One half of my master plan was complete. I had successfully talked myself (and my wife) into purchasing an iPhone for my upcoming trip home to New Hampshire. I was able to justify the plunking of serious cash due to the fact that I was about to spend long hours stuck in limbo thanks to today’s modern aviation system. The iPhone would allow me to stay connected at my parent’s house, a place where computers are alien and the Internet might as well be just a new fangled way to catch dinner.

In the weeks leading up to my trip, I ripped all of my Futurama DVDs and placed some 30+ of my favorite episodes onto the iPhone, along with several unwatched movies, five episodes of Star Trek: DS9, three great Christopher Walken SNL skits, and of course, The Legend of Boggy Creek. These video treats, along with some 3 Gb of music, podcasts and photos were sure to make the twilight zone of Reagan National all but a faint memory. There was only one problem… would my beloved iPhone’s battery be up to the challenge? Since the product’s launch I’d been hearing all of the FUD coming from Crackberrys and so called “experts” that the iPhone’s battery just didn’t cut the mustard. I packed my mini-charger just in case all of the doom and gloom came to pass.

I am delighted to disappoint anyone who carries 2 or 3 extra battery packs by saying that my iPhone lasted ALL DAY both traveling to and from New Hampshire. Oh, I know what you’re thinking, I only checked email a couple of times, or maybe surfed for 20 minutes or so. Wrong! The trip from Greensboro to Laconia involved only one stop in Washington DC, and the lay overs were relatively short, so I wasn’t surprised when my battery was still going strong after setting down my suitcase. But the voyage back to Greensboro from NH was a little slice of hell that lasted from 7am until 9pm, with the iPhone down to 10% when I kissed my wife in our kitchen that night.

On that long journey, I sent tweets via Mobile Twitter all day long. I had a 30 minute iChat with people at work via BeeJive. I watched four episodes of Futurama on the various plane flights. Listened to a complete podcast episode of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (45 minutes), made 5 phone calls, checked email about every 2 hours and surfed to dozens of web sites. Just before touching down in Greensboro, my iPhone warned me it had reached the 20% battery level. Once we landed, I checked voice mail, made a final call to Mindy, and knew that the iPhone had passed with flying colors.

Craig reports similar battery performance with his iPhone on his recent trip to the C4[1] conference, so I know I’m not alone. At one point while I was sitting having dinner in Philly’s airport, the waiter asked me how I liked my iPhone. He had been thinking of purchasing one himself, but had heard reports of poor battery life. I spent a few minutes giving him the lowdown with my experiences and he seemed quite pleased that the things he had heard were untrue. I’m pretty sure I made a sale while I was eating my over-priced, airport fajitas, and so I’m here to spread the truth to anyone willing to listen. Although factors like continuous wi-fi and bluetooth can put a hurt on run time, in general, the iPhone’s battery does quite well, thank you very much. Go tell it on the mountain.