Picked one up today

[YourMobileGuru]

One disappointment is no SD card in the box or the phone, so you get 8GB of internal storage and that's it. Of course you can pop in an SD card but still, feels like they should have included at least an 8 or 16 GB SD with it.
.

The D3 was the same way and this was almost certainly done to help keep the cost of the phone down.

 

[ratchetjaw#AC]

Have had mine since Friday. Great phone so far. Got over 14 hrs moderate use yesterday also. Most everything on wifi though.

Sent from my DROID4 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk

 

[questioncom]

Picked one up for my girl yesterday. She loves it, I'm not a fan (I prefer stock android, hate skins). The screen looks too washed out. It def has better signal strength and download speeds than my nexus.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[YourMobileGuru]

P It def has better signal strength and download speeds than my nexus.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

As much as I hate to say it (and remember I own one so no hating here), almost any phone has better reception/speed than the Nexus right now. They really need to push that update ASAP!

 

[elcheapodeluxe]

Picked mine up Friday morning and so far I'm really pleased. The salesman was really trying to talk me into a RAZR instead. I don't think he understands that for those who want a physical keyboard, the RAZR just isn't the same. I think it is the best Android phone keyboard I've used to date, and I'm hoping I'll get better with it (I still am having a hard time giving up my crackberry 9930 - the employee I gave it to had to pry it out of my hands). At least I can swype when I don't feel like doing the full rotate and open thing.

I'm very pleased with the speed compared to my Atrix. The color / pixel density isn't as nice as my BB9930 display - but I use it primarily for messaging and secondarily for hotspot, travel apps, skype, facebook, and sudoku. I can't imagine a pentile screen will really bother me that much. I can't wait to get ICS on this puppy - was playing around with the Galaxy Nexus in the store and really liked it.

The ugly: no surprise, it's battery life. I set up the smart action to turn off mobile data when I'm connected to a wifi hotspot at home or work, and I keep my wifi turned off via toggle all the rest of the time. With 4G it is a total pig. When it is set to CDMA only for the data mode, it still not at BB levels (keeping in mind the BB9930 was widely panned because it was the first blackberry in a while that would only last "a day" with its thin battery. I routinely got 22-24 hours out of it). That said, if I leave it in 3G except when using it for a hotspot, I don't otherwise need 4G speed and I'll live with it. And as much as I love my BB, it feels great to be back to the wide application support of Android.

 

[YourMobileGuru]

Picked mine up Friday morning and so far I'm really pleased. The salesman was really trying to talk me into a RAZR instead. I don't think he understands that for those who want a physical keyboard, the RAZR just isn't the same.

The stores were shipped a whole pile of RAZR's for Valentin's day, so that may have something to do with it. The store I bought mine from (friends with the rep) only got a handful of D4's and barely any accessories fir them.

I think it is the best Android phone keyboard I've used to date, and I'm hoping I'll get better with it (I still am having a hard time giving up my crackberry 9930 - the employee I gave it to had to pry it out of my hands). At least I can swype when I don't feel like doing the full rotate and open thing.

I'm very pleased with the speed compared to my Atrix. The color / pixel density isn't as nice as my BB9930 display - but I use it primarily for messaging and secondarily for hotspot, travel apps, skype, facebook, and sudoku. I can't imagine a pentile screen will really bother me that much. I can't wait to get ICS on this puppy - was playing around with the Galaxy Nexus in the store and really liked it.

The issue with Pentile displays are over-rated. And for what it is worth this seems to be one of the better pentile devices.

The ugly: no surprise, it's battery life. I set up the smart action to turn off mobile data when I'm connected to a wifi hotspot at home or work, and I keep my wifi turned off via toggle all the rest of the time. With 4G it is a total pig. When it is set to CDMA only for the data mode, it still not at BB levels (keeping in mind the BB9930 was widely panned because it was the first blackberry in a while that would only last "a day" with its thin battery. I routinely got 22-24 hours out of it). That said, if I leave it in 3G except when using it for a hotspot, I don't otherwise need 4G speed and I'll live with it. And as much as I love my BB, it feels great to be back to the wide application support of Android.

I get similar battery life on my BB. With BB10 coming there is no incentive for developers to write apps for the old BB7 system which is unfortunate because I will be shocked if the new system gets anywhere near the battery life of the old one.

As for the D4, battery life will get better over time, it takes time for the smart actions to work and a few battery cycles for you to get the full life of your battery (speaking of experience with the RAZR here)

 

[Wrigley25]

I got mine Friday, and I am very concerned about the battery. I had an original droid, and the battery had gotten terrible. I was excited to get a new slider and have better battery life. Not working out that way.

I realize with all the bells and whistles of the phone the battery will be taxed, but so far it will die after 8-9 hours of light-moderate use. Mainly of texting, a word game and uber social app. I'm not doing a lot of browsing or calling. And it is still dying that fast.

I've had 3 full deaths and the subsequent full charges and I was hoping this would improve it but no such luck yet. The Android OS seems to be using the most, even more than the display, which dominated the battery drainage in the original droid.

It's 2:30ET right now, I've had it unplugged since 8am and it's already down to 40%. I have not used any music/radio/videos/cam/calls/facebook.

I also notice my apps keep starting, or so my advance task killer tells me. I'll kill them, and seconds later like 8 or 9 of them are apparently booting themselves back up in the background. Social Networking/Slacker/Facebook/ESPN Scorwcenter/GoToMeeting/MyMusic/YahooMessanger/MyVerizonMobile/Alarm&Timer/Voicemail all are currently open even though I haven't touched them and have killed them more than once. Is there anyway to stop that?

