By When most people express their thoughts on battery life it is an incredibly exact science. They use the phone throughout the day how THEY normally do and tell you in relative terms how it performs. Good, decent, really good, not so hot, etc… but I wanted a more precise way of measuring the battery life so that YOU folks knew EXACTLY what I meant. So here is what I did:
I turned the phone on 100% brightness, set the screen to “Never Sleep”, loading a bundle of MP3s on my SD Card and opened the media player to “Play All” with “Repeat All Songs”. I also used Google Navigation for an hour… WHILE the music was still playing and phone was on full brightness. Here are the results:
So there you have it… 7 hours and 1 minute. That is REALLY good.
That big vibrant screen sucks a LOT of life out of the battery. Not quite as much as Google Navigation but still, unnecessary use of the screen is a huge waste so I would STRONGLY consider using the “automatic” brightness setting so the phone’s light sensor can make the determination of what’s appropriate. Combine that with an appropriate length for screen sleep/timeout and you’ll certainly be saving yourself several hours of use.
As you can see, one hour of Google Navigation catapulted it to #2 on the battery use indicator which means a few things.
- If you plan on using Google Navigation and buying a Car Dock, you’ll also need to buy a car charger. The Car Dock itself has no way of charging the battery so you’ll need a separate accessory to do so. And if you DON’T have your phone plugged in while using Google Navigator, don’t be surprised when your battery dies MUCH quicker than normal.
- I assume other activities that use your phone’s data connection will also deplete battery at a compareable pace. So mobile internet, making/placing phone calls, etc…
- Playing music from your SD card doesn’t use much battery at all and with the screen sleeping and music playing, you’ll probably be good to go for well over a day.
- When you’re in a phone call and you put the phone up to your head, it auto-dims the screen which is a nice feature to extend battery life if you’re on the phone a lot throughout the day.
That being said, the PURPOSE of the test was to do a few ridiculous things to drain the battery rather quickly. Try as we might, this thing still lasted 7 hours. If you’re using your phone normally throughout the day, I can’t imagine you’ll be disappointed in battery life unless you’re a web streaming media juggernaut. The battery isn’t huge – just 1400 mAh – but the device and Android 2.0 seem to do a fantastic job of energy management.
very nice, i cant wait to have this DROID im my hands
i read somewhere that the car dock comes with a car charger, do you know if this is true?
sweet review. i like long battery life. maybe we will get lucky and we will get a extended mAH battery over the oem.. like the g1.
i get my pre-ordered droid Friday morning!!
great breakdown of the battery life! look forward to seeing more
That’s definately impressive, would be interested in seeing how well it does under the strain of web browsing and such. I had an Iphone for a few days and while using the media browser and apps I had to recharge it 3 times during an 8 hour work day >_< This seems like it will hold up much better!
Amazing battery life, so pysched about this phone!
Who doesn’t have a cigarette lighter to USB in their car? And GPS draining power is nothing new. ^^
@Carig – Verizon is not selling the car dock with a charger, but Motorola’s web site says they will be including it if you buy it from them. I don’t have any idea if there will be a difference in price though.
Nice info, thanks! Could you possibly get your hands on a Samsung Moment and do the same test??
Can you run the same test on a G1 and see how it compares? (Playing with Google Maps instead of Nav though).
Breaking the law to bring us what we crave. You rock Rob!
Hey Rob,
saw you were on Boston street heading towards 95…any chance that you would be in Canton? :)
Nice work Rob, excellent vid. Btw, I hope someone else was doing the videoing in the car ;)
Battery life is the biggest reason I’m upgrading from my G1. Glad to see this thing really holds up.
What I really want to see is you streaming Pandora through the stero bluetooth. That’ll answer a big question for me.
The Motorola Droid accessories web page states that the “Phone Holder for Droid” AKA Car Dock includes a rapid charger for the $29.99 cost. The Desktop Multimedia dock includes a USB cable for it’s $29.99.
Go to bed!!!! The phone will be there in the morning.
Whoa, where do you get that breakdown of battery usage by service? Is that a Donut/Eclair thing, because my Sprint Hero doesn’t show me that! :(
Battery usage breakdown came with Donut….
How did you get that screen that shows percent usage of the battery?
Excellent work Rob. I like the end of the video. ^ ^
Vivement que ce Droid arrive en France !
amoled
this is a great article, by the way. really stands out from other blogs and review sites. thanks for giving us what we want!
7 hours is not impressive. Why don’t you do a phone call and time it?
I’m getting a Droid asap. But – I can’t find any listings for an extended life battery. I always get them with all my phones ) I don’t mind it making my phone “fat”. Anyone have any information?
