How long should it take to charge an iPhone?

[mugs]

My battery level was in the red, so I plugged it into a wall charger (really a USB cable with a wall adapter - but a Belkin adapter, not the one that came with the iPhone). It showing over 50% full after maybe 20 minutes. That seems way too fast. I know with some battery technologies it's hard to get a reliable estimate of remaining power, because of the way the voltage drops over th life of the battery (alkaline drops relatively steadily, while NiMh stays pretty constant until the battery is totally dead). Is that what's going on here? Does it just "look" like it's charged more than it really is?

 

[TheStu]

Ever since the first iPod the batteries have had a quick charge ability. They will VERY quickly climb to 80% and then slow down after that. All said and told you are probably looking at about 1.5-2 hours to fully charge the battery.

 

[mugs]

OK, so I'm genuinely getting 80% of the battery life though? That's pretty cool. Good for my wife, who is playing games on it now.

 

[mmntech]

Most lithium batteries can be safely charged at 1C. So the battery is rated at 1150mAh (I'm assuming it's the 3G), it can be charged at a rate of 1150mA in one hour. This explains it all.
http://batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm

 

[secretanchitman]

1 hour for 80% (yep that high), then another 1 hour for the remaining 20%...

 

[NaOH]

Yeah that seems to be how fast mine charges (iphone 1g). I love it.