oh didnt know it goes up thought only down. thats good to know. Thanks
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iPhone 17 iPhone 17 Series Battery Mega-Thread: Life, Cycles, Capacity, Health, etc.
- Thread starter fezzzer
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Eh, my 16pro dropped to 99% exactly one year later the day before I traded it for my 17.
Exactly. So whats the point of the thread now if everyone is posting 100% for a year.
Next time its: whats the color of your silver iphone. How much did it change after touching it?
I've been biting my tongue on this one in the vain hope that things might improve and also allowing two weeks of ownership for things to settle down, but I am convinced there is some accelerated battery drain on my iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Literally, doing the lightest touch of anything, such as looking at a few web pages and checking a couple of emails, so no video playback, no gaming, I just see percentage points drop off my battery. For example, I can have 96% and over 45 minutes of periodically (so not constant) checking of email, looking up some web pages, and it's dropped down 91%. Not touching the iPhone, it stays relatively static, but the minute I engage with it, with the lightest of demands, the battery percentage points literally drop off. Heaven knows how quickly the battery would drain if I were streaming Netflix or playing a game.
For reference, from new I restored from my iPhone 16 Pro Max to the 17 Pro Max - physical SIM version. I have the always-on lock screen disabled, brightness under the half halfway mark, and a lot of background activities disabled. I have an Apple watch paired to the phone and did read, on Reddit, someone had unpaired their Apple Watch and things improved? It's strange, but my previous iPhone 16 Pro Max battery drained far slower and when I traded it in had only just gone to 99% battery health after 1 year of use. However, with my 15 Pro Max, with the same usage patterns, I again experienced faster battery drain, and after a year, the battery health was at an inexplicable 93%.
I honestly cannot distinguish between whether it is draining fast, it's my perception, or possibly a combination of the two. Trouble is, with issues such as these, it's tricky to make a case with Apple as they would claim it's performing as expected.
Literally, doing the lightest touch of anything, such as looking at a few web pages and checking a couple of emails, so no video playback, no gaming, I just see percentage points drop off my battery. For example, I can have 96% and over 45 minutes of periodically (so not constant) checking of email, looking up some web pages, and it's dropped down 91%. Not touching the iPhone, it stays relatively static, but the minute I engage with it, with the lightest of demands, the battery percentage points literally drop off. Heaven knows how quickly the battery would drain if I were streaming Netflix or playing a game.
For reference, from new I restored from my iPhone 16 Pro Max to the 17 Pro Max - physical SIM version. I have the always-on lock screen disabled, brightness under the half halfway mark, and a lot of background activities disabled. I have an Apple watch paired to the phone and did read, on Reddit, someone had unpaired their Apple Watch and things improved? It's strange, but my previous iPhone 16 Pro Max battery drained far slower and when I traded it in had only just gone to 99% battery health after 1 year of use. However, with my 15 Pro Max, with the same usage patterns, I again experienced faster battery drain, and after a year, the battery health was at an inexplicable 93%.
I honestly cannot distinguish between whether it is draining fast, it's my perception, or possibly a combination of the two. Trouble is, with issues such as these, it's tricky to make a case with Apple as they would claim it's performing as expected.
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Okay, I have to say that this day put my doubts to rest. It was my first heavy use day. over 7 hours of screen on time including over 2 hours of Google Maps navigation and I barely used over 50%!
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The battery life on my 17 Pro Max felt like it was getting close to twice as long as my 12 Pro Max (which had a new OEM battery). Well maybe like 75% longer anyway.
However, I’ve returned the 17 Pro Max and now have the 17 Pro for comfort reasons. The 17 Pro also lasts noticeably longer than the 12 Pro Max but not as long as the 17 Pro Max. I’m guessing it’s maybe 30-50% longer than the 12 Pro Max.
I’m impressed.
EDIT:
These are eSIM-only versions. Thx to @ValerieDurden for reminding me that there are lower capacity nano-SIM models.
However, I’ve returned the 17 Pro Max and now have the 17 Pro for comfort reasons. The 17 Pro also lasts noticeably longer than the 12 Pro Max but not as long as the 17 Pro Max. I’m guessing it’s maybe 30-50% longer than the 12 Pro Max.
I’m impressed.
EDIT:
These are eSIM-only versions. Thx to @ValerieDurden for reminding me that there are lower capacity nano-SIM models.
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My battery life has been fantastic on my 17 Pro Max eSIM only version, absolutely amazing.
Ah good point to mention eSIM-only version. My assessment above with the 17 Pro Max and 17 Pro are with the eSIM-only versions too.
On the flip side, the camera bump is so big now that the iPhone 17 Pro in a case won’t charge on third party flat wireless chargers.
I believe phone temperature running the iOS26 has something to do with battery consumption. My 17PM battery runs beautifully when I am in home under normal temperature. I turned of Automatic brightness. Things are getting better.
Not impressed by the battery life on my 17 PM nano sim version. Certainly not blown away like some have reported.
Approx 10% battery usage for every hour of screen on time.
Approx 10% battery usage for every hour of screen on time.
An hour or two is streaming Apple Music on 5G. The individual background time for each app don’t add up to the total so not sure what’s going on.
Well - I've only had my 17 pm since monday morning but so far so good. It just hit one charge cycle this morning (thursday).
I will download iMazing on my pc this afternoon and check the battery stats there.
I will download iMazing on my pc this afternoon and check the battery stats there.
This morning, I have consumed 12% of my battery with 1 hour and 13 minutes of screen time and 2 hours and 17 minutes of screen idle time. That's just checking emails, scrolling a handful of websites, paying a couple of bills and around 30 minutes of Spotify via Bluetooth headphones - no video streaming or gaming. The majority of the time has been on strong wi-fi.
Note: Literally just writing the above post, nothing more, just lost another 1%!
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Sad state of affairs when in 2025 we can’t even get a new phone or update to fix this. Unacceptable from Apple. Battery life should be figured out by now. No more excuses.