Thanks,
Raargh
Shit Rob. Now we really know what the battery is about. Excellent way to “benchmark” battery life, I hope you keep the exact same procedure for future reviews so we can compare easily. Seeing how I listen to music most of the day, this is good to know. I’d have loved a comparison of battery life for stereo bluetooth, wi-fi and 3G browsing, but that would take like 3 days to do.
If the car charger is “fast charge” rather than “trickle charge” (most likely the case), it will degrade the cell phone battery much quicker than charging with the A/C adapter, which is generally a “trickle charge”. For this reason, I try to avoid charging my cell phone in the car.
I have a Garmin Nuvi GPS which has a terrible battery life, and I think it’s due to the “fast charge” provided by the car A/C adapter. So, if you use your Droid frequently as a car GPS, I think you can expect to have to replace your battery at least annually, if not sooner.
Sorry, the car charger is not “A/C”. It’s 12 volts DC.
Paul: At least it is replaceable :)
Why would I pay $30 for a car dock… then can never charge the phone????
Who designs this stuff?
Why not test the phone using 10 different features… like a REAL user would use a REAL phone. An hour of each
Wi-fi
Internet
Chat
Email
Blue-tooth
Phone calls
Music
Video
Multitasking
GSP
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/motorola-droid-verizon-wireless/4505-6452_7-33783559.html
CNet.com didn’t like the Droid very much. These are actual quotes:
> Photo quality was decent.
> our images were a tad fuzzy and had a pinkish tone.
> the slider mechanism is a bit quirky.
> sliding motion is quite stiff.
> front face doesn’t really lock into place.
> Its build is rather dull, sharp angles, boxy look.
> QWERTY keyboard feels flat.
> dialpad control is restricted to the home screen.
> Music and video capabilities still trail behind.
> No dual-mode functionality for world-roaming.
> we weren’t crazy about the keyboard and dialpad.
> calendars aren’t fully integrated.
> the Droid is rather big.
> You get only 3 home screens, we prefer the 5.
> the Droid does not have a physical Talk control.
> physical keyboard, we weren’t particularly impressed.
> keys are flush and squashed next to each other…
> which makes it difficult to text quickly or by feel.
> Unfortunately, you have to remove the battery to…
> access the microSD card slot.
> Unfortunately, can’t combine work+personal calendars.
> Droid’s browser doesn’t have Flash Lite support.
> Unfortunately, no syncing software to manage and…
> transfer your music.
> you must store apps on the integrated memory…
> limited to 256MB RAM.
> memory card is only for saving photos, music, files
> we want Android to offer additional organizer options like a world clock, a notepad, a file manager, and a to-do list
What is the name of that app to show battery life. I can’t find it and I want it.
He’s not using a downloaded app. Settings > About phone > Status / Battery use
Got this phone yesterday and the battery life absolutely sucks. Have had to charge it twice. I guess actually using the apps Google provides completely drains the battery (talk, maps and latitude.)
I’m quite disappointed.
I got my Droid yesterday and the battery life seems pretty short so far. When I purchased the phone, the Verizon representative said I could go ahead and use the phone with the partial charge from the factory. I specifically asked if I had to do a full charge FIRST before using it and the rep. assured me that it was not necessary.
Once I got home and read the Getting Started pamphlet, it specifically stated that the batter should be fully charged before use. Did I totally screw myself? Do I have to go fight with Verizon now to get a new battery.
I got the same story as Michael (don’t need to charge it fully before use) but still did… and less than 48 hours, I’m charging the phone for the 4th time. I love the device, but I’m not happy about the battery life.
I got the Droid and that was the first issue the battery life. then i found that you can turn off the apps.. I also found that the phone has Multi touch and pinch and zoom. All my dreams are coming true lol I make a video if anyone wants to talk a look
http://www.guysfromqueens.com/?p=765
@ 33. Kris
It’s built into the phone.
Goto:
Settings > About Phone > Battery Use
“The battery isn’t huge – just 1400 mAh”
This does not compute. The mAh numbers are meaningless without also specifying the output voltage. P=IV
I have the magic, so this really has nothing to do with the Droid per se, but smartphones in general. I use my phone for music and podcast on a daily basis. Wifi is usually off unless I’m at the studio, hotel or at home. 3g is always on. Brightness is on at 25% as I’m usually in a dark room and I’ve got 11 apps running 24/7 that are either grabbing data or updating something. GPS is set to turn on only when I’m grabbing map info and BT is off.
