Know Your Mobile Review - Battery LIfe Comments

[smrdroid]

From a new review on the Know Your Mobile website. I am confused. Almost every other reviewer critisizes the X for a weak battery, how do these guys reach an opposite conclusion?

The Moto X 2014 manages to deliver quite a trick in the battery department. I ran our usual “Django Test”, starting from 100% charge with brightness on full and Wi-Fi enabled. Playing the entirety of Quentin Tarantino’s 2.45 hour epic western left an impressive 69% juice at the end of it – that’s virtually on a par with one of the best devices we’ve seen so far for battery performance; the Nokia Lumia 930, with a score of 71%, a fact which I believe means the Moto X has the best battery performance on any Android phone we’ve reviewed to date. This is all the more impressive when you consider the Moto X isn’t rocking some 3,000mAh+ behemoth cell, it’s a non-removable 2,300mAh unit instead, so clearly optimisations are what’s at play here.

That kind of performance should mean you can get about seven hours of continuous video playback, possibly more, and that’s without even adjusting the brightness to something more sensible (though admittedly less satisfying – who wants to watch a feature film on half brightness?!). In normal daily use with apps, calls, browsing and the like, I found the battery was able to last a full day easily, often into the next day. With very light use and auto-brightness toggled on you should be able to get a couple of days on a single charge.

 

[Krolt]

on 4g I can get 4 hours SOT and 2 days (with no gaming, just browsing and you tube etc) , best battery life I have ever had. I did come from a Nexus 4/ 5 though
Only hope this continues when I get (if I ever do) Lollipop.

 

[anon(5506951)]

From a new review on the Know Your Mobile website. I am confused. Almost every other reviewer critisizes the X for a weak battery, how do these guys reach an opposite conclusion?

The Moto X 2014 manages to deliver quite a trick in the battery department. I ran our usual “Django Test”, starting from 100% charge with brightness on full and Wi-Fi enabled. Playing the entirety of Quentin Tarantino’s 2.45 hour epic western left an impressive 69% juice at the end of it – that’s virtually on a par with one of the best devices we’ve seen so far for battery performance; the Nokia Lumia 930, with a score of 71%, a fact which I believe means the Moto X has the best battery performance on any Android phone we’ve reviewed to date. This is all the more impressive when you consider the Moto X isn’t rocking some 3,000mAh+ behemoth cell, it’s a non-removable 2,300mAh unit instead, so clearly optimisations are what’s at play here.

That kind of performance should mean you can get about seven hours of continuous video playback, possibly more, and that’s without even adjusting the brightness to something more sensible (though admittedly less satisfying – who wants to watch a feature film on half brightness?!). In normal daily use with apps, calls, browsing and the like, I found the battery was able to last a full day easily, often into the next day. With very light use and auto-brightness toggled on you should be able to get a couple of days on a single charge.

Everyone's experience is different, I suppose. I really like the Moto app, and the fact that unlike Samsung, Motorola's features are actually useful. I was really sure that I was going to get the Nexus 6, but the absence of the Moto suite had me rethinking it; especially since I've read and seen that Ambient Display isn't all that good, compared to Moto Display. I've seen many people mention the poor battery life on the Moto X, so this is somewhat surprising to me. If I don't end up getting the Nexus 6 by Spring, I might as well wait for the Moto X 2015. At least that will come with Lollipop out of the box.

Then again, in getting the Nexus 6, I'd have a big enough (obviously) phone screen-wise, with the big battery, and it'd first to get updates. It would cover me for 2-3 years. So confusing. Either way, battery life, to me, is most important.

 

[for3nsicguy]

Everyone's experience is different, I suppose. I really like the Moto app, and the fact that unlike Samsung, Motorola's features are actually useful. I was really sure that I was going to get the Nexus 6, but the absence of the Moto suite had me rethinking it; especially since I've read and seen that Ambient Display isn't all that good, compared to Moto Display. I've seen many people mention the poor battery life on the Moto X, so this is somewhat surprising to me. If I don't end up getting the Nexus 6 by Spring, I might as well wait for the Moto X 2015. At least that will come with Lollipop out of the box.

Then again, in getting the Nexus 6, I'd have a big enough (obviously) phone screen-wise, with the big battery, and it'd first to get updates. It would cover me for 2-3 years. So confusing. Either way, battery life, to me, is most important.

Battery life has to be one of the most difficult metrics to measure on a smartphone. The only way to measure it that makes any sense is to use 2 devices over time and see how they compare in your experience.

