Droid 2 Global vs Droid battery life

[pdisme]

Hi all, I've spent a few weeks with a new Droid 2 Global upgrading from the original Droid. I had to do the upgrade because I plan to be out of the country a bunch this summer and didn't want to deal with temp phones and numbers. I figured it would be a non-issue since I saw references to 20% battery battery life on Droid 2 (but perhaps that didn't include the global?). I'm finding that I can't make it 24 hours between charges while I could on my original Moto Droid. I charge via computer only when it's at the end so it's a slow and complete charge.

I've done all the normal task killing stuff, so basically the things running are nearly the same as what had been running on the Droid. I was surprised to see they use the same battery so I plan to run my old battery in the new one for a few cycles to see if there's any difference.

Has anyone who's gone from original Droid to Droid 2 Global had similar experience, or perhaps I have a faulty battery?

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

The Droid 2 Global has a processor that is twice as powerful. That may account for the lesser battery life.

 

[cordoni]

And please see the sticky on task killing. It is self defeating when it comes to battery life.

Sent from my Froyo Fascinate using Tapatalk.

 

[jdbower]

Batteries also take a few cycles to get into the swing of things, I've found that the first week or so of a Lithium battery gradually increases the overall charge it can hold. Plus you tend to use your phone a lot more when it's new, but the massively more powerful processor doesn't help either.

BTW: Make sure you look into VZW's Global Data plan - unlimited International data is a definite must plus you can turn it on just before the trip and turn it off just after so you're only billed for the duration of the trip.

 

[thomashedd1]

1. charging with computer lessens the life and charge capacity of the battery, it says it in a few phone manuals. and 2. you should check and make sure your in CDMA mode (settings-wireless and networks- mobile networks) if your in global while your still in the states then the phone is searching for both GSM and CDMA networks, thus using more battery life.

 

[jdbower]

1. charging with computer lessens the life and charge capacity of the battery, it says it in a few phone manuals
.

I'm not so sure about this part, it can take longer to charge but that's because real USB ports limit the amount of power output while chargers can bypass that limit. Any examples of manuals where it does say this?

 

[ydh2323]

i am having similar issue, i have the extended life moto battery and can barely make it a full day. few calls texts and emails and bef i know it the batt indicator is on orange showing that its almost dead, i have usb charger at my desk but this is ridiculous!

 

[jinjelsnaps]

i am having similar issue, i have the extended life moto battery and can barely make it a full day. few calls texts and emails and bef i know it the batt indicator is on orange showing that its almost dead, i have usb charger at my desk but this is ridiculous!

Does yours get blazing hot around the camera area as well? Mine sure does. I've never had a phone do this before but if I leave the thing on my desk for a while and pick it up to check something, it's uncomfortably warm - sometimes REALLY hot.

The Motorola support forums have a lot of people with the same issue I have and some tips to try to mitigate the problem, but nothing's worked 100%. This, by the way, is my second D2G - the first had this problem right out of the box, the replacement D2G took about a month and a half to start pulling the same crap.

I'm thinking about calling Verizon corporate to switch from the D2G to the D2 - my girlfriend has the D2, and never has issues with it. My D1 was a champ, but this D2G has been a total dog for me...

 

[thomashedd1]

I'm not so sure about this part, it can take longer to charge but that's because real USB ports limit the amount of power output while chargers can bypass that limit. Any examples of manuals where it does say this?

I read it on the blackberry website under tips and tricks. I believe it is because the usb ports put out a certain, general, amount of power while your charger is specifically built for your device and thus gives it the exact voltage and amperage that it needs and can handle.

 

[thomashedd1]

Does yours get blazing hot around the camera area as well? Mine sure does. I've never had a phone do this before but if I leave the thing on my desk for a while and pick it up to check something, it's uncomfortably warm - sometimes REALLY hot.

The Motorola support forums have a lot of people with the same issue I have and some tips to try to mitigate the problem, but nothing's worked 100%. This, by the way, is my second D2G - the first had this problem right out of the box, the replacement D2G took about a month and a half to start pulling the same crap.

