How much room does that cellular radio take?

[desura]

the iPod touch is really really thin and gets really really good battery life.

All other devices I've used were significantly thicker and got worse battery life.

all because of the cellular radio?

I feel like if cell phones could be iPod touch thin, that would be the next big thing to get. Especially for windows phones. They *need* to be super-thin.

 

[paperwastage]

Your iPod touch has good battery life b/c it only needs to connect to WiFi. Phone needs to connect to 3g tower further away, needs more power. New tech like the Qualcomm power envelope helps to save battery (look at the nexus 5 and lg g2, much better battery usage on 3g)

If I turn off mobile data/connection, my phone can last days like your iPod touch

Thinness: phones need more battery. If you look at a teardown, the majority of space in a phone is the battery itself

Thin:

IPod touch - 6.1mm, 0.24", 1030mAh
IPhone 5s - 7.6mm, 0.3", 1560mah
Xperia z1 - 8.5mm, 0.33", 3000mAh
Nexus 5 - 8.6mm, 0.34", 2300mAh
Lg g2- 8.9mm, 0.35", 3000mAh

Also, a lot of phone owners would put on cases , but not iPod touch owners. So it may appear that phones are thicker even though its not by a lot