On heavy usage days, I consistently have 20%-25% of the battery left at 11pm after coming off the charger at 5am and between 4-5 hours of screen on time. That's 18 hours off the charger.

On light usage days, I consistently have 55%-60% of the battery left with 18 hours off the charger and 1-1.5 hours of screen on time.

I have used a Nexus 5, HTC One M8, and a Moto X 2013 during the past year. My usage patterns are fairly consistent day to day, week to week, and month to month. I can tell you that, for me, the battery life I get out of my Moto X 2014 is significantly better than the Nexus 5 and the Moto X 2013 and almost as good as I got with the M8. I am not a mobile gamer and do not stream a lot of video.

The 5.0 Lollipop update gives us Moto X users the option of using the "Ambient Display". I tried it, once. Just to say I did. It is nowhere near as well implemented as Moto Display.

I would recommend you pick up a Moto X 2014 and try it for a couple of weeks. Try out and compare Motorola's software features with similar features that are included in Android 5.0. If you try it and you don't like the Moto X, return it and move on to something else.

My bet is that if you try it, you won't have to worry about how to return it...

 

[vtpmt81]

From a new review on the Know Your Mobile website. I am confused. Almost every other reviewer critisizes the X for a weak battery, how do these guys reach an opposite conclusion?

The Moto X 2014 manages to deliver quite a trick in the battery department. I ran our usual “Django Test”, starting from 100% charge with brightness on full and Wi-Fi enabled. Playing the entirety of Quentin Tarantino’s 2.45 hour epic western left an impressive 69% juice at the end of it – that’s virtually on a par with one of the best devices we’ve seen so far for battery performance; the Nokia Lumia 930, with a score of 71%, a fact which I believe means the Moto X has the best battery performance on any Android phone we’ve reviewed to date. This is all the more impressive when you consider the Moto X isn’t rocking some 3,000mAh+ behemoth cell, it’s a non-removable 2,300mAh unit instead, so clearly optimisations are what’s at play here.

That kind of performance should mean you can get about seven hours of continuous video playback, possibly more, and that’s without even adjusting the brightness to something more sensible (though admittedly less satisfying – who wants to watch a feature film on half brightness?!). In normal daily use with apps, calls, browsing and the like, I found the battery was able to last a full day easily, often into the next day. With very light use and auto-brightness toggled on you should be able to get a couple of days on a single charge.

It is a classic case of your miles may vary.

The people that are complaining about battery have a legitimate beef - the Moto X 2014 has a smaller capacity battery than other phones and has an AMOLED screen. Battery drain is an issue if you web browse and expose the screen to web pages with lots of white colors.

However, I find the battery life to be solid - if I unplug my phone at 8am for work it will have about 50% battery by midnight - that is with an average 2 hours SOT, 30 minutes of phone calls, some browsing and gaming, etc.

I suggest you buy the phone and test drive it.

 

[anon(5506951)]

Battery life has to be one of the most difficult metrics to measure on a smartphone. The only way to measure it that makes any sense is to use 2 devices over time and see how they compare in your experience.

On heavy usage days, I consistently have 20%-25% of the battery left at 11pm after coming off the charger at 5am and between 4-5 hours of screen on time. That's 18 hours off the charger.

On light usage days, I consistently have 55%-60% of the battery left with 18 hours off the charger and 1-1.5 hours of screen on time.

I have used a Nexus 5, HTC One M8, and a Moto X 2013 during the past year. My usage patterns are fairly consistent day to day, week to week, and month to month. I can tell you that, for me, the battery life I get out of my Moto X 2014 is significantly better than the Nexus 5 and the Moto X 2013 and almost as good as I got with the M8. I am not a mobile gamer and do not stream a lot of video.

The 5.0 Lollipop update gives us Moto X users the option of using the "Ambient Display". I tried it, once. Just to say I did. It is nowhere near as well implemented as Moto Display.

I would recommend you pick up a Moto X 2014 and try it for a couple of weeks. Try out and compare Motorola's software features with similar features that are included in Android 5.0. If you try it and you don't like the Moto X, return it and move on to something else.

My bet is that if you try it, you won't have to worry about how to return it...

Thank you for your in-depth experience. I'm at the point where Motorola devices may be my go-to, because they offer the closest to stock experience one can get, other than Nexus and GPE. So I'm not ruling it out.

 

[laytoncy]

on 4g I can get 4 hours SOT and 2 days (with no gaming, just browsing and you tube etc) , best battery life I have ever had. I did come from a Nexus 4/ 5 though
Only hope this continues when I get (if I ever do) Lollipop.

I get the same with my X.