CNET has now published the results of an interesting test where it pitted the battery life of 35 smartphones against each other and, unsurprisingly, the Apple iPhone 17 lineup has emerged as the victor of this relatively exhaustive test.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max is at the top of the smartphone battery life leaderboard, the base iPhone 17 wins second place, along with the OnePlus 15
CNET ran two battery life tests on a total of 35 smartphones: a three-hour test where a video was streamed over WiFi with the screen at full brightness, and a 45-minute endurance test spanning multiple games, video streams, video calls, and scrolling through various social media feeds.
As stated earlier, Apple's iPhone 17 Pro Max aced the two tests, thereby emerging at the top of the resulting leaderboard.
Next, both the base iPhone 17 and the OnePlus 15 grabbed the second rank. This is surprising given the fact that the base iPhone 17 features a battery that is 49.4 percent smaller than the one on the OnePlus 15, serving as a testament to Apple's OS-related optimizations.
Of course, the iPhone 17 Pro lags behind with the fourth slot in the ranking, coming behind Poco F7 Ultra and its 5,600mAh battery.
This test does have real-world implications, given the fact that survey after survey has revealed that consumers value battery life over nearly all other considerations, barring perhaps the price.
In summation, perhaps Apple is playing it smart by not jumping on to the silicon-carbon (Si/C) battery bandwagon for now. As demonstrated in these tests, the Si/C battery's larger capacity does not automatically translate into a better user experience, especially when paired with the supposedly faster degradation of such batteries.
We do remain inquisitive, however, as to the preliminary results from Samsung's testing of a bespoke silicon-carbon battery, replete with a capacity of between 6,000mAh and 8,000mAh.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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