The iPhone Air’s battery life is nothing to worry about after all

Macworld

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.

ModelOn-device video playbackStreamed video playbackiPhone Air27 hours22 hoursiPhone 1730 hours27 hoursiPhone 17 Pro33 hours30 hoursiPhone 17 Pro Max39 hours35 hoursiPhone 16e26 hours21 hoursiPhone 16 Plus27 hours24 hoursiPhone 16 Pro27 hours22 hoursiPhone 16 Pro Max33 hours29 hoursiPhone 15 Plus26 hours20 hoursiPhone 15 Pro Max29 hours25 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–are much thicker phones. And 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.