I'll try to make a productive post here (as an actual user)
I've had my DNA since Wed. I'm a former Thunderbolt owner, so my expectations were relatively low. I have chargers all over the place - work, car, home, etc. It was a necessity with the TB, even with the extended battery. I've been forcing myself to not plug the DNA in, even though something innate in me keeps telling me to do it. I don't know what constitutes heavy usage, or rising to the ranks of the "power user", but I'd think I'm at least in the average "85% of Verizon customers" category. I do the normal things you'd do with a phone - send email, text, use GPS for navigation, web browse, watch youtube/netflix, stream Pandora, listen to music stored on the phone. I won't lie, it probably wouldn't have hurt my feelings if the phone had a bigger battery or SD card - I won't try to pretend that I DON'T want them. But obviously they're not there. And I'm fairly certain that getting a 3300mh battery in this thing would have made it huge, and that's something I DEFINITELY don't want. That said, I actually think this thing has excellent battery life. I can get up in the morning, unplug the phone at 6:30, make it through the work day using it as often as I like, and then plug it in when I get home after 5:00. Right now I'm at 56% charge after 8 hours off the charger. With my "normal" usage, I could easily not plug this back in until I go to bed tonight. I suppose if I wanted to watch 4 full length movies non-stop on it, I'd need to plug it in. Or if I was using it as navigation on a cross-country road trip. But that's a pretty rare occurance for me, and I have chargers available to top it off when I need to.
I have a feeling where people are getting thrown off the tracks is that this phone has every other bell and whistle, so why not also include a monster battery. That obviously wasn't the highest consideration when this phone was designed. Battery life from most every account is that it is at least comparable to most other phones in its class, with the exception of the Maxx phones. If battery life is number one concern, the Maxx phones are your option, and that's what you need to get (that or one of those little portable battery packs). But I don't think monster battery life is that huge of a concern for most people (and by "most people" I mean the masses that don't hang out on Android forums). The DNA is on par with the other phones in its class. It definitely isn't "considerably worse". I definitely wouldn't have wanted to spend an extra $100 for the phone just for a few more hours of battery life that I don't really need. It would be great if they made a "Maxx" version down the road for the folks that need that (and don't mind a bulky phone). But I still would have picked the standard version for $100 less.