My Batt will last about 7.5 hours if I’m doing alot of websurfing while listening to podcasts… but if I take a few pics or take video, it drops to 25% in no time.
If it’s sitting in standby and it’s particularly slow day (take a few calls but do nothing else…) the phone will last well over a day and a half.
I think that’s pretty typical for a smartphone that doubles as a media player and web browsing tool.
Just get a cheap USB car adapter in the automotive section at Walmart for like $10 and charge your phone with the USB cable that it came with.
I don’t know about your battery life test. I took my phone off the charger about two hours ago, made a three-minute phone call, sent about eight texts (including a few voice texts), checked G-Mail and installed a program. That alone used 20 percent of battery life. That is insane. (I had location settings set to use location and GPS, though I didn’t use navigation, no wi-fi, no bluetooth and the screen brightness is set to automatic). I must seriously be doing something wrong in my settings.
Had my new Droid since Friday night – now Monday a.m. The Battery Life issue is the largest thus far. I was lucky to get 4 hours on Saturday without doing much phoning. Obviously the display eats power, but if you can’t view the display for browsing, the Droid’s value decreases. I’ve decided to use the USB in the car (with the lighter adapter suggested above) and also use a second AC/USB adapter in my office. The phone can also attach to a laptop via USB, and when plugged in the display says that it is charging. Just recharged from 80% to 100% while typing this replay, so I wouldn’t take the % gauge as too accurate for now. Just when the battery symbol goes orange, you know its time to charge.
The second battery cradles – for car or desk – seem like a reasonable buy. I usually have a spare battery on hand for my laptop and swap them out from time to time.
The phone also gets really hot in the case when there’s a lot of email traffic. Bet this eats battery as well.
This is going to be a pleasant adventure. So long Blackberry. . .
Battery life is Terrible on this phone. I would love for someone to explain to me why it has been getting good reviews in that sense. I came in to work at noon and my phone just died at 6:15. I have made one call and played on Fantasy football app for 5-10mins. Other than that the phone is great, has everything you need( When it works)
I have the droid as well and with mild use, nothing crazy, im going to be lucky if this thing makes it through the day. Every time i put the phone to sleep i use advanced task manager to end all running applications. I removed all widgets to make sure to not eat the battery, gps is off, wifi is off…screen is set to auto dim…screen timeout is 30 seconds…everything i can to preserve the battery life. its been 9 hours and im at 30 persent. thats not very good at all. and if i browse the web for literally 15 minutes…10% disapears.
Turning off the auto screen brightness and setting it to low helped me a lot. I used my droid for basic things that one might use on a day to day basis, like a twitter app, the phone, the browser, and gmail. For 20 hours 17 mins it used about 60% of my battery. Like in the video, the majority of the battery use was still the screen brightness. Even still that was 23% of the battery use as apposed to the 50%-60% it was when the auto brightness feature was turned on. I also set the auto dim to the lowest setting.
I’ve also noticed there’s a few apps in the market that allow you to auto change the droids settings when it hits a specific battery level. I haven’t tried any of these yet but I plan to in the future.
Michael/Kimberly: I do not know the science but I ALWAYS charge a new device fully before use. Maybe I am crazy but I get much better battery performance over the long haul when doing this. Also I always try to use the whole battery, then fully recharge, instead of always “topping it off” or leaving it on the charger.
At least w/ the Droid you can hop online and buy a replacement battery for cheap & replace it yourself (unlike crApples where you have to pay them $85 to replace it for you!)
hmm I’m back again. I’ve noticed the battery life has gotten better over time. The first day I had it, it used 60% of the battery in 20 hours 17 mins. Now I’m noticing it only using 20% in the same amount of time using the same features on a day to day basis. I charge the phone once a night and then unplug it at 12am right before I go to bed. I believe it could easily go 2 1/2 days without being charged if all your using it for is the phone, twitter, facebook and a few web searches here and there. Turning the screen dimmer down a lot really saves the battery.
I’ve noticed that the battery life on this phone is pretty decent for full-on use (such as in your tests), but the problem is that it doesn’t get any better with just *mild* use. It’s disappointing when the phone can’t last through the day when I’m barely using it (even if it lasts 6 hours with heavy use.)
So far have gone 7 hours with moderate usage and am currently at 90% remaining
My battery life has been unacceptably bad. Took off the charger at 6:45 this morning and as of 4:40 pm it is dead. Probably only made 2 or 3 calls, a dozen texts, and 10 minutes of browser usage. My dimmer is on the lowest setting, no GPS, no WiFi, nothing running in the background. Hopefully the Verizon reps will replace my battery when i get there after work. If not they will be restocking my phone.
