Setting new battery life records - Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max smartphone review
Posted by -protonsandneutrons-@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 47 comments
Qsand0@reddit
Have they tested the oppo x9 pro.
Its 7500mah runs circles around this toy šš
Ok-Customer-3960@reddit
I think they only review things people care about.
Jetcat11@reddit
You sure about that? https://youtu.be/uSxA_ZiUEPg?si=jHWXS13d-vt-bj9S
Qsand0@reddit
Yes I'm sure. Circles
https://youtu.be/eSc5sxLCqmk?si=TmmBygHBdC0Tzve9
Forgiven12@reddit
They don't compare againt Si-c batteries for some reason. Cavest emptor.
Drtysouth205@reddit
Not really sure where you are getting that from?? This test showed it got 11 hrs SOT. My 17PM has been getting that..
allahakbau@reddit
Doesnt seem right. There are some smartphones just released like xiaomi and oneplus with 50% bigger battery than iphone.Ā
Dpek1234@reddit
Honda grom has 5.5 liter fuel tank
Tiger 2 has 860 liter fuel tank
The honda grom has a better range
You are compareing the fuel tank and wondering why the thing with a 156 times bigger fuel tank has a worse range
EloquentPinguin@reddit
The Xiamoi 17 in their own same tests get 31 Hours vs 28.6 on the iPhone (you can see the result when you search for the Xiaomi 17 in the WiFi v1.3 results). So its an "iPhone battery life record, and almost an record overall".
Plus-Candidate-2940@reddit
iPhone is less then 2 hours behind with a 4800mah battery compared to 7500mah šĀ
ADreamOfRain@reddit
It's an impressive achievement but to a user the only thing that matters is the battery life itself not how it's achieved. Especially considering Xiaomi 17 weighs 40 grams less than iPhone.
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
5W and 15W chargers are common, so it does matter quite a bit how it's achieved..
ADreamOfRain@reddit
Xiaomi ships them with a compatible fast charger in the box.
Dpek1234@reddit
I simply wont always be able to use that charge
Stuff breaks, i borrow a friends charger , stuff like that
And fast chargeing will heat up the battery moreand thus degrade it faster
Plus-Candidate-2940@reddit
Tbh I donāt care how good it is because I hate their software
VenZoah@reddit
Sure, but rapidly depleting and charging to keep up with the iPhoneās efficiency advantage will degrade the battery faster. And power banks will last much longer on more efficient hardware.
max1001@reddit
So? Longer battery life is longer battery life. Customers don't care how it's achieved. Plus, Xiaomi is lighter.
Plus-Candidate-2940@reddit
Lighter makes it feel cheap
996forever@reddit
iPhone air:Ā
Plus-Candidate-2940@reddit
? I donāt like the iPhone air or the 17 pro itās ugly.
Bderken@reddit
I like how all the replies talk about how it doesnāt matter and itās lighter. Ignoring the fact that itās probably one of the most inefficient androids you can buy right now lmao.
Ok_Pineapple_5700@reddit
Well the Xiaomi weigh less and you can't force 120hhz on iphones. This test is more representative of the difference.
EloquentPinguin@reddit
So? That just means 2 hours less battery life for the iPhone when using the device as in the test.
The capacity of the battery to achieve that doesnt change the fact that its two hours different.
(And the database only had the Xiaomi 17 so its 4835mAh vs 7000mAh which cant be compared 1 to 1 as voltage may differ)
The battery life per unit of battery is impressive but because consumers cant pick and choose components it has very little real world implications.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
That usually happens if the review hasnāt been published. Notebookcheckās databases get updated first.
That tracks. The iPhone 17 Pro Max released a few days before the Xiaomi 17 series. The interesting difference is the battery sizes
Xiaomi 17: 7000 mAh, 30.9 hours
iPhone 17 Pro Max (SIM): 4823 mAh, 28.6 hours
iPhone 17 Pro Max (eSIM): 5088 mAh
MissionInfluence123@reddit
That's kinda wild.
The iPhone gets an additional one and a half hours from 265mAh
Xiaomi needs more than 2000mAh to get two and a half
Dpek1234@reddit
Thats the problem with compareing battery sizes
Its like compareing fuel tanks
A abrams has 1900 liter fuel tank
A honda grom has 5.5 liter fuel tank
The honda can go about half as far as the tank despite haveing 345 times smaller fuel tank
EloquentPinguin@reddit
I see, so they only consider results for the comparison published in a review (or at least maybe the timing was just such that this review got done before the battery tests and now the results are available).
The battery size is an interesting topic. Yes, the Xiaomi battery is incredibly large. But consumers can not pick & chose phone and battery like a DIY pc so you just get the battery life of the device and that's that. So while it technically is incredible that apple can get so much more life per unit of battery, that doesn't change the battery life.
theholylancer@reddit
i mean the /r/conspiracy theory is that apple and others go for thinness despite a lot of demand for a (slightly) fatter phone with bigger battery is that most normal people dont replace their phones due to processor advancement
but due to the battery not lasting a desired length, and that is usually enough for a full day of use
and if there was an iphone with 7k battery that was long lived and can say do 50 hours browsing means that it would take that much longer for the user to even consider replacing the thing.
and yet, the run time isn't long enough to move the bar to say a full week of heavy use to make that the new default expectation and thus if a phone can't last for a full 5 day work week it gets replaced.
that is at least the train of thought about these thin / smaller batteries when in theory they can do so much more with a bigger battery.
Ar0ndight@reddit
The iPhone Pros this year are literally thicker than their predecessor. They made the "thinness at all cost" a separate SKU, it's the iPhone Air.
