The official unveiling of the iPhone Air isn’t a surprise, considering that the phone had been rumored for about a year. Along with the rumors came concerns about Apple making such a thin iPhone–namely, whether the iPhone Air sacrifices battery life for thinness.
That doesn’t seem to be the case. During the event, Apple stated that the iPhone Air has “all-day battery life” and showed how basically the entire area of the phone below the camera “plateau” is battery, but we want numbers! And numbers, we have, thanks to Apple’s website. This is how Apple quantifies battery life, and how the iPhone Air compares to other iPhones.
| Model | On-device video playback | Streamed video playback |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone Air | 27 hours | 22 hours |
| iPhone 17 | 30 hours | 27 hours |
| iPhone 17 Pro | 33 hours | 30 hours |
| iPhone 17 Pro Max | 39 hours | 35 hours |
| iPhone 16e | 26 hours | 21 hours |
| iPhone 16 Plus | 27 hours | 24 hours |
| iPhone 16 Pro | 27 hours | 22 hours |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | 33 hours | 29 hours |
| iPhone 15 Plus | 26 hours | 20 hours |
| iPhone 15 Pro Max | 29 hours | 25 hours |
The concern about the iPhone Air’s battery life appears to have been much ado about nothing. The Air is comparable to the iPhone 16e and 16 Plus, and is slightly better than the iPhone 15 Plus–they’re also much thicker phones. If anything, Apple underestimates battery life.
So how did Apple do it? How did Apple manage to put such a robust battery in a phone that’s only 5.6mm thick? What we’re seeing here is one of the major payoffs from Apple investing in its own development of chips instead of relying on third parties. The company said that the Air’s new C1X modem and N1 wireless connectivity chips allow for better integration into the phone and are more power efficient. Combined with other system optimizations, you have a thin iPhone that can last all day long.
Of course, we’ll test the iPhone 17 Air’s battery life as soon as we can get our hands on it, but we’re not nearly as concerned as we once were.
We have the complete lowdown on the iPhone Air, iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, Apple Watch, and AirPods Pro 3.