I have had the droid since it came out on the 6th, after they connected it I took is straight home and charged it to the max and drained it twice over the next day or two (heavy internet use, pandora, etc.) and if I manage myself, including phone calls, I’m approaching 48 hours on a single charge. I keep the screen on full bright, but also make use of a task killer after doing anything other than phone calls or texts. Given the capability of the phone, I’m satisfied.
48 hours is insane keeping in mind that you keep it on full brightness. I’m testing my battery life right now and so far I have mine at 70% with 14 hours of usage. I keep mine on the lowest brightness however. Does it honestly make a difference to fully charge and drain your battery when you first get it? I didn’t do that when i got mine on saturday
somebody please tell me i am crazy. my battery seems to go way down overnight while the phone is turned off and then rebooted in the morning. this has happened twice so far.
I was told the same thing at the store: Oh, you don’t need to charge it first. I was dead after about 5 hours not doing much. Day 1 after a full charge in the morning: dead by dinner without using it too much. Then, found the power settings, and what exactly was sucking out the lifeforce of my battery. Cut the alltime GPS, cut the email from syncing every 15 min., …. Lots of things are programmed to run non-stop if you let them. Day 2 on full charge: End of day and I still have over half of my battery life left. I am one of those let it drain out all the way and then put it on the charger people, but, am open. Got an extra battery just in case. I like the phone
If your battery seems to drain faster than what most people report you may have a faulty battery.
I’ve been told with my other phones from verizon that one should charge the battery for 16 hours the first charge. So I recommend doing that. Buy two batteries even if you have to and test out which battery lasts longer..
The reason everyone has issues the firt day is thay they check out all the map navigation features which turn on the gps. Gps is probably the biggest battery drain. Try turning brightness to auto and gps off. You will get through the day and then some. FWIW…I have friends with the iphone that can’t get through the day.
I knew this phone was to good to be true, I charged it all night and hardly use it, and the things dead after 4 hours. How the hell are they allowed to sell this?
Put the “power control” widget on one of your home screens – keep GPS and bluetooth off except when you use it. I keep WiFi on when I’m at home – not sure if that lowers power use or worsens it, but it’s faster data.
I’m getting a full day out of mine with no problem. I can go two days if I don’t use the phone for a lot of talk time, which I usually don’t. (however, since you can’t predict the second day, I still charge mine each night.)
I bought my Droid yesterday and charged it last night.
I listen to Pandora all day til it died (at 11am). Not very long charge. Although I did use it quite a bit for texting and FB app this morning as well. Not sure if my had a full charge as it was NOT on the charger for the above-mentioned 16 hours. My Verizon rep told me it didn’t need a full charge to use.
ALSO, my contacts….only 50 of them imported (I had over 400 contacts in my old phone). Does anyone know how to get those back? I’m visiting my Verizon store when I leave work in 30 minutes.
Also, my phone died (b/c of the battery) and I have been charging it all afternoon thru the USB connected to my laptop. I keep pushing the POWER button but it won’t turn on. Any suggestions on that? I feel so confused and dumb right now. Ha!
I;m not sure what planet some of your phones are from, but the one I have is going back. I am very busy & I don’t have time to plug my mobile droid into a very unmobile plug constantly. I have gotten 4.5 hours tops out of the battery & am very disappointed in this product. I would like to be able to check my email without turning it on after practically no use to find a dead battery or close to dead. This phone is a piece of junk!!
I just returned my Droid to VZW because of poor battery life. I turned off GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and also had the screen set to auto-brightness. I did not use the phone for calls or text, and it sat on my desk with the screen blank most of the day. From 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM (4 hours of ZERO use), the battery went from 100% to 40%. Please explain that!?! (BTW..this was my second battery…my first battery lasted even less time.) It really is a shame, because I loved the phone!!!!
I agree with Brian, my phone is going back thursday. My phone had not been used all day and when I unplugged it, within the hour, it went dead. This also is my second battery. I am also disappointed that Verizon would sell such a product, not to mention that Motorola would have any nerve to state that it could possibly compete with the iPhone. Apple store, here I come!
“I knew this phone was to good to be true, I charged it all night and hardly use it, and the things dead after 4 hours. How the hell are they allowed to sell this?”
And related posts:
Uh. You guys probably had defective batteries? Might want to try a second phone because jumping NETWORKS?
:/ Mine’s fine.
Is verizon switching out the batteries if you’re not getting a good charge? Mine only lasts five hours before completely shutting off. Has anyone tried?
