Apple announces iPhone delivers up to 8 hours of talk time, new glass display

In a press release Apple announces significant upgrades to iPhone's battery life and a new optical glass touch screen. The new figures indicate iPhone users can use up to 8 hours talk time, 6 hours internet use and 7 hours video playback before recharging

In a press release today, Apple has revealed a number of significant upgrades to both the iPhone's battery life and touch screen.

Apple iPhone will be released on June 29. Earlier Apple announced that the iPhone will have 5 hours of video/talk and 16 hours of audio playback time before recharging the batteries. Now Apple has updated the iPhone's battery life with high figures: up to 8 hours talk time, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback and 250 hours of standby. I think Apple gave a conservative estimate before, Apple always under report it so they won't have any problems in the future. These figures might vary based on normal use, but would still fall under this estimate.

These figures are very impressive compared to other smart phones. Here is a comparative chart for various phones:

From the above data, we can see the impressive advantages for the iPhone compared to other phones especially in the thickness, battery, and screen size categories.

One major change they have made is they have change the specification of the original 3.5" plastic surface of the iPhone to "Optical-quality" glass. TUAW.com says this new surface might increase the durability of the phone's primary feature and user interface.

Also, it has mentioned the pricing or the iPhones, $499 and $599 for 4GB and 8GB respectively, but no contract details are provided, implying Apple may not force all customers to switch to two year contracts.

Great news, I don't know how Apple is able to do this battery upgrade so quickly amidst all this; one reason might be the tweaking of the software inside.