I'm thinking about calling Verizon corporate to switch from the D2G to the D2 - my girlfriend has the D2, and never has issues with it. My D1 was a champ, but this D2G has been a total dog for me...

Have you tried underclocking the device? I know that the X and D2G have the same processor but the D2Gs is clocked higher so that may be producing that extra heat that other phones don't. I'v got mine down to 800mzh and it still runs great.

 

[RHChan84]

It depends on phone model. USB gives out 500ma per port and the phone charger gives out 850ma. Lower ma means it takes longer to charge the phone via USB.

Lower ma does help pro-long the life cycle of the battery where-as high ma will shorten the battery life cycle.

Also with li-ion batteries, it's not good to let it drain out all the way down to zero all the time.

1-get rid of the task killer, it does more harm then good
2-shut off gps, wifi, bluetooth and lower screen timeout to 15 seconds and brightness all the way down.
3-use CDMA only in the USA and GSM only when your not in the USA. Also GSM radios uses less battery life the CDMA so it might last longer for you when you go outside of the US.
4-Get the motorola extended battery, added expense but it works great as well as it does not add much thickness.
5-And if it comes down to it, seidioonline.com has a 2800mah extended battery and should last almost twice as long.

 

[amallah]

The three biggest things I did for battery life management (and these steps effectively doubled it is)

1. Turn off Auto Brightness. It doesn't work anyway (BrightnessGate for the iPhone & Android Smartphones and HDTVs) so you might as well set it to the dimmest setting and have a widget readily available to switch to max brightness when necessary.

2. Install the paid version of JuiceDefender. It manages your radios to squeeze out any battery life typically used by useless mail checks/GPS positioning/etc.

3. Install Battery ETA. It tells you on the status bar how long your battery will last. Alot of my concerns about battery life were based on having absolutely no idea when my battery would die, the estimate it provides gave me some peace of mind and allowed me to better plan when I needed to find a charger.

Also, unrelated to battery life, I recently travelled out of country with a Droid 2 Global and I discovered that Verizon's international plan only applies to the Caribbean and Europe. Be careful outside those regions as Verizon charges $20/1MB and you're better off buying a global SIM.

 

[jdbower]

Also, unrelated to battery life, I recently travelled out of country with a Droid 2 Global and I discovered that Verizon's international plan only applies to the Caribbean and Europe. Be careful outside those regions as Verizon charges $20/1MB and you're better off buying a global SIM.

Hmmm... That is depressing. They used to have a plan called Global Email which was pretty much universally unlimited data (anyplace there was a GSM network and no US embargo) for an extra $30 a month. Apparently very recently the page for that now has been 404'd and this is all I can find - a pretty crappy global data plan that does mean local SIMs are the way to go:
Global Data

That's too bad, VZW's International data plan was one of the primary reasons I went with a D2G over broadening my search to GSM phones. At least in the future I can look at other carriers for my secondary line if the next "must-have" phone is GSM only.

FWIW, while in Taiwan I was mostly happy with my Droid X in WiFi-only mode and disabling the CDMA radio. That's even cheaper than a SIM.

 

[TheMiz]

It depends on phone model. USB gives out 500ma per port and the phone charger gives out 850ma. Lower ma means it takes longer to charge the phone via USB.

Lower ma does help pro-long the life cycle of the battery where-as high ma will shorten the battery life cycle.
.

1-get rid of the task killer, it does more harm then good

How does one get rid of the task killer ( what is it ? )

Actually how do I remove any apps?

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

The battery life on the Droid Global isn't that bad. I can get a full day out of it without any problems. I think the issue is that these phones are so multimedia rich that it iis difficult to put them down. I have difficulty putting mine down. The more you play with it the more juice it burns. The biggest battery killer is the screen. When you are constanlty on your phone, even if you aren't looking at video, gaming, or browsing the web, iits the screen being on that is killing the battery. Like some others have said, if you want to preserve some battery, tnen turn the screen resolution off and stop turning the phone on all the time. Lol. Easier said than done.