I love my droid, but the battery is the absolute worst! I think if a phone is able to do all the things it does, then they should be able to make a batter last longer than 10 hours! I left my house at 10:30am with a full charge, then by 6pm that evening of taking about 5 pics, one 2 min video and doing a couple of google searches and using the navigation for about 30 min, my battery was in the critical level and since I paid all that money for my phone and did not have a car charger(!) I had to turn it off since I was an hour and a half away from home to preserve my battery in case I needed to call someone for an emergency on my way home. I am VERY disappointed in the battery life.
The battery is the absolute worst! I left my house at 10:30am, used it normally, took about 5 photos, took one 2 min video, used the navigation for about 30 min and I noticed at 6pm my battery was in the critical level I still had an hour and a half drive home so I had to turn the phone off so I could save what was left in case of an emergency on my way home. It is crazy. I am sure they can get a battery to last longer! I am thinking of returning my phone because of the battery!
I’ve tried pretty much all of the “solutions” above with no success. I’ve noticed my primary problem is when I’ve had the phone in the pouch for a while. The thing turns itself back on even without any extra applications running and gets extremely hot before the battery dies. I’m using the power widget with nothing on except bluetooth and the display at 25%. Nice phone but without reliable battery life simply not worth keeping…
Had the droid for a month now. Even with brightness turned down all the way with no calls and minimal Web surf time (no more than 15 mins), the battery is dead after 6 hours. Terrible and unforgiveable.
CARRY SPARE BATTERY: This is not an iphone. Phone has swappable battery for good reason, so do what is supposed to be done. Plugging any phone into wires during the day is BAD, because wires get yanked or tripped on then phone flies onto floor. A phone costing hundreds of dollars attached to the end of a ‘wire-apult’ is a bad habit that must be broken. Correctly protect your purchase with a spare battery and ONLY charge phone while you sleep in a SAFE place where the wire won’t be snagged by someone. Please believe someone who has learned the hard way.
I was really surprised at how quickly the battery seemed to drain – especially when I accidentally left the INRIX traffic app running! It lasted only a few hours. I have been changing only to when the battery states that it is full and then the phone will last me about 24 hours. One night, I forgot to unplug it from the charger and this charge has been going now for 36 hours and the battery says it is at about 75%! “Overcharging” the battery seems to be the key.
What I want to know is why I was advised to download images and such from the SD card from outside the phone but you have to remove the battery to get to the SD card…. grrr.
Wow, been using the Droid for a month now. Battery could be better but mine is lasting much better than most of these posts. I get at least 24 hours of usage with no problems. Im wondering if bad batteries were shipped with these. I do use task killer to control what apps are running sucking up battery life and for sure check your setting that allows any running app to access data. I installed a ton of very cool apps from market and if you notice you agree to allow the app to access data…these will kill your battery! Turn off background app data access…I only allow the app to connect when Im using it…this helps a ton!
Otherwise Droid is off the hook…with the new 2.0.1 OS update rolling out now…it is susposed to help with power management as well..so maybe with both wise usage and this update…it will only get better. Anyone have the new update yet, and can you tell any difference in battery life?
Ok, The battery life isn’t great, but its about the same as the iphone 3G with similar usage. I can get 24 hours out of it with minimal use, but if I use it a lot, it can last for only 4 hours without a charge.
What a lot of you don’t understand is this is normal for a smartphone. The only real difference with the Droid is the large screen. In order to extend battery life, its important to realize the 4 main factors that use a lot of battery:
1. Screen being on (brighter settings obv use more power)
2. Wireless radios (this includes 3G, Wifi, and bluetooth)
3. CPU and GPU usage (running complex apps and graphically intensive stuff, etc)
4. GPS usage (seems to use power, not sure why though since it doesn’t actually transmit anything, only receives)
Also, you guys need to realize that apps running in the background can use 3g, wifi, cpu, and gps (email checking every 15 min, location based programs, etc). Texts and gtalk both use the wireless radios as well (obv).
This is definitely normal for a high powered smartphone. Its been said that battery technology is one of the biggest weakpoints in the development of mobile devices. One day they will make a battery that will last forever (cold fusion!! lol). Until then, get used to charging every day and buy a spare battery and battery charger ($60 investment, well worth it)
For the users saying the battery dies while they are at work I had the same issue.
The issue is in my building the phone gets a low 1g signal which the phone then drains the battery to maintain.
When I am not in the office on the weekend and have a great 3g signal there is no issue with the battery.
Kind of like the old days when analog connections would kill the battery and digital connections were more efficient.
Check this out before returning the Droid.