Is anybody else having this kind of struggle with their battery life?

 

[tnt118]

I can't speak from experience, but I've always read that with Gingerbread you risk draining more battery by killing apps (going in to the cycle you just described).

If you really wanted to eliminate some of the bloat, I might recommend rooting the phone and using Titanium Backup to freeze any app you want to lock out.

 

[I Monarch]

I used to demand a physical keyboard but I stopped when I switched to the Thunderbolt. The thickness is the main reason i went away from them.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

Thickness bothered you, so you bought a Thunderbolt?

 

[cordoni]

I got mine Friday, and I am very concerned about the battery. I had an original droid, and the battery had gotten terrible. I was excited to get a new slider and have better battery life. Not working out that way.

I realize with all the bells and whistles of the phone the battery will be taxed, but so far it will die after 8-9 hours of light-moderate use. Mainly of texting, a word game and uber social app. I'm not doing a lot of browsing or calling. And it is still dying that fast.

I've had 3 full deaths and the subsequent full charges and I was hoping this would improve it but no such luck yet. The Android OS seems to be using the most, even more than the display, which dominated the battery drainage in the original droid.

It's 2:30ET right now, I've had it unplugged since 8am and it's already down to 40%. I have not used any music/radio/videos/cam/calls/facebook.

I also notice my apps keep starting, or so my advance task killer tells me. I'll kill them, and seconds later like 8 or 9 of them are apparently booting themselves back up in the background. Social Networking/Slacker/Facebook/ESPN Scorwcenter/GoToMeeting/MyMusic/YahooMessanger/MyVerizonMobile/Alarm&Timer/Voicemail all are currently open even though I haven't touched them and have killed them more than once. Is there anyway to stop that?

Is anybody else having this kind of struggle with their battery life?

Task killers work against the android operating system. Android keeps frequently used apps in cached memory to speed loading when free memory is available. Killing them just puts the system in a loop of constantly reloading and killing so that your battery life is terrible. Get rid of the task killer and you will see a significant improvement.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

 

[Wrigley25]

Thanks for the the advice. If anyone else has any suggestions I would appreciate it.

 

[Wrigley25]

Does the auto-kill function in the task manager also serve as a detriment to the battery like the task killer does? You can select which apps you want it to auto-kill after the display is off for two minutes.

 

[raremage]

I'm finding the back light on the keyboard to be rather squirrelly. Sometimes it stays on throughout my use, other time,es it blinks out while I am in the middle of typing. Anyone else seeing inconsistency with the keyboard backlighting?

It's pretty darned annoying!

 

[YourMobileGuru]

Does the auto-kill function in the task manager also serve as a detriment to the battery like the task killer does? You can select which apps you want it to auto-kill after the display is off for two minutes.

Of course, if it is a task that will just start right up anyway. The whole point is that most unused tasks use less energy sitting running in the back ground than they do during start-up. If you set a task that wants to run in the background all the time to auto-kill then it just gets killed and starts up over and over again wasting energy.

 

[YourMobileGuru]

Task killers work against the android operating system. Android keeps frequently used Alps in cached memory to speed loading when free memory is available. Killing them just puts the system in a loop of constantly reloading and killing so that your battery life is terrible. Get rid of the task killed and you will see a significant improvement.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Completely agree. The two best things I ever did to improve battery life on phones were

1. Get rid of the task killer (or not use it if installed by the OEM)
2. Stop worrying about it.

Android will manage your system resources just fine and if you find one app that seems to be a memory culprit remove it or force kill that ONE app when you are done with it.

 

[Kmcferrin]

Of course, if it is a task that will just start right up anyway. The whole point is that most unused tasks use less energy sitting running in the back ground than they do during start-up. If you set a task that wants to run in the background all the time to auto-kill then it just gets killed and starts up over and over again wasting energy.

Indeed. This has been the case for quite some time. It's stupid to think that a mobile operating system would come configured in such a way that it kills the battery unless you install a third-party task-killer. It makes no sense.

I remember when I got my D2 the dip in the Verizon store activated the phone, had me add my GMail account, and then proceeded to try to install a bunch of apps from the market that he thought that I needed, first and foremost being a task killer. I told him that I didn't want it. He argued with me that I needed it. I told him that I didn't want it and asked him to give me my phone back. He insisted that I needed it, right up until I dropped a couple f-bombs at 100 db pointing out that he had no right to install software on my phone and to hand the damn thing over. The manager didn't seem to happy about it, but that's what happens when you hire assholes.

 

[circustravis]

I totally skipped installing a task killer this time around. I kept one on my D2 just for rogue apps, but hardly ever had to use it. I have to second the Titanium Backup recommendation, as long as you're comfortable rooting the phone. I rooted Saturday, and found it completely painless.

 

[Wrigley25]

What about something like gps service? I use foursquare, I have a gps shortcut on my homescreen to keep it off, but turn it on before going into foursquare, and then turning it off when I am done. Does this chew battery life like booting up tasks?

 

[tnt118]

What about something like gps service?

What you are doing is correct... best to keep the GPS off unless you are currently using it.

 

[Wrigley25]

What you are doing is correct... best to keep the GPS off unless you are currently using it.

Thanks. I have taken everyone's advice yet only got 6.5 hours out of my battery today. Wasn't watching movies, wasn't using youtube or browsing the web. Texting/UberSocial/Wordfeud/Foursquare. 6.5 hours. It's pathetic and very disappointing. I think I am going to have to pay Verizon a visit and do something about it either trying a different Droid 4 or another device entirely.