Is the battery life for the Droid 2 really that bad?

[golfwolf]

I'm in the market for a new phone and narrowed it down to the Droid 2 and Fascinate. As much as I think the Samsung looks really cool, I will probably utilize 20% of what either of these phones are fully capable of and was leaning towards the D2 because of the qwerty keypad. My current phone is almost three years old and my battery barely lasts 12 hours with barely any use, so battery life is pretty important (with the understanding that it's not great for any of these new fancy smartphones).

Is it really that bad? For some reason I thought I read it was better than the Fascinate but can't tell if that's actually true.

Thanks!

 

[pool_shark]

What phone do you currently have, is it a smartphone?

No smartphone if used to it's full potential will net you 12 hours of battery life.
It's a matter of how often you have email, social networking, news, weather, etc, syncs.
Live wallpapers can take a lot of resources, and of course just like with a dumbphone if the phone is in a location where you're getting 1x instead of 3g it will eat the battery.

I simply charge mine more frequently. I can have everything on it sync as often as possible, and it will not affect me.

 

[Dragoro]

Id recommend the extended battery, but once ya get that your golden.

 

[Pandemic187]

I turn everything off while the phone is idle, and with minimal use, I can push the battery life to 2 days.

But as pool_shark suggested, the battery life you get will vary drastically based on how and how often you use it.

 

[golfwolf]

I have the palm pre. I don't care about live wallpapers and most of my use will be texting, websurfing, social media, and checking my personal email. My company blocks us from Soc Media and email and I hate not having access to it until night time.

 

[pool_shark]

I have the palm pre. I don't care about live wallpapers and most of my use will be texting, websurfing, social media, and checking my personal email. My company blocks us from Soc Media and email and I hate not having access to it until night time.

I think that's a large part of why some people get smartphones. My company blocks social networking sites for all but HR, and they are now starting to block certain forums, I can no longer access this forum as of last week on my work PC.

 

[LT*]

My wife's D2 can easily go over 24 hours with moderate use. One thing is that she doesn't use widgets for Twitter or Facebook. She only checks online for updates, so that may help with battery. I say just make sure you have your USB cord with you at work so you can charge it if you need to.

 

[golfwolf]

..... I say just make sure you have your USB cord with you at work so you can charge it if you need to.

I have a feeling my company somehow prevents us from plugging in external USB devices into our laptops too.

 

[belome]

As a new user who also enjoys facebook... I'm horrified at how crappy the battery life is. IMHO I got something that gave me everything I wanted... except a decent phone. I have both coverage issues and battery issues. It isnt' bad on workdays but going away for a weekend sucks... in the back of my head I'm constantly looking for ways to charge my phone instead of ignorning it and having fun.

 

[hookbill]

It's the exact same as the original Droid. The person that was "horrified" by the battery life either hasn't had a Droid before or maybe isn't familiar with the way touch screen smart phones suck up juice.

If you are going to own a Droid, I don't care which one, expect the battery to run low if you use it. I have two extra batteries, a wall charger, and my old Droid for charging purposes. If the battery runs low, I put a new one in.

In my case this usually will happen around 11:00 pm about 7 hours after I pull it off the charger. I'm an intense user during the evening and my screen stays lit. The #1 cause of battery drain is always the screen.

It's just the way it is. A blackberry storm isn't much better.

 

[belome]

IThe person that was "horrified" by the battery life either hasn't had a Droid before or maybe isn't familiar with the way touch screen smart phones suck up juice.

You are right I had NO IDEA how much it was going to suck. I mean, if you look at the spec sheet, it says:

BATTERY TYPE
1400 mAh Li Ion
STANDBY TIME
up to 270 hrs.

I BEG anyone to get 270 hrs of standby time with your phone. BEG YOU!

 

[want a droid]

I have to agree with belome. If you go through verizon wireless' website and compare phones and look at the Droid2's stats, it says:

Usage Time: Up to 575 minutes
Standby Time: Up to 315 hours

1. With my standard battery my phone would need to be put on the charger after like 4 hours (240 mins) of minimal to moderate use.
2. I have a hard time believing my droid could run for 315 hours even with nothing going on.

 

[Gags1892]

Get the extended battery.

Just got mine, noticing HUGE improvements.

 

[want a droid]

Get the extended battery.

Just got mine, noticing HUGE improvements.

Yeah I got the extended battery as well. It's obviously an improvement but both batteries still have poor life compared to iPhones. My roommates iPhone goes through they day and more without him having to throw it on the charger while I find myself having to hang on to a charger throughout the day.

 

[SID KELLY]

I have the D2 and got my new verizon 1820/1860 extended battery several days ago--pulled off charger 6:00am---used blue tooth all day--several med to long phone calls during the day and still at 80% using battery saver mode--like said above--battery life varies but it seems to be the nature of the Smartphone beast--get the extended battery