Editorials · Reviewer Insight
I tested Apple's iPhone 18 Pro battery claim against the iPhone 17 Pro Max
Apple made some big claims about the iPhone 18 Pro, mentioning it gets the same battery as the iPhone 17 Pro Max. We investigate.
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
The compact iPhone 18 Pro in Burgundy | Image by PhoneArena
Apple made one big claim when unveiling the new iPhone 18 Pro that really surprised me.
*Battery life estimation based on five hours of continuous YouTube video streaming under equal conditions.
There was one thing at Apple's iPhone 18 Pro announcement that really stood out to me. Exactly 18 minutes into the presentation, Apple hardware engineering VP Rich Dinh said that "despite iPhone 18 Pro's smaller size, it delivers the same great all-day battery life as iPhone 17 Pro Max".
If you follow Apple, you know that the company does not just throw empty promises on stage. It usually overdelivers on the numbers it shows. But this one, well, let's say that it sounded so good that I just had to double-check.
One thing that stands out about this claim, though, is that it's not very specific. "All-day battery" life clearly means something but it's not the same as numbers on a benchmark.
So, I did what every reviewer would do: I ran the tests myself.
While Apple relies on video playback test (probably on-device video playback), we at PhoneArena use a test closer to reality: YouTube video streaming. Let's see if these real-world numbers line up with Apple's big claims.
iPhone 18 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Test Results:
| Model | PhoneArena YouTube Video Streaming Test results | Apple Video Playback Official numbers |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro | 8h 46m* | 34 hours** |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | 9h 37m* | 37 hours** |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | 12h 49m* | 43 hours** |
**Battery life for global nanoSIM models. iPhone models for the US market (eSIM only) have bigger batteries and slightly longer battery life.
The iPhone 18 Pro shows up remarkably well, considering its compact size, but it does NOT beat the 17 Pro Max.
On our YouTube video streaming test (real-life conditions), we measured it lasts for roughly 8 hours and 46 minutes, not too far from the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which lasts 9 hours and 37 minutes.
But interestingly, Apple's earlier claim is contradicted by... Apple's own official numbers. For the global models, the iPhone 18 Pro gets 34 hours of video playback in Apple's official testing, compared to 37 hours on the 17 Pro Max. I guess they now kind of fall in the same all-day battery life category, so Apple could make that claim.
Just don't think that the iPhone 18 Pro will truly outlast the 17 Pro Max. That is not quite the case in my testing.
What is clear, though, from our test is that the iPhone 18 Pro Max is indeed in a league of its own, lasting a whopping 12 hours and 49 minutes on the same test.
I will be expanding on this test with more real-world screen time numbers and my own battery diary after a week with the iPhone 18 Pro, so stay tuned for that.
Popular stories
Latest News
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: