Rating the iPhone's battery life
Will it really last the longest?
(Credit: Apple.com)Apple's new battery ratings for the iPhone certainly look impressive, but is 8 hours of talk time really top of the line as cell phones go? In a press release announcing the new figures, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that "the iPhone's battery life is longer than any other smart phone and even longer than most MP3 players." That's a broad claim, particularly since that 8 hours is just a promise. In our experience, the rated battery life of a device and the actual battery life can vary, something that Apple acknowledges in the fine print. And remember that battery life will depend on usage patterns and the network configuration.
I don't know enough about portable music to challenge Jobs' promise that the iPhone will surpass the power of most MP3 players, but I can say that he's speaking a little too soon on the other matter. Yes, the iPhone has a longer-rated talk time than many other smart phones, but in our CNET lab tests, we've had quite a few devices give us that much juice or more. The Cingular 8525, the I-mate Jaq, and the Nokia N95, E61 and E62 each had 8 hours of talk time; the RIM Blackberry Curve and Sony Ericsson P990i went for 8.5 hours; the T-Mobile Wing offered 9 hours; and the Nokia N73 lasted 9.5 hours. A few devices went for even longer, but they're more than a year old, so I'll leave them out of this comparison. For a full list of battery life results, check out our battery life charts.
Again, those battery life promises sound great, but we'll have to save our final verdict until we test it for ourselves.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
flight and used it as a music player for playing mp3 file of 192 kbps it lasted
about 7 hours.
that is a BIG stretch. Best I have ever gotten is 3 hours talk time on it.
Here, when you have a multipurpose device, how do you report "how long" it
lasts? When you're talking on the phone, going on the web, writing an e-
mail, listening to music, watching a movie? You report how long it lasts when
you're just doing one thing. This is not real world, but what else have you
got? We have no way of factoring all these things into a "mean usage" or
anything else, and it wouldn't be accurate if all I did was watch movies
anyway.
So this is yet another thing that Apple is going to get killed for by the guys
who invented the "iPod killer." (How's that coming, BTW?) As Fake Steve Jobs
says, the media is on the attack now, because, well, that's what they do. Build
up Paris Hilton just to tear them down. I wish there was some objectivity here,
but you're just in the business of capturing eyeballs.
thought out at all they are just written to annoy people or something. This
device has a a 3.5 inch screen...now tell me which one of these devices that
were mentioned have close to that? All of those have a 2.5 inch screen or less
and even if the battery isnt what apple claims its still alot longer then what we
thoght initially. And 24 hrs of MP3 playback is amazing thats what i get on
my
nano....and how big is that screen? How about videos 7 HRs! thats aton for
video
oh and 250 hrs of standby.......dony be party poopers let the hype build your
job is to test it WHEN IT COMES OUT then you can compare.
- NO USER-REPLACEABLE BATTERY
- ITUNES AND APPLE MONOPOLY
- NO INTEGRATION WITH CORPORATE APPLICATIONS
- NO THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS EXCEPT VIA BIMBO SAFARI BROWSER
- NO EXTERNAL MEMORY CARD
- CRIPPLED BROWSER
- NO VOICE RECORDER
- NO FM RADIO
- NO OUTLOOK, NO OFFICE, NO ACROBAT, NO FLASH
It's a BIMBO phone alright; a stupid piece of crap and you need both hands and eyes to use it. Only Mac fanatics and stupid bimbos will buy it.
- You really have no idea what your talking about
- by joegold49 June 18, 2007 10:28 PM PDT
- I'm by no means an apple fanatic but the negatives you list against the iPhone
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(6 Comments)are just retarded. It's a consumer device so why would it have corporate
email, get a blackberry if you want this. Itunes and iPod is not a monopoly.
A monopoly means there is no competition and Apple has the power to keep
out competition. There is plenty of competition in the online music market
but the majority of customers CHOOSE Apple's solution. Why would it work
with microsoft apps such as outlook when its an Apple device a direct
competitor to microsoft. I believe blackberry's are a superior phone to the
iPhone but from what I know about the iPhone so far, it will be the best
portable media/internet device on the market. If the iPhone sucks so much
what do you propose is better? You should think before you type.