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.

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.
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