Surprising Xiaomi 17 Pro Max vs iPhone 17 Pro Max battery life test shows raw capacity isn't everything

Since the mainstream adoption of Silicon-Carbon batteries, Chinese phones makers like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and OnePlus have been cramming increasingly larger cells in their smartphones. The latest crop of flagship smartphones coming out of China are keeping this trend alive. The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, for instance, features a mammoth 7,500 mAh Silicon-Carbon battery.

With a 7,500 mAh battery, conventional wisdom suggests that the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max should beat smartphones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra (5,000 mAh) and the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (4,823 mAh) by quite a wide margin. However, battery life testing by TechDroider presents a different picture, one where the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max doesn't look all that impressive.

TechDroider pits the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max against the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the Pixel 10 Pro XL, the Xiaomi 15 Pro, and the OnePlus 13 in a sort of a battery torture test. This test involves:

1. 3 hours of PUBG playthrough at max settings
2. 3 hours of YouTube playback
3. 1.5 hours of web surfing in Chrome/Safari
4. 1.5 hours of Instagram usage
5. 4K video capture until fully discharged

At the end of this cycle, runtimes of each tested phone look like the following:

• Xiaomi 17 Pro Max 13 hours and 36 minutes
• iPhone 17 Pro Max 13 hours and 31 minutes
• Xiaomi 15 Pro 12 hours and 31 minutes
• OnePlus 13 11 hours and 56 minutes
• Pixel 10 Pro XL 11 hours and 28 minutes
• Galaxy S25 Ultra 11 hours and 20 minutes

Looking at these numbers, one thing is quite clear: The Xiaomi 17 Pro Max doesn’t do justice to its large 7,500 mAh cell. The phone only lasted for around 5 more minutes than the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max, a device with a 36% smaller battery. Apple is likely able to match the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max thanks to the super-efficient A19 Pro SoC and behind-the-scenes optimizations in iOS.

So, while we don’t exactly know why the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max puts up a disappointing showing, it seems that Xiaomi has a lot of optimization work left to be done.

Before we wrap this up, it is important to mention that TechDroider’s battery life test has a lot of variables that the YouTuber can’t really control. So, this type of testing can have inaccuracies. Therefore, take these results with a grain of salt, as we have previously seen the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max impress against the iPhone 17 Pro Max in both gaming performance and efficiency.

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