Just got my charge...

[JihadSquad]

...and heres what I have to say:

-Well my family got three. My dad and I upgraded from Blackberry 8330s, and my brother got it on a new line.
-Screen is a beast; I can keep it on lowest brightness and use it in all but direct sunlight.
-The battery is terrible. On the day I got it actvated at the verizon store I got a low battery warning halfway through the day and had to wait until the next day to use it again. On the second and third days (this being the third) I brought a charger with me, and after fully charging the phone after automatic shutdown,i made it home with the battery. Note that I am coming from blackberry, where I am used to charging twice a week.
-I noticed that the battery meter in the top is inaccurate compared to the battery widget. When the widget shows 45% the meter is clearly above half.
-The data sucks. Yesterday I was in chicago the second half of the day and the 4g was very powerful. Surprisingly the battery was good too. But when I came back to my home town of milwaukee (4g lte is new here) it kept switching to 3g. Also at my house my dad and I have 1x or no data, while my bro is rocking 3g our 4g. His battery also lasts way longer than ours. Note that we ordered online so my dad and I installed our sims, while my brothers came installed.
-The battery problems seem to be linked to data, as today I am at home all say and I have wifi on.the battery is working better.

As per other posts here,i am going to go to a verizon store and get my sim checked out. Does it cost money to get it replaced?

 

[carguy37757]

I can't speak much to.the data as I live in a 3g area and work in an Lte area, but my battery was awful for about the first 2 weeks. Took forever to.charge and discharged quickly. I only turn on Lte when I'm in a 4g area, leave Google and Verizon location service on all the time and standalone GPS off when not in use via power control widget, screen brightness to auto and timeout to 1 minute. With normal use, I get a pretty solid 9 hours out of my charge. All my email is set to push, moderate to heavy texting and web surfing.

I think it just took time for the phone to "settle in" if that makes sense. It now will charge to 100% from dead in about 2 hours.

Hopefully it will get better for you as time goes on. Good luck.

 

[Droid.Guy]

For starters, No getting your SIM card checked out or replaced would be free. (Got my Droid Charge from a friend and had to get a SIM for it, Verizon will give you one if needed with no trouble.) Though I doubt it is SIM related.

Some things that may help -

• Keep Wi-Fi off unless needed.
• GPS off unless needed.
• Turn automatic brightness off and drag the slider one notch above all the way down. (Having the sensor constantly checking for light levels takes a small toll on battery.)
• Settings > Wireless & network > Mobile Networks > System selection > CDMA mode > Automatic (This will make your phone run in 3G mode, but I have seen an improvement in my battery life with this, I only switch to 4G-LTE when browsing or downloading large files. No need for it otherwise in my opinion.)

Getting about 8 hours battery life with heavy use currently. Also what carguy37757 stated is may need to "settle in" a little. Keep draining it all the way and charge it to full overnight. Should start to see some improvements.

 

[Halo]

I'm west of Milwaukee (About 25 miles from downtown) and I get 3 bars, sometimes 4 worth of 4g. Data and Speed is great for me.

 

[vols fan]

I don't understand all these battery issues. I get 14+ hours everyday.

 

[putney1477]

I don't understand all these battery issues. I get 14+ hours everyday.

I get maybe 7 hours..... And I even bought another battery, thinking I may have gotten a dud.

I've just sucked it up and carry a charger and battery with me.

 

[vi3tboiii54]

It all depends on your screen and data usage also if you are in a strong signal area or not. Living in an area with weak signal; even with battery calibration, toggling data on and off, using 3G instead of 4G, and disabling auto brightness i still get less than 10 hours.

 

[YzBrad99]

Try going all day with the mobile data off too see how that effects things.

 

[PeterDLai]

The signal strength from my experience is a huge factor in determining battery life. Where I live in San Diego, CA the signal strength is quite poor so my battery life is miserable. I recently spent a few days in Anaheim, CA and my battery life was drastically better those few days (at least twice as long if not moreso). After I came back home to San Diego, CA, the phone went back to relatively short battery life.

 

[fadepoint89]

Shoulda got a thunderbolt. I'm on over 20 hours on battery. Heavy use.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[atlantar6]

I disagree with turning off wifi to conserve battery if you have it available. In my office in the basement it goes from 3g-4g all day and the battery lasts 4 hours just sitting there.

If i enable wifi it no longer does that it lasts closer to 8 hours.

 

[PsYcHoNeWb]

I think the deal with WiFi is if you are connected to a WiFi network, it will consume less power than 3G/4G because it won't continue pushing network data to the phone, instead it will use the WiFi which is a solid signal. I would think that WiFi would consume less battery if you are in an area with less than perfect signal, but if you have perfect 3G or 4G signal WiFi might not make a huge difference.

 

[JihadSquad]

Ok this is day 4 with my charge.

Yesterday I avoided using my phone as much as possible to see how long it would last. These results are with everything on but bt:

I used the screen for about 1h during that time and ended up with 35% at the end of the day.

While the phone lasted me like this the whole day, I did not buy it to idle all day.

Also on previous page about "solid" 9 hours, is that supposed to be a lot? Sorry if I'm new to this but I'm used to charging my bb every few days.R

 

[PsYcHoNeWb]

Ok this is day 4 with my charge.

Yesterday I avoided using my phone as much as possible to see how long it would last. These results are with everything on but bt:

I used the screen for about 1h during that time and ended up with 35% at the end of the day.

While the phone lasted me like this the whole day, I did not buy it to idle all day.

Also on previous page about "solid" 9 hours, is that supposed to be a lot? Sorry if I'm new to this but I'm used to charging my bb every few days.R

Well if you are considering hopping on the BB bandwagon since the new Bold just came out be warned: I got it and returned in after 5 days because battery life was bad. I got a day with heavy use out of it.

 

[PreceptorJR]

Let's be honest here...all smartphones have some battery power issues. The Charge's 1600 mah battery is about as big is you can get without an extended battery. Most reviewers said this phone's battery was better than most others out there.

 

[anon(94115)]

Truth. This battery life is much better than all the other smartphones that I have been exposed to. granted the list is short, but still.

Over time, the battery life will improve for alot of reasons. Dual core, all 4G ect.

That being said, I was at OC, MD this weekend that seemed to be a 3G only area. My battery SUCKED. I mean it really drained like my old Fascinate. I was so happy to get back to 4G land

 

[JihadSquad]

It turns out that the data issue is with my phone specifically. While driving around milwaukee this morning, my brother and my dad had 5 bars of 4g, while I had between 3-5 bars of 3g. Could mine just be a lemon and replaceble under warranty?

Also to the guy with the thunderbolt, those results are only after gingerbread, right? That might mean that we see similar results after our update.

 

[anon(94115)]

The tbd doesn't have an official gb yet

Charged up post!

 

[JihadSquad]

I have another question:

I ordered my phone from tiger direct.if I want to use my 14 day trial (on like an x2, which I hear has a good battery life), do I have to ship it back, or can I get it exchanged at a verizon store?

 

[Droid.Guy]

I have another question:

I ordered my phone from tiger direct.if I want to use my 14 day trial (on like an x2, which I hear has a good battery life), do I have to ship it back, or can I get it exchanged at a verizon store?

Verizon will only support/exchange a phone purchased through them last I checked.