New battery statistics that appear to be from Chinese regulatory filings show that the iPhone 17 Pro Max is likely to last longer than any iPhone battery before it.

It's repeatedly been claimed that the battery in the iPhone 17 Pro Max will be larger than in its predecessors, and even that it will offer 5,000mAh or more. It's also been reported that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will even be slightly thicker in order to accommodate a larger battery.

Now according to leaker ShrimpApplePro, all battery specifications for the entire iPhone 17 range have been revealed thanks to regulatory filings in China. Those filings show the battery capacity of the different models to be:

  • iPhone 17: 3,692mAh
  • iPhone 17 Air: 3,149mAh
  • iPhone 17 Pro: 4,252mAh
  • iPhone 17 Pro Max: 5,088mAh

One significant part of the filing is that it details different capacities for three of the four models. That difference is marked as being for iPhones released in the US and China.

It's the US models that have the greater battery capacities. Presumably that is due to how China, and much of the rest of the world, still use physical SIM cards.

Apple ditched physical SIM cards in favor of eSIMs for all US models of the iPhone 14 and later. It's been expected that Apple will also move to eSIMs worldwide for the thinner iPhone 17 Air.

The claimed regulatory filings do not fully confirm this, as they list multiple different capacities for each model. But comparing the lists specified to be for the US and China, both have the same 3,149mAh capacity, which suggests they will use eSIMs.

Longest-lasting iPhone ever

Apple never talks about battery capacity in terms of mAh, it only ever talks about how much use a buyer can get from an iPhone. That will undoubtedly be how Apple sells the feature in the forthcoming launch, and until then it's not possible to be certain about the impact of the bigger battery.

However, at 5,088mAh, that iPhone 17 Pro Max battery is around 400mAh larger than its predecessor's 4,685mAh. That's an 8.6% improvement.

Previously, the iPhone 16 Pro Max saw a 5.49% improvement over the iPhone 15 Pro Max's 4,441mAh. In initial tests, that showed the 2024 model getting just over four hours longer.

Apple unveil the iPhone 17 range at its "Awe Dropping" event on Tuesday, September 9, 2025.