We reached out to HTC for more information on how the phone was designed, and were told that the battery actually rests below the board and behind the display, taking up nearly the entire horizontalspace of the VX.
For Delta, which eliminated international first class years ago, the new herringbone layout yields 48 business-class seats on the Boeing 747, 17 fewer in the same amount of space as the older design, which didn't have horizontal flat beds and direct aisle access for every passenger.