how's the M battery?

**johnriii** · 11-26-2012, 12:50 PM

trying to convince my wife to upgrade to the M, but I haven't been able to catch much "user" reaction to the battery. we both have Tbolts now, and battery life is a very key component of our next purchase, and the M seems to be more fit to her hand than the Tbolt, even though they both have the 4.3 display. me myself, I'm going for the HD or Maxx HD, depending on price at the time of upgrade. any input would be appreciated.

**steve0617** · 11-26-2012, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by johnriii

trying to convince my wife to upgrade to the M, but I haven't been able to catch much "user" reaction to the battery. we both have Tbolts now, and battery life is a very key component of our next purchase, and the M seems to be more fit to her hand than the Tbolt, even though they both have the 4.3 display. me myself, I'm going for the HD or Maxx HD, depending on price at the time of upgrade. any input would be appreciated.

I am exactly in your situation. I had a Bolt. Wife had an Evo 4G. Both required the huge extended batteries. Wife is coming over to VZW on a Shared plan and we went back and forth between the M and the Razr Maxx HD for her. I had just upgraded to the Maxx HD (fantastic phone - easily 2 days of battery life on WiFi. Solid ALL day on 4G - 6 hours of screen time). Since the wife is not a power user, and she much prefers the form factor of the M over the Maxx HD, I ordered the M yesterday from Amazon Wireless. Based on what I've read, the M's battery life should be fine each day. Won't be able to do navigation all day of course, but she's mostly a talker/texter, not a data hog. And it's only $.01 for it right now. And the Maxx HD is only $149 right now as a new line ($175 upgrade).

But, and given some of the 4G/3G signal 'issues,' if it doesn't work correctly for her where we live (Denver), she agrees the M is going back and she'll get the Razr HD or maybe even the Maxx since it's only $20 more right now. The only thing that sucks is there are no exchanges with Amazon. Return only. So we'll return it and cancel her line, then wait a week or so then start over again with another phone and new line. But to save $150 off VZW's price for the Maxx HD, we'll live.

**RetiredJedi** · 11-26-2012, 01:29 PM

Well, here's my daughter's battery stats. I did put her on 3G since she has bad signal at work and I just never put it back. I probably won't either unless she wants/needs me to:

**rosser** · 11-26-2012, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by RetiredJedi

Well, here's my daughter's battery stats. I did put her on 3G since she bad signal at work and just never put it back and probably won't unless she wants/ needs me to:

WOW! that's pretty good battery life. I was considering picking one of these up for my mom for Christmas. Looks pretty good.

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**RetiredJedi** · 11-26-2012, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by rosser

WOW! that's pretty good battery life. I was considering picking one of these up for my mom for Christmas. Looks pretty good.

Yea, it seemed like it took about two or three days to really get the battery to worked in correctly (if that's what you want to call it) but we are pretty pleased with her phone. Smart actions, screen brightness, and synch settings are a huge plus. We use a smart actions to turn on the WIFI when we are home, WIFI power saver app to turn it off when we leave. Another Smart Action to turn off mobile data when her screen is off (You can still get regular text and phone calls). Her screen brightness is around 50% or so and nothing is on automatic synch. Also, like I said before, she is on 3g and even though you see WIFI on in that shot, she was at her boyfriends without WIFI. This screenshot was when she got home. I am going to have her do an experiment one day to see if she gets a full day on 4g but it will be a day when she doesn't have to go to work.

**lololovestech** · 11-26-2012, 06:30 PM

Battery is amazing. Here's a screenshot on JB with a good amount of use.

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**steve0617** · 11-26-2012, 06:55 PM

Even if you don't want to use Smart Actions, there's a great app called 'Y5 - Battery Saver' that just turns on the WiFi when it recognizes one it's connected to once before then turns it off when you're out of range. Works perfectly. Free too.

**WAldenIV** · 11-26-2012, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by steve0617

Even if you don't want to use Smart Actions, there's a great app called 'Y5 - Battery Saver' that just turns on the WiFi when it recognizes one it's connected to once before then turns it off when you're out of range. Works perfectly. Free too.

I'm pretty certain that behavior is already built into the M if you allow it.

Edit: It is. "Auto-Connect Wi-Fi" is part of the wireless settings menu.

I highly recommend Samsung TecTiles for those of you using Smart Actions. They will never fail on you, unlike SA.

**Will1524** · 11-26-2012, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by rosser

WOW! that's pretty good battery life. I was considering picking one of these up for my mom for Christmas. Looks pretty good.

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These aren't real battery stats. It looks like she honestly didn't do anything on the phone whatsoever. People post these yet forget to include screen on time. Almost any phone can idle for 9 hours and only lose a small fraction of the battery. What really kills the battery is LTE, Graphic intensive games, and Screen on time (brightness). I'm not trying to sound mean or anything just when you're looking for real battery results, look for screen on time rather than full idle time.