I think this conspiracy is just that, a conspiracy when the truth is that there is an actual sweet spot of thinness people want, so when they drop $1000 on their new phone they don't feel like they downgraded, because smaller and thinner has been a hallmark of technological improvement for decades at this point.
There is also a sweet spot of battery life, sure you'd always take "more", but because 99% of people will charge their phone every night anyways at some point you just hit diminishing returns. Even if your phone lasted comfortably 2 days, why not just charge it every night while you sleep after all.
I'd argue current batteries are already kinda there for the average user btw, it's only after 4+ years that degradation is bad enough that it doesn't last a day of actual use at least in my experience. But I know there's a lot of variability there.
theholylancer@reddit
I think that is a step in the right direction, but that the 4+ years deal is off for sure, most place that number from 2 to 3.x years, at least in the USA.
Which, may be the reason why my experience is colored, because that is the perspective I am working from.
Most people don't replace the battery, they look for a new phone once that metric hits, and if you can get 4+ year to get to that point then you take way better care of your battery then.
Personally, I do replace my own batteries, so I am an outlier, but a lot of people I know just toss and buy a new one... Likely under contract too, while I try to go and find MVNOs with good deals, but I am very much not the norm.
that being said, I think the actual reason is likely multi-faceted and not just any one thing, but if the average user of phones can last for longer with again like sticking a 7k mah battery into a slightly thicker or the component choices are slightly different as to last longer, I think that average time to replace would go up as that is one of the biggest complaints I hear about older devices from my immediate group.
moofunk@reddit
The thinness makes the phone fragile and easier to break, so you are encouraged to buy a cover for it. If a user faces a degraded battery, I'd think they'd try to get the battery replaced before they spend 10x more money to get a new phone. Some will just get a new phone, because they're made of money, but I think that's very far from everyone.
Now, my phone is wearing down its second battery, but the problem for me is that some software is no longer supported and the charge port is broken. If that wasn't a problem, I'd just get a third battery.
I'd rather believe a conspiracy about having to buy accessories to avoid breaking a fragile phone, than a notion of batteries being exactly not good enough to force users to buy new phones, because that takes some engineering to do.
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
My experience has been that by the time the battery degradation becomes perceptible, I should have replaced the phone years ago because it's out of software support.
Qsand0@reddit
hot garbage š
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
Agreed: technically interesting more than to consumers! Consumers will get actually record battery life in the Xiaomi 17 with all available data.
empty_branch437@reddit
According to notebook check. They don't even have a Xiaomi 17 review yet.
"Our Xiaomi 17 review is on the way."
Everything else about the 17 are articles from Xiaomi's promo videos on Weibo.
EloquentPinguin@reddit
But they already have the Xiaomi battery life result in the database.
So it is a record of their written up reviews. But not the longest lasting phone in their database at this moment.
empty_branch437@reddit
So why did they make this article.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
To your edit, no, youāre exactly right. This sub, especially on āhotā topics like Apple, Intel, etc., is often clueless with its downvotes.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
This is quite interesting. Maybe someone can compare methodologies. Like power draw, energy, thermals, noise, FPS, etc., these are NOT comparable between tests. The methodology is critical.
GSMArena found browsing battery life went down: https://m.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_17_pro_max-review-2884p3.php
iPhone 17 Pro Max: 15.5 hours
iPhone 16 Pro Max: 16.5 hours
NBC found browsing battery life went up:
iPhone 17 Pro Max: 28.6 hours
iPhone 16 Pro Max: 20.8 hours
OscarCookeAbbott@reddit
While I like GSMA, every other review Iāve seen + the battery capacity show significantly superior battery so Iād expect something somehow went awry with GSMA.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
As noted, battery life tests are very methodology-dependent. I'd write the methodologies before thinking a test went "awry", as different tests will stress different parts of the phone.
GSMArena's tests are much more varied, IMO. In some sub-tests, battery life went up. In others, it was worse:
Of course, they're still not directionally the same on the web test (GSMA is somewhat worse; NBC is much higher). Here is a key difference: GSMArena is much more active browsing and moving (thus hitting the CPU + GPU + display much more), Notebookcheck is much slower (basically dependent on the screen more)
How we test: GSMArena Battery Life Test 2.0 - GSMArena.com news
Compare that to Notebookcheck's much slower test (10x fewer refreshes):
The final question, which is not made explicit, but after reviewing the numbers for both years: I think both are re-using iOS 18 results for the 16 Pro Max versus iOS 26 results for the 17 Pro Max. They're at least both inconsistent in the same way.
Plank_With_A_Nail_In@reddit
They can't be bothered to retest devices means they their low effort review is less than worthless. People might go out and buy an iPhone 16 as they are still sold and get wildly different results from the review.
Tesseract91@reddit
I'm almost certain it's due to iOS18 vs iOS26. Idle battery drain seems to be much higher in iOS26 which would explain why calls and web (iOS UI rendering) vs video and gaming (generic graphics rending) has such a disparity.
If we had an 17 Pro Max with iOS18 I bet we'd see insane battery life across the board.
Tman1677@reddit
This tracks with my experience upgrading from a 15 to a 17 Pro Max. The battery life is incredible, according to my history in the settings app I've only used more than 50% of my battery one day this week - I don't think I've once hit low power mode (20%) since getting it, and I only charge it to 90% full.
festoon@reddit
Not even the eSIM version with larger battery!
Some-Error-8410@reddit
GSMARENA Battery test (standard mix):
Xiaomi 17 Pro Max: 20:50 Oppo Find X9 Pro : 21:57 iPhone 17 Pro Max: 17:58
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