Is The iPhone 18 Pro's Battery Significantly Better Than The iPhone 17 Pro?

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When Apple unveiled the new iPhone 18 Pro at its September 2026 event, the company claimed it makes a massive leap in battery performance, thanks to the more efficient A20 Pro chip and a new battery design. Apple added that the iPhone 18 Pro can deliver the all-day battery life of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, despite being physically smaller in size. The iPhone 18 Pro Max, which has the size advantage, is claimed to be getting the largest increase in battery life ever on an iPhone. But what does this increase mean in the actual world, and is the iPhone 18 Pro's battery life significantly better than its predecessor's? On paper, the phone does seem to deliver a notable jump over the iPhone 17 Pro, and the same goes for the iPhone 18 Pro Max model.

According to Apple's estimates, you can expect the iPhone 18 Pro to deliver about 36 hours of local video playback on a single charge or 33 hours of video streaming, which is three hours more than what the company claimed for the last generation model. The iPhone 18 Pro Max has a slightly bigger improvement and is claimed to last 45 hours on local video playback and 40 hours of video streaming. This is a six-hour increase for local playback and five hours for streaming over the iPhone 17 Pro Max. At least in terms of the claimed figures, both Pro models do seem to be capable of offering around 9% to 15% better battery backup over the last gen models. But does this increase hold up in real-world usage?

As the first reviews for the iPhone 18 Pro are already in, we have real-world battery testing results that reveal exactly what you can expect from the two iPhone 18 Pro models. In TechRadar's testing, which involved browsing on 5G with a 150 nits display brightness, the iPhone 18 Pro lasted 16.17 hours, showing an increase of around 6% over the iPhone 17 Pro's 15.21 hours. The iPhone 18 Pro Max showed an even lower increase of just 3%, lasting around 18.27 hours compared to its predecessor's 17.54 hours.

Former WSJ journalist Joanna Stern also put the iPhone 18 Pro Max through its paces to test its battery life claims. In Stern's testing, which involved an automated screen tapper pressing a webpage button on the iPhone display at a constant interval, the iPhone 18 Pro Max lasted 18 hours and 57 minutes, in comparison to the iPhone 17 Pro Max's 18 hours and 23 minutes. This is a 3% increase, which is pretty much in line with what TechRadar's testing showed.

While everyone's real-world usage differs and a lot of factors impact an iPhone's battery life, from iPhone's signal strength to display brightness, both iPhone 18 Pro models are more likely to offer modest improvements over their predecessors in battery life than any major revolutionary improvements that Apple marketing would like you to believe. Still, both do deliver all-day battery life in mixed usage, which is good enough for most people. Of course, if you're a light user, you might be able to extract more. 

You might not get a massive battery bump over the iPhone 17 Pro in the latest model; however, the 18 Pro models can certainly charge faster. According to Apple, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max can go from zero to 50% in just 15 minutes with a 60-watt-capable USB charger. In comparison, the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max take around 20 minutes to go from 0% to 50% with a 40-watt charger.

While Apple hasn't shared the exact charging speed of the newest iPhones, it's likely higher than the previous generation models that show around 38 W charging speed in third-party testing. You'll either need Apple's official 40 W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60 W max output to enjoy the faster charging on the iPhone 18 Pro models, or you can get a third-party 60 W or higher-rated USB Power Delivery (USB PD) adapter. Like the iPhone 17 series, the iPhone 18 Pro models also support 25 W MagSafe and Qi2 charging, which can take your iPhone from zero to 50% in about 30 minutes.