The main iPhone Air concern during the iPhone 17 rumor season wasn’t durability or price. Instead, most people who heard Apple was developing an iPhone slimmer than ever were concerned about the battery life. An ultra-thin iPhone would feature an ultra-thin battery. Apple unveiled the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air models last week. That’s when we found out how long each new iPhone will last on a single charge.
The official iPhone Air battery life estimates were worse than the other three models, but much better than expected. However, the fact that Apple launched a MagSafe battery pack specifically for the iPhone Air did not inspire confidence. We knew that we needed real-life usage to see how long the iPhone Air would last on a charge compared to the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
The first iPhone 17 and iPhone Air reviews are out on Wednesday, and we finally know how good the iPhone Air battery life is: The iPhone Air has good to better-than-expected battery life. Depending on use, the handset will last through the day, though heavy users might need to recharge before nighttime. Some reviewers actually measured battery life in real-life situations, giving us a more objective look than those who simply used the handset during the day and then looked at whatever energy percentage they had left before charging it at night.
iPhone Air vs. iPhone 17 battery tests in real life
Before we look at those measurements, here’s a reminder of Apple’s battery life estimates for the four phones and their battery capacities:
- iPhone Air: 3,149 mAh battery – up to 27 hours (video playback), up to 22 hours (streamed video playback)
- iPhone 17: 3,692 mAh battery – up to 30 hours (video playback), up to 27 hours (streamed video playback)
- iPhone 17 Pro: 4,252 mAh battery – up to 33 hours (video playback), up to 30 hours (streamed video playback)
- iPhone 17 Pro Max: 5,088 mAh battery – up to 39 hours (video playback), up to 35 hours (streamed video playback)
The estimates above come from Apple’s website. That’s how the iPhone maker measures battery life, focusing on continuous video playback. Tom’s Guide has a different test to measure battery life, which it uses for all the smartphones it tests: The handset surfs the web on 5G at 150 nits of screen brightness. The iPhone Air topped 12 hours in the test, almost as long as the standard iPhone 17 – here are the findings:
- iPhone Air: 12 hours and 2 minutes
- iPhone 17: 12 hours and 47 minutes
- iPhone 17 Pro Max: 17 hours and 54 minutes
The same test notes the Galaxy S25 Edge lasted for 11 hours and 48 minutes, while the Galaxy S25 Ultra battery died after 14 hours and 27 minutes.
Tom’s Guide also measured battery life for a different scenario: YouTube video streaming over Wi-Fi for 5 hours at 50% screen brightness. The iPhone Air dropped to 81% capacity compared to 88% for the iPhone 17 Pro Max and 67% for the Galaxy S25 Edge.
What about heavy use?
Separately, YouTuber Dave2D measured battery life for all four iPhone 17 models in two scenarios: intensive gaming (Genshin loop) and social media browsing (Reddit loop), as seen in the screenshot above. Here’s how the four iPhones did in the two tests:
- iPhone Air: 3 hours and 11 minutes / 9 hours and 29 minutes
- iPhone 17: 4 hours and 57 minutes / 13 hours and 6 minutes
- iPhone 17 Pro: 5 hours and 15 minutes / 13 hours and 33 minutes
- iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6 hours and 20 minutes / 15 hours and 36 minutes
The message is clear here. If you want to use the iPhone Air for long gaming sessions, you’ll need a battery case or a charger close by. The handset can’t match what the thicker iPhone 17 models can offer. Put differently, if you spend a lot of time on your iPhone, you might experience that battery anxiety feeling on the iPhone Air towards the end of the day. But the phone will not die before bedtime. iOS 26 features like Adaptive Power might help preserve battery life before you have to plug in
