Rating the iPhone's battery life
CNET compares the iPhone's promised battery life with that of other smart phones.
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
Again, those battery life promises sound great, but we'll have to save our final verdict until we test it for ourselves.