So Apple just launched the 17 Pro Max, and the rumor mill has been churning battery life that just makes everything else on the market fade to insignificance. It is supposed to clock in hours more than its immediate predecessor-the iPhone 16 Pro Max and scoff at every leading Android device.

From all those early tests popping up here and there, there’s been talk of the 17 Pro Max clocking about 17 hours battery life in some standard battery testing scenarios. That’s a whopping 3 hours-plus jump from the 16 Pro Max and a giant leap by any calculations for a single generation. Usually, you get like an extra hour or something, if you are lucky, but it does seem like Apple really went for it this time.

Of course, not everyone thinks the same. Some skeptics say that might just be the numbers one gets with best-case scenarios versus normal-use scenarios. Another person even said that “my OnePlus 11 has been going for 22 hours+ with 33 percentage battery left, calling 17 hours for iPhone 17 Pro Max trash in comparison. But alright, given how much people tend to use their phones, that surely had to be light use, right?” These are the standardized tests meant for having an equal playing field.

Then there’s some interesting clamoring on why this time has a stellar battery life. Some credit the optimization of iOS 26 being run out-of-the-box on the 17 series, while others point to the bigger capacity of 5,000mAh giving it that nice bump from former models. “And apparently the eSIM version might be giving an extra 2 hours of battery life as it doesn’t have to power a physical SIM tray.” That’s a new one for me.

And yet, if you go by those few potential cons that come up, the previously mentioned Liquid Glass technology might well be that one battery hog that assassinates all nice battery phone reputation. Some users speculate that once the phone starts to be put to actual use under all those nifty visual features, battery life will get hit pretty hard. A comment read, “Every moment with glass effects, reflections and rendering, the GPU is gonna work a lot,” and that would surely affect battery.”

There’s some haziness on whether the numbers are for the US variant or the international version, as well as if this means screen-on time or battery life in general, inclusive of standby. The original tweet wasn’t all too clear about how the testing was conducted, which always invites an interpretation.

Probably much more interesting is that in some tests, the iPhone 17 Air is performing almost as well as the Pro Max, which is surprising given the difference in sizes and presumably battery capacity. That says something about how well Apple’s optimization game plays out this generation.

Of course, this just had to start the sniffing contest of Android vs Apple as always. A proud iPhone user posted “iPhone 17 Pro Max: Where are your laughable Android Gods now 😂” while the Android fans rushed to counterclaim that Vivo X300 Pro will “abolish this thing.” And so the fight might as well be without end.

Other people are itching for the next editions, some with a sarcastic mention of “iPhone 16E 😈😈”, whatever that means. Others wonder if this performance will last after the patch, “It’s due an iOS update until it gets updated to 26.1,” implying that they foresee varying battery life with future software.

The general consensus is that while the pieces of evidence look impressive, we need to actually see how the phone performs in real life once consumers get it in their hands. Battery tests on a controlled level are not always a reflection of how people use their phones throughout the day.

If, however, the numbers do maintain, we could be witnessing an all-time best first for smartphone battery life courtesy of Apple. The hardware advancements coupled with software enhancements seems to be paying off to a large extent. It will be interesting to see how the Android manufacturers fight against it, and that will mark whether they will try to build similar enhancing jumps in battery life or not.

For now, though, the iPhone 17 Pro Max performance looks promising enough when it comes to phone battery life. Whether that weighs out into an actual user experience is to be determined, but that’s one grand showing so far from Apple’s latest flagship.