specific usage, the highest-end iPhone 17 Pro Max lasted 48.5% (nearly 1.5×) longer than the ultra-thin iPhone Air.

The results are similar to Apple's figures, which show the Pro Max offering up to 44.5% longer battery life than the Air for offline video playback.

Here are Apple's offline video playback figures for each model:

  • iPhone Air: Up to 27 hours
  • iPhone 17: Up to 30 hours
  • iPhone 17 Pro: Up to 33 hours
  • iPhone 17 Pro Max: Up to 39 hours

Of course, most people are not using their iPhones to browse the web or watch videos for an entire day or two nonstop, without using the device for any other purpose. So, these battery life tests do not reflect typical real-world usage. Still, they help to set expectations, and plenty of additional tests will follow over the coming days.

All of the new iPhone models launch this Friday.

Related Roundups: iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone Air
Buyer's Guide: iPhone Air (Neutral)
Related Forum: iPhone

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Top Rated Comments

13 months ago
The Air is fine for me.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
13 months ago
Air is the most impressive
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
13 months ago
More than great for the Air - anyone complaining about its battery life, which is as good as the ordinary 17, must be insane.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
13 months ago
Wish he added the iPhone 16 Pro to this test so we can know if the air really does have the same battery life. Anyway battery looking much better than some of these YouTubers made it sound. In addition, the adaptive power starts working after 1 week so will be interesting to see the results again with that.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
RumorConsumer Avatar
13 months ago
As a person who has always bought the Pro line every single year, I am going to be going Air this year. I barely used the additional cameras and with Promotion and the battery life reports I am feeling very secure in my choice. I cant f-ing take holding another brick of a phone for another year. Get me outta here.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
13 months ago
Totally expected, Air is performing greatly.

I don't understadn why people had bashed this, seen it as a 'red flag' like MKBHD. Air has similar capacity battery compared to 15/16 and it uses a more advanced node.

Looking forward to see apple implementing these learnings to 18/18 Pro/Fold line next year.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)