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iPhone 17 Pro Max The 17 Pro max has the best battery life ever on a smartphone I’ve used
- Thread starter barondebxl
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How do you all get so much better battery life? 17 Pro Max physical SIM version and I constantly get approx. one hour of screen time every 10%. So typically 7 hours of screen on time for 70% battery usage.
Did you set up as new or restore from a backup? From what you’ve said; I suspect you restored from a backup up.
I always set up as new. I upgrade annually. Have had the PM since they first came out so have a pretty good idea of what each model year has done.
I set them up as new. Log into my iCloud account to sync up that information. The log into Exchange to download and sync my email, contacts, and calendar. Then go to the App Store and download each app I still want. Getting all the apps back to where I want is probably the most time consuming part of the entire process.
So everything should be brought into the phone 'clean' as opposed to from a backup/ restore.
The 16PM was a battery sipper. I hardly noticed the battery meter going down. Anecdotally, I just notice it more so far with this 17PM. People's reaction to the 17PM battery life is how I felt about the 16PM when I got it.
It's 2pm right now and I'm at 57% after starting at 80% today with this being a pretty average usage day for me. The 16PM would be 60-65% at this point of the day for me.
As I said, not very concerned about it. 57% will be enough for me to get through the rest of the day. And I'm not even charging up to 100%.
Just sharing my experience for others. And would be curious if anyone else coming from a 16PM is having the same experience as me.
My main usage is Safair/ Chrome, iMessage, email, Podcasts (background). Also, I hate the new Battery usage section. Stupid that apple is giving themselves credit for screen on time while it's plugged in. Apple - if I wanted that info, I can go to Screen Time. On the Battery page, I want to know what my battery on screen usage is.
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With casual usage, including an hour filming session, I’m getting a solid 10+ hours of screen on time with my 17PM. Which is indeed enough to go 2 days most of the time.
Battery is pretty solid on my 17 Pro Max, finished off Sunday at 75%, my S24+ Snapdragon would be around 40-50% by that time, I was off the charger at 10am didn't go down to 99% until around 2pm.
The 17 Pro Max lasts literally almost twice as long as my 12 Pro Max with similar usage. (My 12 Pro Max has 100% battery health too, with a new battery from Apple installed this year.)
However, I eventually downgraded to the 17 Pro. The 17 Pro still lasts noticeably longer than the 12 Pro Max, but not as long as the 17 Pro Max.
Note though, I'm in Canada, so my 17 Pro and Max are eSIM-only models. My 12 Pro Max has a nano-SIM.
4823 mAh - 17 Pro Max (nano-SIM)
5088 mAh - 17 Pro Max (eSIM) <-- I had one of these for 1.5 weeks
3988 mAh - 17 Pro (nano-SIM)
4252 mAh - 17 Pro (eSIM) <-- Mine
3687 mAh - 12 Pro Max (nano-SIM) <-- Also mine
While the 12 Pro Max's SoC still performs well, I suspect it's eating up a fair amount of power keeping up with the more resource demanding iOS 26.
However, I eventually downgraded to the 17 Pro. The 17 Pro still lasts noticeably longer than the 12 Pro Max, but not as long as the 17 Pro Max.
Note though, I'm in Canada, so my 17 Pro and Max are eSIM-only models. My 12 Pro Max has a nano-SIM.
4823 mAh - 17 Pro Max (nano-SIM)
5088 mAh - 17 Pro Max (eSIM) <-- I had one of these for 1.5 weeks
3988 mAh - 17 Pro (nano-SIM)
4252 mAh - 17 Pro (eSIM) <-- Mine
3687 mAh - 12 Pro Max (nano-SIM) <-- Also mine
While the 12 Pro Max's SoC still performs well, I suspect it's eating up a fair amount of power keeping up with the more resource demanding iOS 26.
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So I really tried to push my battery today. I took it off the charger at 3:13 am when I headed to the gym to workout. It’s now 8:40 pm and I still have 30% left. That’s a little more than 17 hours. I usually charge on my way to work and my way back home but I purposefully didn’t charge it at all today. Super impressed with this battery.
I don't know how many here are getting such a good battery life. It's good, but I'm amazed how you people are fetching 10+ hours SOT. On a typical work day, my day starts at 8AM with 80% charge and at night at 10pm, I am normally down to 40%. Though the screen-on-time is around 3 hours, which if extra-polated gives me 6.5 hours to 7 hours on average.
All depends on what you're doing. I read static text, read books, text, and maybe do some Marco Polo. My significant other does Instagram, social media, tons of video calls with friends, podcasts all day, etc. She uses her battery 5x more than I do despite us having the same identical phone. Over a 2 year period she racks up more than 2x the charge cycles I do.
That is how people "get good battery life" - depends on what you do. I turn my brightness down, I don't like being bothered so most notifications are off, I don't do social media, I don't play games, I like to read articles, etc...
On my 15 Pro Max I averaged 15-20% battery used on heavy days (for me). My wife would be on empty by end of work day then need more charging before bedtime. We'll see how the 17 Pro does.
That is how people "get good battery life" - depends on what you do. I turn my brightness down, I don't like being bothered so most notifications are off, I don't do social media, I don't play games, I like to read articles, etc...
On my 15 Pro Max I averaged 15-20% battery used on heavy days (for me). My wife would be on empty by end of work day then need more charging before bedtime. We'll see how the 17 Pro does.