iPhone Gets Better Battery, Scratch Resistant Glass

Dekortage writes "Prior to its much-hyped launch on June 29, Apple has announced upgrades to its battery life (almost 40% more than originally announced) and scratch resistance (using "optical quality glass" rather than plastics). The announcement also includes a comparison chart pitting the iPhone against smartphones from Nokia, Samsung, Palm, and Blackberry."

Comments

Re:Worst comparison chart EVER

[piecewise]

The press release is about the physical attributes of the iPhone, so the comparison charts deal strictly with physical attributes, not things like GPS.

Finally, slimness is what consumers care about. If you want to make l x w x h comparisons, all that data is readily available.

Fails miserably on features? Plays TV shows, movies, music, Google Maps with traffic and directions, syncs with iTunes, iPhoto, iCal, Office/Outlook, supports third-party development, on a huge 3.7" screen. How is that failing on features?

Re:How about.... Price?

[RingDev]

I'll pay $250 tops. This is the first smart phone that I've seen that I would actually consider using. I just set up my VP's black berry last week and after 5 minutes my thumbs were already sore. But I just can't justify spending more than $250 on a phone. I'd like the extra features, but I can live without them.

-Rick

Look at the phones. Battery life was a secret.

[Gary W. Longsine]

Looking at these phones it becomes clear that battery life was a secret feature of the iPhone, probably known to Apple all along. It's clearly one of the intended design features of the phone. By eliminating the keyboards (and sliders), and stylus storage slots, Apple wound up with a phone that not only has almost twice as much space available for the display screen, but also has nearly twice as much room for battery. Sure, they probably put a lot of effort into power management features of OS X, and other optimizations in the hardware design, but the biggest win is undoubtedly the physical design.

Does Anyone Do Hype Better?

[dprovine]

I used to think the NFL was the world's greatest hype machine, with the annual orgy of coverage about the Super Bowl, a game that's usually not as interesting as the commercials.

But Apple has probably gotten something like a billion dollars of free publicity for six months about the iPhone, which almost nobody has actually held in their hands yet. I'm convinced that the business last week with Safari was planned way in advance, as was this bit with the batteries and the screen, so that in the last few weeks before the iPhone came out Apple would be getting more gobs of free press.

Is there anybody who works the press as well as Steve Jobs?

Will it Survive a Fall?

[Greyfox]

Cell phones get dropped fairly regularly. I'm sure the same goes for ipods. Will the iphone be able to withstand a fall from 3 or 4 feet onto carpeting or concrete?

Re:Will it Survive a Fall?

[soft_guy]

I assume you are specifically referring to the fact that it has glass?

The Newton had a glass screen and I recall seeing a lot of them fall and none ever broke the screen from the fall. One time someone dropped a newton onto the screen of another newton and the screen did break, but the one she dropped was OK.

So, who knows? It is possible that it might survive a fall but it is hard to say until it actually ships.

See you in line on the 29th!

Re:Will it Survive a Fall?

[CastrTroy]

I know a guy who worked at RIM, and they said they actually did testing like this with their blackberries. I'm not sure about the current models, but 3 or 4 years ago, they were made to stand up to quite a substantial drop. This kind of stuff is really important. I almost wish there was independant crash tests done on consumer products the same way they are done on cars.

Re:Glass why?

[Penguinisto]

anti scratch coatings are pretty darn impressive.

Probably for QC/QA reasons. I have a spare pair of glasses at home w/ Polycarbonate lenses, where the left lens has a lot of crazing and surface imperfections due to the anti-scratch coatings wearing off/out prematurely. A previous pair of lenses on the same frame did the same thing on the right lens. It could be the metal used in the frame (though it's not exactly kryptonite or anything), or it could've been in reaction to the environment I'd worn them in... dunno.

Even if only one of 100,000 who experienced this problem (a reasonable figure, I think - the optometrist in my case said it happened occasionally on glasses), it would still be a fairly large headache for Apple to keep ahead of.

/P

Re:How about.... Price?

[east coast]

I am also no "fanboy" as everyone seems to like to call people who likes Apple. I just love better products and are willing to pay extra for them.

Also, last time I checked, it was only $600, but if it is now $800, fine... For Apple products, it definitely worth it.

Just as a note: take it from me, you're a fanboi if this is the way you really think.

You're already proclaiming that spending as much as 2-3 times what most smart phones cost is Ok with you because it's an Apple, without even getting the phone into your hands? Actually, even more than Ok but "definitely worth it."

If that's not fanboism what is?

I'm not saying the phone is not worth it. If all the promises are true and if the phone is as reliable as my iPod has been I can understand why people found it desirable. But the fact is that you're pretty much saying it's a done deal. No one on slashdot, or at least very very few, have even had one of these in their hands let alone made a call on one or beat it around for a few months or a year to give us the kind of serious insight into this device that dictates spending big money on it.

To sit there and publicly proclaim a product get's a "thumbs up" simply because of the name etched into it's shell is fanboism. 100%. Every company makes a bad product and Apple has had enough to show us they're no different than anyone else. To deny that is also fanboism.