"Is it worth it to you.." that's the question here. It might or might not be. It truly depends on the person. So my question is "Was that a rhetorical question?" or do you really want 100+ comments on why Joe Schmoe thinks 3 hours is more than enough because he doesn't talk for 3 hours straight before placing back on the charger or why Sally Sue is QQ'ing because she can't talk to her girlfriends about the happenings of the past 3 hours for the next 3 hours. ;)

I see your point; however one of the beauties of the iPhone's 30-pin dock, being the same as the iPod's is that it is virtually ubiquitous. I've got several iPhone chargers connected around the house and in the car, not to mention every computer with a USB port can charge an iPhone. The battery has never been an issue, even though I thought it might be.

So really, until the phone comes out and the battery life is given a spin we won't know... meanwhile I think we should speculate some more.

I am waiting for them to come out with one of these:
http://fastmac.com/iv.php#1
For the new iPhone. That will rock.

I didn't get the 1st iPhone, but I plan to 'buy in' to the iPhone 3G - here in the UK making voice calls is usually fairly reliable both on 2G and 3G - but as I live in a 3G area, I'll be operating on those 'lower' battery life levels.

It's my experience also that phones almost never give you the stated battery life - I doubt I'll need 5 hours of talk time for myself, but I expect i'll make use of plenty of other features - if taking a simple voice call can sap so much power from the battery, that could be a problem.

Perhaps Apple could publish a few guidelines on how best to 'prime' the battery from it's first charge to help acheive longer battery life over the long-term. Either that or they're going to do a good trade in extra chargers, one for home, one for the office, one for the car......

There is a kit you can buy online that gives you the tool and battery to change your own iPhone Battery! So where is the big problem?

The 2.0 firmware will be backward compatible with the 1st Gen iPhone. That means Exchange push will also work on the older iPhones.

Add $10/mon or $240 over the 2yr agreement and 3G becomes even less attractive.

Bandwidth is good for marketing. Network latency is a bigger factor than bandwidth, and this is especially true over mobile networks. 3G doesn't do much to alleviate this.

Ultimately 3G is really only good for YouTube and data tethering. But since the latter is disabled.... back to the authors orig Q.

Go to eBay and buy from the glut of 1st Gen iPhones, save $240, and don't sign away your freedom to AT&T.

As a current Treo user planning to upgrade to the iPhone when it rolls out, I will be THRILLED to get 3 or 4 hours of talk time!

Currently, with my original battery I'm lucky to 2 hours of talk time and 10 hours standby assuming there is no activity with the phone at all. So about a year ago I got a second battery with a higher Ma rating, with that one I get about 3 hours and a bit longer standby time. Still, if I use text messaging, email or PocketTunes I can watch the battery charge dwindle practically.

Contrast that with my Pantech c300, I can talk on that for hours and hours AND have a week or more before even thinking about charging it and it too gets better reception than my Treo.

I look forward to the iPhone 3G and the added benefits that it brings beyond what my Treo offers.

I love my iPhone and I cannot wait until the 3G is released. My wife and I are both planning on getting one.

Talk time has not been an issue with us on the 2G. I expect that the 3G will not change my opinion. As other commenters have said, my iPhone can receive a charge through the USB port on my computer, at multiple locations in my house or work and in my car. The benefit to my iphone. All those places I use to drag my laptop, the iPhone filles in the gap with much less hassle. I can hardly wait for the increased speeds of the 3G.

Not sure why someone would think getting 3G Bandwidth is not a huge benefit. THere is going to be lots of new data aware applications that go beyond simple web browsing. DKL, I am sure you will get a 3G phone once you see them. Plus, with 2G iPhone I have to use a special adapater with custom headphones and external devices, with new phone, with flush headphone jack, you should be able to plug any headphone directly into iPhone, not sure why people are not talking about that HUGE benefit (if you like using your phone to play music, this is BIG BIG BIG).

I got my wife one last year, and I can hardly wait to throw away my tilt, Windows Mobile user interface is such a complete piece of junk compared to iPhone interface, not even sure how I have been sticking with MS for my past 4 phones, goodbye MS hello Apple.

For voice, there is no difference between 2G and 2.5G. EDGE is only used for data - voice still falls back to the 2G network. There have been voice improvements in GSM since the first networks; specifically, they added a new vocoder a few years back called AMR that improved voice quality and capacity (and added a mode called half-rate that could increase your battery life). AMR-HR (half rate) is only used by the carriers to increase capacity (2 users on 1 time slot) though, not to increase battery life (the network only uses HR when extra capacity is needed).

Additionally, battery life is dependent on a huge number of factors, one of which is transmitted power of the phone. Phones use power control to reduced interference to other users. The mobile station power control is controlled by the network; essentially, you transmit more power in a questionable coverage area. If you are dropping significantly more calls using the 2G iPhone (more than the 12% cited in the JD Powers testing), it suggests that you may be in a poor coverage area, thus transmitting a higher powers for more of the time (and leading to decreased battery life). The 5 hour talk time rating has to be based on some assumption of average transmit power - your area/signal level may not fit that assumption.

For the 3G iPhone, there are antenna changes (the plastic back cover may make the antenna work better for 2G, for example) and other changes that may significantly affect battery life in your area.

Probably the best comment was from a previous poster - until the 3G iPhone comes out we really have no idea what the battery life will really be (at least at your apartment using the networks and signal strength available there). Using the 8 rated hours = 5 actual hours (for iPhone 2G) therefore 5 rated hours = 3 actual hours (for iPhone 3G) is a stretch; there's too many differences in the phones and networks to extrapolate like this.

Meanwhile, on with the speculation - there's a whole big blog to fill up!

It is interesting to read your piece - as a telecoms engineer with more than 20 years experience I see where your article is both incorrect and correct - the problem is that you are both for more often the wrong reasons than the correct ones. While JD Powers may have done a statistically significant test of call drops - I doubt that your in-house evaluation is a true test - to many other variables are in play.

More often than not - battery life in a 2G phone (assuming it is only used for phone calls - is more due to the distance from a cell site (and whether you are outdoors or in a car or house) than the phone itself. Note that 3G depends on this as well as the number of other users in the cell (think of talking in a room with only one other separate conversation going vs. one with many - you have to shout).

Also, unfortunately for us US users - mobile operators long ago decided that cheap phone calls were what consumers wanted rather than a quality call experience - much less a long battery life (yes, network design can impact user battery life). While having lived and worked in Europe for a number of years - I paid more, but I had a much better service level.

Personally, I will happily use an iPhone with the knowledge that I have to charge it at nearly every opportunity and /or keep another spare portable power source at hand than do without. A

Do you talk with someone on the iPhone for three hours a day?
No I don't.

Why did you buy iPhone?
I think , you hav'nt buy iPhone.

Sure the battery on iPhone 3G is not that great, but what can we do? We want small size phones, powerful features and lengthy battery life.

Just get a backup battery. I got mine from iPhoneck brands. Their new 3G backup battery is probably one of the better looking products in the market. Their website is www.iphoneck.com