Battery usage

[TomN]

I can use mine for about 10-15 minutes before it drops down to 90% and maybe another half an hour before I hit 80%. But then again I'm using the internet a lot. Seems like a lot but the first two Droids I had acted the same so I'm thinking it's normal.

 

[mynameiserich]

Yeah, mine drains pretty quickly. I have had varied feedback. Many people have had similar battery life to mine (average use to heavy use - roughly 6-9 hours), and many people saying they have their battery going for about 14 hours...I wish my battery was lasting this long...if I unplug it by 10am I have to charge it by around 7...much less than I would expect.

I would bring my droid into Verizon if I knew they would replace my battery...but they are usually pretty bad about this stuff and would probably just tell me I am getting average battery length.

Has anyone had any luck with bringing their phone back and getting a new battery?? I don't want an actual new phone because it works great..except the battery.

 

[New2u]

There is also another problem I have noticed with the battery level indicator. Which has already been posted here a few times. It's highly inaccurate. I had the phone at 50% and in a record time, and i just wanted to check something, so i shut it down and rebooted. Once it rebooted the phone was now at 70% battery and stayed at 70% for another hour and a half.

 

[ThisIsMyName]

Getting to 80% after an hour of constant heavy use doesn't sound too unusual to me (plus the Droid seems to show the battery life in increments of 10%, at least when I plug it in and lock the screen). I heard that after you drain and recharge your battery a few times it lasts longer and has a more accurate reading of what's actually left in your battery. Not sure if there's any truth to this, but based on other phones that I've used the Droid seems to have pretty decent battery life. That said, I wouldn't mind an extended battery.

EDIT: Oh yeah, making sure you're not running anything you don't need at the moment will probably also help battery life.

 

[New2u]

Getting to 80% after an hour of constant heavy use doesn't sound too unusual to me (plus the Droid seems to show the battery life in increments of 10%, at least when I plug it in and lock the screen). I heard that after you drain and recharge your battery a few times it lasts longer and has a more accurate reading of what's actually left in your battery. Not sure if there's any truth to this, but based on other phones that I've used the Droid seems to have pretty decent battery life. That said, I wouldn't mind an extended battery.

If by drain battery you mean take it to 0%.. that is a horrible idea. Doing it once is ok, and once every couple of months maybe but you should NEVER do it multiple times in a row. That will hurt a Li-Ion battery.

 

[ThisIsMyName]

I never let mine go past 10%, but don't Li-Ion batteries have an on-board chip that doesn't actually let them get to 0%?

 

[mynameiserich]

I drained my phone until it completely turned itself off. Now I will charge it for a good 8 hours anyways so it has a full charge. I will turn off any GPS required apps such as locale, turn off wifi, any location based apps, etc. and see how the battery does. Either way I plan on either an extended battery or a second battery...I want to be running this droid at full capability...a nice bright screen, gps, locale app running etc. I don't care if I need two batteries to do it...I'd rather that then always worry about where my battery is going...

 

[ezeddiekun]

Wow are you serious? I let mine get to 0% and shut down everyday.. I can't help it if I'm not at home with the charger.

 

[mynameiserich]

You know, this is what I have been doing, and is an easy fix to keep it charging. I bought a cheap $10 adapter for my car that plugs into the charging port (cigarette lighter), and has just one USB plug on it (I also have one of the ones for the car that has USB input, and normal wall plug input on it - but these are more expensive and I hate using it because all of the ones I have owned have very loud fans in them - the single usb charger is small, and quiet), and then what I did is just bought a cheap USB micro cable (the same as what the phone charges with - just got it at radio shack) and I now have a cheaper car charger than actually spending $30 at Verizon...so I generally try to charge it on my way to work as much as I can, and then I am usually fine.

 

[mynameiserich]

This is my conclusion thus far...

Today I charged my battery fully and did not unplug it until 1230 in the afternoon (I work second shift). It seems to drop at about 10% an hour...right now it is almost 730 and it is at 40%. When I was using it the past few days with gps on, no wifi, and location based services such as locale I saw roughly the same results. It seems that MOST people have similar battery life. The people that are tending to have better battery life are using less extensive programs. I use a home replacement app, and browse the internet, text, etc. a decent amount so I have to expect the batter to go quicker than a normal phone (which i didnt browse the internet with, download apps, etc.).

The next thing I am going to do is when I am in the car I am going to charge it (such as on my way to work) and see if in the next few weeks there is ever a situation where I really wish I didn't need it to be plugged in. If I find that it would be better to have more power without having to plug it in all the time then I will buy a second battery (and the stand alone battery charger so I don't have to charge the batteries at seperate times). This way I can pretty much run my brightness full blast or as high as I want, use apps, email, text, etc without worrying too much about it. Like I said, I really have not noticed but of a difference with having gps on, and using location based services...

 

[Bhinderoid]

There's really cheap car chargers for the Droid available on Amazon... I'm talking ~$4.00 after shipping