Weird. My battery life is fine. As long as you run task killer and stay on top of your apps, you should be good to go. But then again, I’m always near a charger (at home, in the car, and at work I use the USB wire into my computer).
the droid is given accolades for being able to run multiple apps at the same time on top of each other… regardless if you have your screen on auto brightness or not, it drains battery in the background… I woke up at 1130am with a full charge… took off for the day and my phone has the auto bright feature. i typically text 100-150 times a day… on the given day I didnt do any web surfing, didnt do any google navigation, all i did was text message, check emails, and take around 4-5 pictures and one 20 second video of my dog. by 1am i had 20% battery life. so 14 hours of doing normal use had my phone with virtually no battery.
I was an iphone user previously and doing the exact same level of useage would have me around 50% battery in the same timeframe. I am actually waiting to receive my blackberry storm 2 in lieu of this phone simply as a result of poor battery life.
The apps are great, but they need a boosted battery life (maybe droid2?) before I can effectively use this phone for my lifestyle.
second note: using task killer did help to preserve battery life, but who wants to go in and run task killer each time you unlock your phone? seems a bit of an extra step to preserve battery, one most people wont probably want to make.
after speaking with a verizon rep they said “yeah a lot of droid users are buying a dock for their phone and buying a second battery so when the first does run out, they have the second ready to go” really with that? “heres an expensive phone we know has avg at best battery life, our suggestion is pay for another battery AND a dock to charge it so you have a spare ready!
Using task killer to preserve your batter is a hassle? lol you click open taks killer and click kill tasks. It’s really that simple and takes less than 2 seconds. i would hardly call that a hassle. I don’t know about your specific ipod but the tests have been done and both the droid and ipod are about the same with battery life. At least with the droid you can purchase and change batteries. With the ipod you are pretty much stuck with what you have. The droid is superior to the iphone with net surfing and Verizon service as well.
There’s an app called Taskpanel which can auto kill tasks to save battery. There, a few seconds saved even, for an incredible phone.
I noticed that one of the posters mentioned he had problems with the phone when he put it in a pouch. The Droid has a magnetic sensor that changes setting when it’s put into a car or media dock. If you put the phone in a pouch with a magnetic latch then it thinks it’s in a dock and turns on the screen constantly. So, don’t use a pouch with a magnetic closure!
When the phone’s going to be in the same spot for a long time in my house, I remove the battery and run the Droid from its power cord. Using the power cord to power it with the battery removed has worked well for me and I haven’t had to worry about the battery running down. Away from home or the car, I put the battery in, disable background data, and don’t run power hogging app’s. I think I’m the only person who uses their cell phone this way, but it’s been great for me. I think people need to focus less on the technical spec’s for batteries and just realize that at this point, batteries aren’t going to give you as much energy as you want for whatever device you have.
This is by far the best phone I have ever had. I have my complete iTunes library on it, have some crazy apps, and you don’t really need a car dock for the navigation. As long as you have a car charger, just plug it in, use the nav., and set the phone on your lap or cup holder. It speaks loud and clear with directions. Battery life is pretty good, considering I am on my phone doing whatever basically all day. I couldn’t recommend this phone any more, iPhone killer.
I have had the Droid for about a month and overnight the battery life of the phone drastically reduced. I turned everything off/down as much as possible and with very limited use my battery lasts for about six hours. There may be a problem with my phone, but the people at Verizon couldn’t find one.
I have had my iphone 3g for about a year now and the average battery life is 28 hrs but i really want the droid.I want to know if i should give up my iphone for the droid.i am in high school i only text about 25-35 times a day and i am a heavy internet user will this phone support my lifestyle?
I am having severe problems with the battery life on my Mot Droid. It is only a month old and Verizon has already given me a new battery. It drains itself FAST! Form 100% charge to totally deat in a couple hours. And I use the App Killer every time I pick up the phone! Keep all the GPS, Blutooth, background data, etc turned off except when I am using that function. Last night I charged the phone around 6PM to 100%. Unplugged it as usual. Went to check some data on the web at 10PM and the battery was HOT! Internal temp according to battery monitor was 107deg. And it was at 5%. Nothing running. This is a big problem with what should be just a PHONE!
With regards to battery, what is advisable? Is it good to let the battery run down and then charge it or is it good to keep continuously charging it. Some devices like sony camera,the manufactures recommend running down the battery to continous charging.
My new Droid lasted 4 hrs with heavy texting and downloading. Sleeps every 15 seconds and brightness set to the lowest.
First off, I couldn’t be happier with my Droid phone. I never thought that I needed a smart phone, but this thing does absolutely everything.
