Review Charge battery life shorter than Thunderbolt

[bberrynewbie84]

I just wish HTC improve their batteries

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[brackett5]

Yeah I have TB and am switching to a Charge tonight as soon as i get off work. I have woke up with the battery showing 100% at 3:45AM and by 4:30 AM the battery is already down to 84% and thats not even touching the phone other than to check what time it is and MAYBE the weather. By the time I drive to work (about 20 mins) the phone is now at 74% on a good day. Get through my briefing (15min) and I'm now at 67% so by the time I am ready to start using it I'm already down to almost half a battery and thats with not even using the browser or apps or really anything. Throw in random reboots and the fact that typing on the thing for texts or emails is painfully slow and cant keep up and its time for a new phone.

 

[truenoob]

The Charge is my first Android and coming from the Blackberry Family (started with a Pearl, Storm 1, Tour and Bold) I have to say that I'm really loving the phone. As far a battery goes, it doesn't last as long as my Blackberry did, but as someone else mentioned somewhere, the Blackberry doesn't do much besides email/text. I knew battery life wouldn't be as good going in, but i didn't want a Thunderbolt like experience. While I wish the battery life could be better, I am fine with what I get. When I really need the battery to last a full day (14 hours) of moderate use, I will turn off 4G unless I really need it, I set the display to the lowest setting which is still easily usable indoors. I had Advanced Task Killer and NoLED, but uninstalled those and found my battery life to be better. I'm sure in part because I don't keep going in there to kill things. The biggest difference for me has been controlling the display brightness. I love the phone and will be keeping it until I find something I like better

 

[Androidpwns]

After all my research, I am extremely disappointed in the battery life of the Droid Charge. It seems to last the same amount of time as my EVO with a worn out 1 yr old battery. Not kidding. When I saw that my phone said it was the display that was using all the juice I turned it down to one notch above lowest setting. The display was using much less but it still only added around 2 hours uptime. I have yet to make it through a day of work without having to charge it so that it doesn't die before I can get home to charge it. Yes I've got all the stuff tweaked to limit power usage. I ordered a new battery to see if somehow I got a bad battery.

 

[urdaddi]

nope thats kinda sucks but im only using it when i know ill be away from home awhile and heavy using it in the process like stuntin on my friends iphones and stuff

Does the extended battery fit in the desktop cradle to charge or do you have to charge the battery via phone?

 

[NHLou]

I really cannot complain about the battery. I unplugged the phone around 7 a.m., streamed satellite radio and google music for about 45 min while working out, made calls (approx. 40 min.) on my way to work, used mobile hotspot feature during lunch (connected Galaxy Tab 10.1), more phone calls and e-mails. Battery was down to 5% by 4:30 p.m. Overall, I can live with it if I can get that much use. I also carry a spare battery, which helps.

 

[rbess1965]

Apparently people knew about this issue long before it hit the smart phone market. Google Latitude: Will it Kill your Phone?s Battery? — Mobile Technology News

So turn off Google Location Services or at least make sure Latitude is not running. If you don?t want to do that, at minimum, remove any widgets that use location services like weather or ?Rate this place?.

Nexus S Battery Drain: Google Maps - Google Mobile Help

Google services drains battery at 38% on Nexus One? - Google Mobile Help

I?ve had my Droid Charge for about 2 months now and personally, I was averaging 11-12 hours of basic use which I thought was good. Yesterday I turned off my Google Location Services for the first time. Took the unit off the charger at 6:30pm yesterday and I?m now looking at 21% of battery left after 22hrs. Additionally, I never have VZW location on and only use GPS occasionally in the car. I also turned off Background Data in Sync but may switch those back on after this test to see what affect it really has. Running it dry tonight to see how far it will go

I use ?My Profiles Lite? to have one touch controls for Home, Car, Work & Night modes. Works great. If you try other apps that do this automatically, catch22, they require location services to sense where you are.

 

[dressagerider]

Its not true. I had a Thunderbolt and now own a Charge and its not even close, the Charge has way better battery life.

I agree!! I also had the thunderbolt first and the battery was terrible. I could barely get through 4 hours without hooking up to the charger. My droid charge battery is great for a smartphone, in my opinion.

 

[tintn00]

How do I make sure google latitude isn't running? Whenever I thy to kill it, it pops back up. I've signed out of it and make sure I'm never signed in.

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[Raring]

Just to add to the record, my phone has been unplugged for 3h 31m. I have the data connection issue where I'll sit here in my office and data drops out all the time. I don't turn on wifi cause I don't want to be on company network (though maybe I should). I have drained 50% already with very minimal use. Display is 80% of drain followed by Android system 4%. Senserserver_ya is next at 3%.

I usually leave it on the dock all day so I don't have to charge it up twice/day.

The name "Droid Charge" has some unintended irony for me right now.

 

[rbess1965]

To add to my observations, last night I left the Background data ON and lost 20% again overnight so it too is a hog for sure. Unfortunately a necessary one if you want to be alerted when emails come in or when you use the Market. I may try just leaving it off for now and refreshing mail when I check it. See how that goes. Installed a widget to get me to the setting quickly. Either way, the Droid Charge battery life is still better than the Tbolt I had so it's all good.

 

[brianct1972]

Does the extended battery fit in the desktop cradle to charge or do you have to charge the battery via phone?

It will not fit in the desktop crade if the battery is in the phone, but the battery does fit in the charging dock right behind the cradle.

 

[Androidpwns]

After all my research, I am extremely disappointed in the battery life of the Droid Charge. It seems to last the same amount of time as my EVO with a worn out 1 yr old battery. Not kidding. When I saw that my phone said it was the display that was using all the juice I turned it down to one notch above lowest setting. The display was using much less but it still only added around 2 hours uptime. I have yet to make it through a day of work without having to charge it so that it doesn't die before I can get home to charge it. Yes I've got all the stuff tweaked to limit power usage. I ordered a new battery to see if somehow I got a bad battery.

Results: No diff...still sucked but was cool to have a 2nd battery. (Samsungs Y-cable extra battery w charger was awesome). Swapped for the Thunderbolt...In my case for whatever reason the Thunderbolt lasted all day long (7:30-midnight, still had juice but went ahead and charged it). All of this was on 3G btw, except wi-fi in the evening. Obviously when 4G came a few days later the battery was drained faster but I got my "testing" done b4 that. Also, the HTC was not buggy and laggy like the Samsung. I am much happier with the Thunderbolt in every way. I know this is much different than most ppl's exp. with Charge vs Thunderbolt battery life but wanted to provide the results of the exp. I had anyway.

 

[mrpickem]

I run a rooted Humble 1.4 rom and get great battery life. I leave all radios on and sync every 2 hours. I have 3 emails pushed constantly & have medium web/text/phone usage. I leave the display at 60% and my original battery always last all day and usually has 20-30% left at night when I plug it in.

I dont know what the problem is??? :-\

 

[samsuck]

I use Humble 1.4 and have great battery life, way better than my TBolt on CM7

 

[zombiebot]

I run a rooted Humble 1.4 rom and get great battery life. I leave all radios on and sync every 2 hours. I have 3 emails pushed constantly & have medium web/text/phone usage. I leave the display at 60% and my original battery always last all day and usually has 20-30% left at night when I plug it in.

I dont know what the problem is??? :-\

I agree with ya, but the usage scale that we are using is very normative/relative to each person. My moderate use might be Joe schmoe's heavy use, and a lot of peeps still poll Pop emails like hotmail.
On top of that, it does seem like there are outlying experiences - crazy long and stupid short.