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**steve0617** · 11-26-2012, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by WAldenIV

I'm pretty certain that behavior is already built into the M if you allow it.

Edit: It is. "Auto-Connect Wi-Fi" is part of the wireless settings menu.

But doesn't that assume that WiFi is already turned on? Of course, it'll connect to a known network when it comes in contact with it, but not if it's totally turned off, right?

**RetiredJedi** · 11-26-2012, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by steve0617

Even if you don't want to use Smart Actions, there's a great app called 'Y5 - Battery Saver' that just turns on the WiFi when it recognizes one it's connected to once before then turns it off when you're out of range. Works perfectly. Free too.

I used Y5 for the longest time with my Tbolt but when we got the M, Maxx, and Maxx HD it didn't seem to play nice with it and our WIFI stayed on all day.

**RetiredJedi** · 11-26-2012, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by Will1524

These aren't real battery stats. It looks like she honestly didn't do anything on the phone whatsoever. People post these yet forget to include screen on time. Almost any phone can idle for 9 hours and only lose a small fraction of the battery. What really kills the battery is LTE, Graphic intensive games, and Screen on time (brightness). I'm not trying to sound mean or anything just when you're looking for real battery results, look for screen on time rather than full idle time.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Android Central Forums

Well she uses facebook a lot, has been playing the feathers off of Angry Birds, and is constantly texting/checking emails. We didn't get smartphones to just sit them on the arm of the chair or anything like that. The screenshot you see is the only screenshot we can take unless we use something like GSam battery monitor. I don't use those any more because we can get a full day and not worry about our battery just doing what we do with our phones.

**Will1524** · 11-26-2012, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by RetiredJedi

Well she uses facebook a lot, has been playing the feathers off of Angry Birds, and is constantly texting/checking emails. We didn't get smartphones to just sit them on the arm of the chair or anything like that. The screenshot you see is the only screenshot we can take unless we use something like GSam battery monitor. I don't use those any more because we can get a full day and not worry about our battery just doing what we do with our phones.

Hit the screen/display tile and be amazed.......

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**RetiredJedi** · 11-27-2012, 07:07 AM

Originally Posted by Will1524

Hit the screen/display tile and be amazed.......

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Android Central Forums

Not that I need to but let me respond with as few words as possible...NO. I haven't owned a lot of smart phones but this isn't my first one.

I know I can take a screenshot of anything on the screen but your acting like I'm trying to deceive the OP. I know about (and figured the OP knows about) all the factors that effect the battery; 3G vs 4G vs WiFi, screen on time, auto synch, blah, blah, blah. I even know that streaming video on a smartphone not only uses data but it also wears down your battery. That screenshot is from a 20 year old, female, college student that I think uses her phone the same as any other 20 year old, female, college student would. The OP wants to know about the battery on the M so I showed an example of what it can do. Again, she uses facebook a lot, has been playing the feathers off of Angry Birds, is constantly texting/checking emails, and even talks to people with it.

**dki378** · 11-27-2012, 07:12 AM

Originally Posted by RetiredJedi

Yea, it seemed like it took about two or three days to really get the battery to worked in correctly (if that's what you want to call it) but we are pretty pleased with her phone. Smart actions, screen brightness, and synch settings are a huge plus. We use a smart actions to turn on the WIFI when we are home, WIFI power saver app to turn it off when we leave. Another Smart Action to turn off mobile data when her screen is off (You can still get regular text and phone calls). Her screen brightness is around 50% or so and nothing is on automatic synch. Also, like I said before, she is on 3g and even though you see WIFI on in that shot, she was at her boyfriends without WIFI. This screenshot was when she got home. I am going to have her do an experiment one day to see if she gets a full day on 4g but it will be a day when she doesn't have to go to work.

You bring up some very good ideas for battery saving that I never really though of. I haven't messed with the sync settings on my phone. Which settings are you talking about? I would also like to change these settings but don't know where to look. Thanks for the help.

**RetiredJedi** · 11-27-2012, 07:24 AM

Originally Posted by dki378

You bring up some very good ideas for battery saving that I never really though of. I haven't messed with the sync settings on my phone. Which settings are you talking about? I would also like to change these settings but don't know where to look. Thanks for the help.

Go to the left screen and touch "Go to all setting" > "Accounts & Synch" > at the top you will see the on/off toggle and turn it off. Then I setup these two smart actions on our phones:

1. Trigger - Display Status (Off)
Actions - Mobile data (Off) <--you can still get text and phone calls but know that once you turn on your screen you may have to wait about 5 seconds for the data part to come back on.

2. Trigger - Location (My house)
Actions - WIFI (On) <-- to counter this one I downloaded an app called WIFI Powersaver to turn WIFI back off after one minute of not being connected like for when I leave home.
I used to use Y5 Battery saver app to do the same thing but it didn't seem to work right on this phone so I found this alternative.

Also, if you didn't see it already you can turn off the 4G and turn on 3G, by downloading the "Phone Info" app. Open the app and select the CDMA auto (PRL). Just like describes.

