Europe’s new smartphone energy labels just made one battery metric impossible to ignore: long‑term cycle endurance.
On that point, Samsung has the clear edge over Apple’s family of iPhone 17s. Official EU label data shows recent Samsung flagships as lasting up to 2,000 full charge cycles before enduring serious power loss, with the iPhone 17 range rated at 1,000 cycles. That’s a significant difference in how long each phone’s battery is expected to last.
EU Labels Reveal Divide in Durability
Smartphones and tablets get an extra energy label from the European Commission. It also reveals how many full charging cycles a device is engineered to last before the battery can no longer hold a charge of, say, 80% total power. This makes comparisons between different brands much more clear than marketing rhetoric and anecdotal reviews.
At least, that’s how long the company puts its label on them — as the most recent labels filed for current Samsung flagships say the company guarantees battery life to hover around 2,000 full cycles. By comparison, the iPhone 17 lineup — on regular and Pro models — is rated for 1,000 cycles. These disclosures tie into Apple’s recently updated battery policy which claims the most recent iPhones (somewhat like Samsung) retain 80% capacity after 1,000 cycles and confirm Samsung’s position long‑term battery health.
What 1,000 vs. 2,000 cycles looks like in real life
A “cycle” refers to using 100% of capacity, not necessarily a single plug‑in. A Top‑up of 50% times two, make the cycle. If you’re averaging about a full cycle per day, 1,000 cycles means you’ll hit something like 80 percent capacity after roughly 2.7 years, while 2,000 cycles is more like about five years. Real‑world results will differ depending on the heat, charging speeds and usage, but the trend is clear: Samsung’s rating means a longer healthy lifespan without needing a battery swap.
“This isn’t a single‑charge endurance test. A day may yet come when an iPhone can bequeath a Samsung, or vice versa, thanks to software efficiency, display tuning, differences in workload and so on. The EU cycle rating is a measure of that longevity — how the battery ages over the years from repeated charging — and doesn’t answer whether you’ll reach bedtime on 10%.
Samsung’s advantage on longevity
Various factors determine cycle life: cell chemistry, design of the electrode structures, charging profiles, and thermal management being the most important ones. Samsung’s supply chain, including Samsung SDI, have been working toward higher‑density and stacked cell designs for a wide array of products. And while the label doesn’t detail exact recipes, a conservative 2,000‑cycle claim indicates that charging thermals and chemistries may be toward the conservative end (tuned mainly for durability, not just peak wattage or ultrathin packaging).
For its part, Apple generally establishes conservative, verifiable goals it can maintain across huge volumes and different regional editions. The iPhone 17’s 1,000‑cycle number echoes Apple’s new durability target message for newer models, a big leap from the 500‑cycle guideline associated with older generations. Some units could maybe top that, but the label is about guaranteed minimums, not best‑case units.
Efficiency and charging still factor into daily life
That’s not the end of the story where cycle life is concerned. With Apple’s tight hardware‑software integration and aggressive power management that often translates into real‑world endurance per charge. In the meantime, Samsung usually provides more rapid wired charging on some of its handsets and a broader range of battery-health tools to give users more power to choose how to top up. Both ecosystems also have official battery replacement programs, and in Europe, they are already beholden to new regulations that encourage repairability, and availability of spare‑parts.
Independent labs and reviewers also underline variables your label cannot: ambient temperature, 5G radio use, camera workloads and a high‑refresh display can all swing daily runtimes a lot. Yet it is the cycle rating that gives you an idea of how beautiful of an old age a phone’s battery is going to have.
What buyers should extract from the labels
If you hold phones for four to five years, Samsung’s 2,000‑cycle claim is a big deal, one that could extend the life of your battery and keep up the resale value. It may be plenty if you upgrade every two years, the 1,000‑cycle design target from Apple, which is taking into account iOS efficiency and how many charging accessories are available in the market that are under Apple’s programs.
Either way, the new EU labels are a win for transparency. It gives shoppers a plain, standardized number to indicate for long-term battery endurance — something the nerds have been demanding for years. And for now, there they look to have one clear edge: on cycle life, Samsung is well ahead of the iPhone 17.
