Battery life tests carried out by CNET reveal that the iPhone 17 Pro Max has the best battery life of any of the smartphones tested, and that Apple heads the brand rankings across its models.
Apple’s flagship model took first place, ahead of several models with substantially higher battery capacity, with the base model iPhone 17 in equal second place …
CNET said it carried out extensive testing in response to consistent feedback that battery life was one of the most important purchase drivers for smartphone buyers.
I’ve been reviewing and testing phones for CNET for nearly a decade, and heard from many readers that a long battery life is a top priority. In a CNET/YouGov survey from September 2025, readers ranked “longer battery life” as the main reason to buy a new phone (second only to price).
In all, it tested 35 different smartphone models and ranked both the specific phones and the overall performance of each brand.
The top ranking phone was the iPhone 17 Pro Max, despite having a relatively average battery capacity of 5,088 mAh and not using the latest battery tech. This is explained by the power efficiency of Apple’s A19 Pro chip as well as the extremely tight hardware and software integration.
CNET runs two battery-life benchmarks (video streaming and stress tests) that let us compare phones. In our 3-hour video battery test, where we streamed a video over Wi-Fi with the screen at full brightness and the battery starting at 100%, the iPhone 17 Pro Max was the top performer […]
In CNET’s 45-minute endurance test, during which we play games, stream videos, scroll social media and take a video call with the battery starting at 100%, the iPhone 17 Pro Max was again at the very top and joined behind by three other Apple models, including the iPhone 16E, which starts at $599.
The Apple advantage was even more obvious in the case of the base model iPhone 17. This took equal second place with the OnePlus 15 despite having a far smaller battery of 3,692 mAh compared to 7,300 mAh.
When CNET averaged the scores across each phone model, it found that Apple had the best overall rating, scoring 91.7%. This put it just ahead of OnePlus and several points ahead of Motorola, Samsung, and Google.
Photo by Georgiy Lyamin on Unsplash
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