**pdarrah** · 11-27-2012, 08:18 AM

I am thrilled with the M's battery. Of course, my previous phone was a Droid X which barely made it through a day! I sync with 5 email accounts (yes, there is a reason for that!) and spend a lot of time on twitter (using TweetDeck). I regularly click links on twitter that take me to photos/videos/web pages. I haven't done ANYTHING to save battery - I just leave WiFi on, it picks 4G/3G on its own (I mostly have 4G signals (Chicago area) although it is a little week inside my office - usually only 2 bars. I charge it at night. It gets unplugged around 6AM and usually gets plugged back in around 11PM. It is extremely rate that the battery falls to even 65% - most days its closer to 75% when I plug it in. I have forgotten to charge it a couple times and can easily make it through 2 days.

**dki378** · 11-27-2012, 08:52 AM

Originally Posted by RetiredJedi

Go to the left screen and touch "Go to all setting" > "Accounts & Synch" > at the top you will see the on/off toggle and turn it off. Then I setup these two smart actions on our phones:

1. Trigger - Display Status (Off)
Actions - Mobile data (Off) <--you can still get text and phone calls but know that once you turn on your screen you may have to wait about 5 seconds for the data part to come back on.

2. Trigger - Location (My house)
Actions - WIFI (On) <-- to counter this one I downloaded an app called WIFI Powersaver to turn WIFI back off after one minute of not being connected like for when I leave home.
I used to use Y5 Battery saver app to do the same thing but it didn't seem to work right on this phone so I found this alternative.

Also, if you didn't see it already you can turn off the 4G and turn on 3G, by downloading the "Phone Info" app. Open the app and select the CDMA auto (PRL). Just like describes.

Thank you for the info. I will definitely be playing around with the Smart Actions settings.

Also, maybe I never went through the steps to set it up but the "Accounts & Synch" option does not exist for me. I went up and down the "Go to All Settings" menu and do not see it. Which heading do I find it under? ("WIRELESS & NETWORKS", DEVICE", PERSONAL', "ACCOUNTS", or "SYSTEM"). Thanks again for the help here.

**RetiredJedi** · 11-27-2012, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by dki378

Thank you for the info. I will definitely be playing around with the Smart Actions settings.

Also, maybe I never went through the steps to set it up but the "Accounts & Synch" option does not exist for me. I went up and down the "Go to All Settings" menu and do not see it. Which heading do I find it under? ("WIRELESS & NETWORKS", DEVICE", PERSONAL', "ACCOUNTS", or "SYSTEM"). Thanks again for the help here.

Sorry, I wish I could remember the exact path but I'm at work and don't have access to my daughter's phone. Keep looking around in the settings area of it, it's in there somewhere. Give me a few minutes and I'll ask her and let you know where it's at unless someone else gets it before me.

**RetiredJedi** · 11-27-2012, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by dki378

Thank you for the info. I will definitely be playing around with the Smart Actions settings.

Also, maybe I never went through the steps to set it up but the "Accounts & Synch" option does not exist for me. I went up and down the "Go to All Settings" menu and do not see it. Which heading do I find it under? ("WIRELESS & NETWORKS", DEVICE", PERSONAL', "ACCOUNTS", or "SYSTEM"). Thanks again for the help here.

It seems like they have moved it since the JB update. We might have to start a new DB about where it's at plus, like I said, I can't get access to her phone right now.

**dki378** · 11-27-2012, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by RetiredJedi

It seems like they have moved it since the JB update. We might have to start a new DB about where it's at plus, like I said, I can't get access to her phone right now.

The only thing that might be close might be "Backup Assistant Plus" under the "Accounts" heading but there is no toggle for turning syncing on or off.

**RetiredJedi** · 11-27-2012, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by dki378

The only thing that might be close might be "Backup Assistant Plus" under the "Accounts" heading but there is no toggle for turning syncing on or off.

That's not the one. It's pretty odd that it's gone or hidden somewhere. When I get home I'll look for it on her phone. I went to motorola web site and they have a new JB owners manual for the M. I'll have to check it out.

**johnriii** · 11-27-2012, 01:09 PM

I live in KC, where our signal is very strong just about everywhere we are. I plan to leave my new phone on 4G all the time, so my OP could be rephrased as how is the battery life on LTE?

**RetiredJedi** · 11-27-2012, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by dki378

The only thing that might be close might be "Backup Assistant Plus" under the "Accounts" heading but there is no toggle for turning syncing on or off.

It looks like JB made them individual now. So look under settings, accounts and you see all the accounts that get synched. You should click on them and have an option to turn off auto synch

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**dki378** · 11-28-2012, 06:16 AM

Originally Posted by RetiredJedi

It looks like JB made them individual now. So look under settings, accounts and you see all the accounts that get synched. You should click on them and have an option to turn off auto synch

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I see. Thanks for following up on this. I appreciate it!