thinking about getting a droid, how is the battery life?

mjc27 · 02-26-2010, 02:10 PM

Hi, i have a palm pre plus and have 2 days to decide if i want to keep it before my 30 days are up. i like the phone but wow does the battery suck. i see the droid as a good alternative to the pre and im looking for some feedback on the phone.

im not a power user and basically the phone drains at about 3% an hour when not using (idle). i generally send about 20 txs a day and use the net for about an hour. i can get about 15-18 hrs out of this phone before it goes dead basically if i needed to use the phone heavily i could probably get 6-8 hrs out of it.

hows the battery life on a droid? what are your complaints about it and what do you like about the phone? is this a phone that you can really use through out a day and not worry about being near a charger?

scodoublet · 02-26-2010, 02:13 PM

I had a Sprint Palm Pre before my Droid and the Droid's battery life, while not the greatest phone battery life ever, is much better than the Pre's was. The Droid's battery life is much better than any other smartphone I have personally had. Those being the HTC Mogul, HTC Touch Pro, and the Palm Pre.

mjc27 · 02-26-2010, 02:16 PM

@ Scodoublet
thanks for the quick reply!

So since you had both the pre and the droid, what do you personally like better and how much of a difference did you see in the life? was it like 2-3hr extra or a lot more time before charging?

entwined82 · 02-26-2010, 02:42 PM

For me, I'm usually at 70% by the end of the day with a lot of texting and calls in a bad signal area. I could go 2 days on a charge probably

Be warned though, the battery life is abysmal at first. The first 2 weeks will be a major hassle but once the battery gets a few good charges in it improves.

mobilemedic20 · 02-26-2010, 02:48 PM

Wow.... really?! My Droid's pretty new, but I'm at 70% right now and i only unplugged it (after overnight charge) 4.5 hours ago. And that's no calls, no apps, no SMS, only a couple e-mails and maybe 10-15 minutes total on the browser. I believe the battery will improve a little, but right now it's pretty poor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by entwined82

For me, I'm usually at 70% by the end of the day with a lot of texting and calls in a bad signal area. I could go 2 days on a charge probably

Be warned though, the battery life is abysmal at first. The first 2 weeks will be a major hassle but once the battery gets a few good charges in it improves.

entwined82 · 02-26-2010, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mobilemedic20

Wow.... really?! My Droid's pretty new, but I'm at 70% right now and i only unplugged it (after overnight charge) 4.5 hours ago. And that's no calls, no apps, no SMS, only a couple e-mails and maybe 10-15 minutes total on the browser. I believe the battery will improve a little, but right now it's pretty poor.

Yup but also keep in mind the browser and 3G are gunna be huge drains no matter what. When I'm home I only use WiFi.

Its pretty bad to start, but like I said it does get better. Just takes some time.

mjc27 · 02-26-2010, 03:01 PM

@entwined82 so even in a bad signal area your at 70% after a whole day!?!?! wow i have a bad signal at work (goes between 1x and Ev all day with only 1-2bars of each) and im down to 50% since 9:30 with the pre (30min of browser and 10 txt messages)

kalldrexx · 02-26-2010, 03:08 PM

In a decent signal area (sometimes I lose 3g, I have it most of the time though) I end my 8 hour workday between 80% and 70% battery while listening to music for most of the day, text messaging, checking emails, etc.. I end with 60%-50% if using pandora for music. However, I rarely use my phone as an actual phone these days so I dont make many calls.

mjc27 · 02-26-2010, 03:19 PM

So how is it when not using the phone? i notice from mine and other pre/ pre plus users that it will drain 2-4% an hour while idle. basically if you dont charge it when you go to bed after 8hrs your looking at 20-30% with it just sitting there.

entwined82 · 02-26-2010, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjc27

@entwined82 so even in a bad signal area your at 70% after a whole day!?!?! wow i have a bad signal at work (goes between 1x and Ev all day with only 1-2bars of each) and im down to 50% since 9:30 with the pre (30min of browser and 10 txt messages)

I'm off the charger at 10 am every day. I don't plug back in till Im going to bed (1-2 am typically) and right now I'm at 80%. Wi-Fi on, exchanged about 30 texts with my fiancee, sent a dozen emails and had a 10 minute phone call and its 3:15 eastern.

Some days its better than others. I think wifi is a big reason for this.