It's becoming more decent for me, regardless of what the batt meter says out of the box...i doubt it's at 100% till first time you charge it so no...also keep in mind that out of the box the droid has all of its bells and whistles automatically on. The answer, I'd have to say is that the more you use it, the better it gets till it reaches its full potential (and stays there) just like any phone I experienced.
My last phone before I got my Droid 2 just recently (Aug 18) I had a different Motorola model phone, the Rokr E8 which although is a tame smartphone and can't do a smidge of what Droids can, it also improved over time.
With phones like this...keep in mind that new technology has to be developed in order to keep up with the times. In the meantime, until new battery developments are introduced, you should expect 15 hours to 1 full day out of your Androids at the least, any other improvment may indeed contradict that time frame after frequent use and recharging which only makes it better.
I'll tell you my experience from yesterday. I got my phone the 18th, you use the hell out of it the first time u get it, not just usage but you have all of the factory bells and whistles going in the background an you're constantly trying out different settings and pushing it to the limit...plus it's not broken in. I know some people disagree that ion lithiums don't need to or can't be improved through being "broken in" but every phone i have simply HAS, it just evens out.
Anyway I noticed that after a good 8 hours of constant use on my Droid 2 it was at the 30% warning mark (which it can still last sometime longer before its done obviously) so i considered this was due to it being new and unbroken/plus my "new phone excitement" and constant use of all different features for hours straight. Not only this but needless things running in the background.
So I did this: set brightness to auto adjust or to a fixed brightness of your liking...anything around 60% or under is plenty high quality. I turned off wifi obviously unless i need it, you can only use one at a time anyway since they provide web access so no need to leave useless stuff on..with your droid's built in option of adding a power panel widget...one tap can turn off and on services when you need them..no inconvienent at all. Same thing for bluetooth and gps..tap em when you need them from the panel. The main batt sucking change I made was getting rid of any widget that needs constant update checking...to me its just useless, it takes one tap on a gmail app. Facebook app, or news/weather app to get what you want. Widgets that dont suck battery are ones that simply mirror things like...calender reminders, sticky notes and clock widgets with the date displayed so you don't have to use your lock screen just to see the date. I also leave google's voice/net quick search widget panel up cause again...it's a tool and not a second by second batt sucking updater.
I also did the PRL tower update which is recommended monthly since it helps your phone to know where it can find and when to stop searching for the location it's getting its signal. Also check to see if there are any Android phone updates by going to "about phone", besides the 2.2.20 recent update..I'm sure they know people are complaining of a little battery sucking and the phone is brand spanking new so I expect improvments in the future to help the phones deal with prior problems. I also let my battery recalibrate so it reads actual juice level properly by letting my phone die all the way, then charged in to 100%...before people say how bad this is, That information is false..a safety mechanism kicks in and shuts the batt off before true 0% batt level (so it probably shuts phone/battery off at about 5%) not to mention my rokr e8 batt died countless times before getting to a chargerall throughout my 2 yr contract with T-mobile so battery damage rumors in today's time is bull****...they have to let you be in a situation where your phone dies because that's life with a phone: you're out and you don't always have access to a charger. Damage to a battery can come probably only if its defective to start with or if you let it sit for a long time after your phone dies..because then i assume long periods of time slowly drain remaining power gradually and naturally.
Anyway...after all of that...yesterday I took my phone off the charger at 6am and it died a little after 11pm. Pretty happy with that...and i expect between android updates and constant use and charge...it will stretch itself more, especially after reading some of the times people posted on this thread before me being as high as a day and a half which is usual for even kick around phones that are used a normal amount. And hell..if with aim messaging, web browsing, email, youtubing and downloading apps etc can still let my phone get to 17 hours..I gotta say, pretty decent to have a 15 to 17 hour window after these tweaks...i mean that gives you plenty of time to find a charger in some form. I dont have a car charger but i have a portable usb batt i used to use for my old phone which also holds a charge till you flip the phone switch and plug it in.
That's my experience with it so far, and like I said..i expect strength improvements in one form or another to come with time. Especially since some of you have posted day and a half uses with running more than I with a brand new phone I've had jus shy of half a week.