I do think that there is a battery issue going on here, but I think it has something to do with software. I have had my phone for about a month now. I take it off the charger at 6:30 AM and put it back on at around 11:30 PM. Typically, it never reaches orange on the indicator. I am not an extremely heavy user, but I do have my GPS always on, use the mail, gmail and gtalk often and use the media player when I am in the car, and the I actually use the phone as well. So not all the time on, but good usage.
Now, the strange thing is, that there has been other times when the battery will go from an 80% charge to 15% at the drop of a hat. Exact same usage as above. This has happened 2 or 3 times. Finally yesterday, it went from 80% to completely dead without warning. It was so dead that the USB charger would not charge it and I had to plug it in the wall. Verizon did replace the battery after telling me that I should turn off everything including mail and gtalk (what is the purpose of having a smart phone???)
Anyway, my point is that the battery life typically is amazing in my opinion, but there seems to be a glitch or a short somewhere. Maybe 2.1 will fix this?
oh by the way – a couple of cool things that I picked up researching the battery:
1. Download a free app called spare parts. It has a much more detailed and complete battery status listing.
2. The power control widget is very useful. I use bluetooth from time to time and it is much easier to use this widget to turn it on/off as well as GPS, wifi, etc. Touch and hold the screen in any blank spot, select Widgets and install the power control widget.
In many ways the battery life of my Droid is comparable to my previous smart phones. The one exception is if I have the phone with me and don’t use it. My old phones would last a long time with no use, the Droid seems to get depleted even if its in my jacket doing nothing.
I assume this is due to the constant syncing with Google and other apps, as well as the wireless functions (GPS, bluetooth, wifi). If I am out of the house overnight the only sure fire way I’ve found to conserve the battery is to turn the phone off.
I recently installed the power widget and an app called ‘advanced task killer.’ I’m going to experiment with these and see if I can get a decent battery life without turning the phone off which defeats the point of having a phone and being able to receive calls.
I tried using skype mobile and basically it ate my battery from 60%-15% with in 2 hrs? is it the application or my standard battery fault?
Ok so I have had my Droid for close to a month and a half. I have gone through the process of rooting, unrooting, and just about everything under the sun with this phone in the last month. One tool that I use and hold dearly to my heart is Battery Left BETA: found on market. It logs all your usage and makes its best guess as to what your battery % is. not by 10% increments. However it does take a long time of using you phone so that it can get used to how you use your phone. If you are a battery eating machine like myself it will begin to see that and it will let you know depending on what is going on with your phone.
Because of my use it would gauge that I have anywhere from about 15-20 hours of battery life. I never completely tested this to see if it was accurate, but it gives you the time at which you battery will die. ei: if you keep using your phone as it is, it will die at say 5am without a charge.
Some recommendations for getting a very accurate reading are: (1)keeping you brightness set to what you are comfortable with. (2) make sure that you install the app when you have full battery (3)go about using you phone like you normally would. and after about 3-6 weeks you will get a very accurate reading.
Until you get to that final 3rd week or so the readings that you see will not be extremely accurate but you will have a pretty good idea. The data will continue to change the longer you use the app.
Best word of advice for everyone is to use taskiller or what ever app closing program it is you use, and makes sure that the services that you are not using are closed that will help save you battery immensely.
Hope this helped some of you out.
I have a new DROID – and it took my battery 4 HOURS to charge from 30% to 100% – not using it while it was charging other than to check the time a few times.
I’m confused – why would it take so long?
When I first got my Droid on 11/7, battery life seemed to be an issue. I have done several full discharges and recharges and suddenly life is much better. I am an average user with 10 to 15 calls per day, several texts and several web-browsing sessions. The phone will go all day and into the next day before it needs to be recharged. The battery meter does not seem to be particularly accurate.
Obviously, a lot of you have upgraded from dumb phones or BlackBerries (both of which have excellent battery life).
Check it out people. 3G data uses a crap load of your battery. Check your settings and make sure you set your fetching to what you’ll be able to stand. If you need reliable e-mail, get a BlackBerry. If not, then set your fetch time to over an hour. It will still check to see if you have new mail every time you open the application. USE Wi-Fi if you are going to be doing anything that is data intensive because it doesn’t use 3G when Wi-Fi is on. Use GPS only when you need it. The Droid has a really bright screen even on the lower settings. Don’t use auto dim because it changes every time you tilt your phone. A day of battery life is more than acceptable in a smartphone these days.
Another thing to remember is that when you get a new phone, you are constantly playing with it. NORMAL use is going to be measured after you have settled back into your normal use with the phone.
