2 Attachment(s)
Charge fully before activating!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jpasz
I was at the Verizon store and was talking the guy inside, we were talking about all the phones and their features, and he told me that the Razr, and the Maxx have been getting returned like mad because of a degrading battery. The battery starts out, great life, but the battery quickly turns bad, won't charge or even let the phone turn on, so I started considering the Bionic or 4. I came home, hit the internet looking for reports, all I can get is how great the battery life is, but all from initial reports. Now the Razr, if the battery ISN'T terrible, is still my first choice. He might have been trying to coerce me into the insurance for the phone, but he was more suggesting a different phone entirely, recommended the 4 because of how it's the same generation, similar specs, practically the same phone, just keyboard and battery.
Any personal information or articles that I missed in my skim? I really want to be proven wrong, the battery is all it's cracked up to be, and will be for the life of the phone, but I am not going to waste my money on a surefire failure.
The issue the Verizon rep describes actually begins with the store representatives doing exactly the wrong thing from the start. These phones ship with a 40% - 50% charge level - NOT so you can activate it out of the box and start using it right away, but so the battery doesn't drop in voltage to the "protection" level while in transit from the factory to inventory warehouses and while sitting in those warehouses. These phones REQUIRE a 100% charge (3 hours with power off), BEFORE being powered up the first time as states in the User's Guide (see below). Click on the 1st image and notice the "clocks" in box 3 on the left with the 3H for the Droid RAZR & 5.5H for the RAZR MAXX, showing the phone being charged for 3 hours (or 5.5 hours for the MAXX) BEFORE being activated. You'll also see the new Droid RAZR MAXX HD ALSO suggests 5.5 hours charge before using (2nd image below - click to enlarge).
Attachment 58759 Attachment 58760
< ^ Droid RAZR & RAZR MAXX ^ > ---- < ^ Droid RAZR MAXX HD ^ >
But at the store what do they do? They power it up out of the box, stick a SIM in it and hand it to you while still powered on. This sets the stage for diminishing performance - NOT diminishing battery life.
There is NOTHING wrong with 90% of the batteries returned. The trouble is the meter that tells you what charge the battery is holding gets out of sync with the battery's true levels and begins a chain of events with divergence of battery levels versus meter indications that results in these batteries being deep-discharged by accident. There ought to be giant STOP sign in the box that you have to cut through to get to the phone, and it should say;
"Before powering your phone initially, you MUST charge to 100% with power OFF FIRST! If you do not follow these instructions explicitly, you may suffer diminished charging performance or a complete failure of the phone to power up in several weeks due to an out-of-sync charging system."
Another problem is that charging with power on will over time cause the same divergence of levels to indication due to the "parasitic load" of the phone confusing the charging system, and this can result in the same issue. To assure meter and actual battery levels are in sync, follow these steps about once every 2-3 months (1-2 months for the original RAZR):- When you can be without the phone for at least 3 hours (like at bedtime), power the phone off by pressing and holding the Power button, and at the popup menu selecting "Power off".
- Using the MOTOROLA FACTORY USB Charging Cable and FACTORY Wall Adapter, plug the phone in and allow it to boot into Charge only mode (identified by the animated battery and numerical percentage of charge indication). To check levels along the way, press the Volume Down briefly. There is no need to press any buttons to turn off the screen, it will timeout on its own.
- Allow the phone to charge to 100% as indicated on the screen.
- Once fully charged, power the phone up and use as normal, but keep a watchful eye on the battery meter as it nears the discharged state.
- Once the phone reaches 15% and you get the "Low battery" warning and indication to plug the phone in to charge, repeat steps 1 through 4 above, but without concern for repeating again.
- Finally, avoid allowing the phone to ever get to 0%, as you risk causing the phone to become unresponsive to the charger and fail to power on.
In short, once every three months, charge to 100% with power off, use to 15%, charge to 100% with power off. It's important that you follow those steps in that order and that you complete all three in succession. Do that and you will never have any of the issues mentioned by the Verizon rep.
