Every year, Apple delivers a new iPhone with a fresh design and a suite of impressive features.
However, if you strip away the flashy cameras and faster chips, the one thing phone owners truly crave is more battery life, as confirmed by CNET’s Smartphone Survey, which shows that a better battery life motivates over half of Apple iPhone owners to upgrade.
Patrick Holland, alongside other CNET reviewers, evaluated three years of exclusive CNET data of iPhone performance to find out which models hold their charges best. He reveals which model offers the best battery life across the last few iPhone generations, settling the question of whether the iPhone 17 series truly lives up to Apple’s battery life promises.
With a smartphone topping CNET’s Annual Tech Holiday Report as the top gadget on shoppers’ lists, Patrick’s findings can help guide those looking to buy an iPhone this holiday season.
Here are the key findings from the CNET report:
- Bigger batteries don’t always mean superior battery life: Apple doesn’t share the capacity of the iPhone’s batteries, and part of the reason is that its batteries are often smaller than those in Android phones. And since Apple controls the hardware and software design, it is able to get more out of a smaller battery than some Android phones with a bigger battery.
- 3-Hour Streaming Test: In this 3-hour video battery test, Patrick and team streamed a video over Wi-Fi with the screen at full brightness. The iPhone 17 Pro Max only lost 9%. The iPhone Air and 17 Pro dropped 15% in the test, the same as the iPhone 15. And the iPhone 17 lost only 11%, better than the iPhone 15 and 16.
- 45-minute Endurance Test: In this 45 minute test, Patrick played games, streamed videos, scrolled social media and took a video call, the 17 Pro Max only dropped 1%, but behind the iPhone 16 Plus, which stayed at 100%.The iPhone 17 and 17 Pro had dropped 2%, while the iPhone Air dropped 5%, which matches the iPhone 15 in the same test.
- The iPhone Air Actually Gets Through a Day: Despite concerns regarding battery life due to the iPhone Air’s thin design and light weight, in testing the phone, it regularly ends the day with about 20% to spare (after starting with a full battery).
- 3-Hour Streaming Test: In the 3-hour video battery test, the iPhone Air’s battery dropped from 100% to 85%.
- 45-minute Endurance Test: In the 45-minute endurance test, the iPhone Air’s battery went from full to 95%, which matches the iPhone 15 in the same test.
- Which iPhone Charges the Best? In CNET’s 30-minute wired charging test, the iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max added 10% or more than the iPhone 16, 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max in the same test. The iPhone 17 Pro hit 53% and the iPhone 17 Pro Max hit 49% after 20 minutes.
- The iPhone Air reached 49% in the 30-minute charging test, the same as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro, beating the iPhone 15 Plus.
- Which iPhone Should You Buy? Get the iPhone 17 Pro Max if you want the best battery life. The standard iPhone 17 has great battery life and inches out the more expensive iPhone 17 Pro. And if you’re on Team Air, know that the battery life isn’t great, but depending on how hard you use it, you should get through a day on a single charge.
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