For all of you peeps that might be heading over to Apple, you are in for a big surprise. Turning on 3G absolutely cripples that phone. Not to mention you are going to be dropping 1/3 of your calls.
Battery life when you first get the phone is definitely going to be an issue because it is constantly updating all of your contacts, emails, FaceBook, plus any other service that you might be using. Use the phone for at least a week before you come to any conclusions.
Bad batteries have been an issue in the Droid. If you do all of this and it’s still bad, Verizon should not have a problem replacing it, if you use some tact.
I guess what I want to say is that a smartphone user should be smart. If you want awesome battery life (not to mention -$30 on your bill, get a dumb phone).
I have decided that purchasing an extra OEM battery from Amazon is the easy way to deal with this power situation. It cost me $20. The extended battery they sell does not fit the car mount or the desktop mounted charger. Us Droid heads can carry an extra battery unlike our I phone brothers.
Interesting, but I’d like to see what’s the battery life when you download file in 3G.
We just upgraded our phones and I was a little disappointed in the battery life I love the phone! I just wish the battery lasted longer then a day. I am used to my media phone and I could go at least a few days without charging.
I’m noticing a lot of people complaining about the battery life when they are using “phone radio” features a lot.
Take the amount of time you expect a phone to last, if you are talking on it. I don’t know any phones that can go for more than 3 or 4 hours on a call.
If you are using any internet-enabled features (like Pandora!) your phone is essentially ON A CALL. It is using the phone radio to communicate with the tower in exactly the same way – the only difference is it is sending data.
What I’m saying is you cannot expect any phone to play music from the internet for more than a few hours. Can’t use any feature that downloads any information from online for hours at a time because in terms of power use it’s like being on a call.
For others with low battery life, if you have low signal where you keep your phone, the phone will boost its antenna searching for the tower and trying to stay connected. That will drain phones quick too.
People asking about how to use / charge the battery: Lithium batteries work different. Draining a Li-ion battery all the way to empty is actually BAD for it. The battery will have the longest lifespan if it never gets really hot, gets topped off when it drains partway, and never goes totally empty. ALSO: a Li-ion battery loses capacity slowly over time. It’s just how they work chemically. It has nothing to do with how many times you charge it, only how long since the battery was made. Figures I read are around 15% to 20% loss (-ish) per year-ish.
Thank you so much Jim Davis and note about the magnetic sensor.
I was really confused how I could leave the office with a full charge and get home to find the phone completely dead, switched off and refusing to start without being changed back up to 5%.
I ride a motorcycle and the tank bag the phone was put in is attached to the bike by, you guessed it, large magnets!
what is the app to see your battery stats where its coming from??
To monitor your battery performance
Install the app called battery left widget..
at first time install you will only get the accurate battery status from this app…but after 2 times recharge the battery status will soon change the status to accurate..and then you can find your exact battery performance.
I am very satisfied with this widget
This is not a stress test at all. MP3 playback draws miniscule power, and what you see as 87% battery draw to the screen is relative to the other apps running.
For a real stress test do a video loop or at least for a more real life scenario turn on 3G or wifi which is what most people will have anyway. Then you will see the battery dies within 3 hours, and not as “awesome” as this “stress test” makes it out to be.
This is the worst stress test anyone can do.
An iPod shuffle with its tiny battery can play MP3 for hours and hours, that shows you how little juice it needs to play MP3.
Try get on internet and browse something by Wifi. That will kill your battery quick.
This was a good review.
HOWEVER, I’m really glad you didn’t kill anyone while you were driving around, shooting video, playing with the phone. Basically you were doing everything BUT paying attention to driving. Don’t think you have any particular skill at driving/multi-tasking. You JUST GOT LUCKY.
It is no wonder states are adopting hands-free rules. Just not fast enough.
Run Cardio Trainer and Pandora simultaneously you will run the Droid’s battery down in about 2 hours. I have been walking using Cardio Trainer and streaming Pandora through bluetooth stereo headphones. There’s you a stress test, its using all the good stuff except the display as it mostly stays holstered. I did notice the other night while cutting the grass I was playing mp3’s and it takes about as long to cut the grass as it does for me to walk 5 miles, and it used almost no battery playing MP3’s.
10 Days since I got the droid and 3 hours and 45 minutes into the day the battery was done. Disappointing at best.
Web Streaming Media Juggernaut!
3 hours of heavy usage (internet, youtube) with wifi on and auto brightness plus 10 hours of standby (not airplane mode) and i have 50% battery left. im satisfied :)
Want to find an online source for an Android battery charger and this is all I get. Others ranting and raving about the battery life. Where can I get a battery charger and the download for the droid users guide?????