Razr Maxx, poor battery life on little use

[xmguy]

Ok I just got a Razr Maxx to replace a many defective Bionics. I fully charged the phone last night and used it no more than I did with my Bionic and at this very moment the battery is at 17%. Im not in the "new toy" stage as coming from the Bionic. Its not that different. Id like to know why? I use the smart actions to disable all the radios (except for phone calls). This is my usage.

Sent from my BIONIC out in the boonies of TN while picking a guitar!

 

[xmguy]

Here is a image right side up.

Sent from my Motorola (Droid) Razr Maxx.. out in the boonies of TN while picking a guitar!

 

[wyld]

Well it looks like you have alot of stuff running your status bar is full of stuff you might wanna turn a few things off! Your phone calls are at 47% you were on phone half the time. Your phone idle is at 3% that means your phone never timed out it may be set to never time out or you never put your phone down!

Razr-Eclipes-v1.2.1

 

[LegalAmerican]

Quick question xmguy, i'm in a similar situation with my bionic. Would you recommend me to get the Maxx as well? Or should I wait. Do you have buyers remorse?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[MissionImprobable]

Keep in mind that it also takes time for your battery to develop "memory"and understand what it's Max charge is. You should also check your sync setting to make sure you're not checking for updates over 4g every ten minutes cause that will kill your battery.

MIUI tested, mother approved.

 

[xmguy]

Well it looks like you have alot of stuff running your status bar is full of stuff you might wanna turn a few things off! Your phone calls are at 47% you were on phone half the time. Your phone idle is at 3% that means your phone never timed out it may be set to never time out or you never put your phone down!

Razr-Eclipes-v1.2.1

What I miss about the Bionic over the Razr is the Smart Actions or lack there of. The way it disables data. On the Bionic, Droid X... these all had a battery saving feature where data would turn off after 15 mins of non use. Well Smart Actions will only shut the data off if the screen is off and the phone isnt being moved. Well I carry my phone in my pocket. So even though the screen is off its still moving. I know I can change the smart actions. But if I remove the movement option then if Im using TuneIn and turn the display off the data stops. Never had this issue with the old setup. Wish the Razr had such a feature. Ive got Tasker, but I dont know if it can be set up to do such a detailed task. Not sure I even know how.

Sent from my Motorola (Droid) Razr Maxx.. out in the boonies of TN while picking a guitar!

 

[xmguy]

Quick question xmguy, i'm in a similar situation with my bionic. Would you recommend me to get the Maxx as well? Or should I wait. Do you have buyers remorse?

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

Its a nice phone. Colors are good on the display. Smart actions can be a bit strange as you can see by this thread. Id go for it. Works beeter for me than the 15 Bionic units I had.

Sent from my Motorola (Droid) Razr Maxx.. out in the boonies of TN while picking a guitar!

 

[KarinOfWiipals]

Well it looks like you have alot of stuff running your status bar is full of stuff you might wanna turn a few things off! Your phone calls are at 47% you were on phone half the time. Your phone idle is at 3% that means your phone never timed out it may be set to never time out or you never put your phone down!

Razr-Eclipes-v1.2.1

^ That

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

 

[xmguy]

^ That

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

Here is the thing. I used Titanium Backup to move the files from my Bonic to the Razr. All the same apps ran there fine. Jut not on the Razr Maxx. I think I need a way to disable data even if the phone is moving but not if a radio app is running.

Sent from my Motorola (Droid) Razr Maxx.. out in the boonies of TN while picking a guitar!

 

[FoxKat]

Keep in mind that it also takes time for your battery to develop "memory"and understand what it's Max charge is....
MIUI tested, mother approved.

Sorry to disagree. Lithium Ion and Lithium Ion Polymer batteries (as these in the RAZR are), do not have any kind of "memory", not in either the literal or figurative sense of the word. The battery will hold only as much as it will hold, and will do so every time it's charged if charged properly. Only over time does the battery's charging capacity wane away through normal use and this decreasing capacity generally runs at about 15% per 500 cycles or so, with a cycle being defined as either a combination of several smaller charge/discharges totaling 100% of rated capacity or one long charge and one long discharge totaling 100%.

The only "memory" with regard to the charge level is the internal battery meter which simply displays the amount of relative charge capacity in the battery once removed from the charger. It is known that if charged improperly it can be fooled into believing that the battery is "fully charged" when it may only have been charged to a capacity that's 70% of its rated capacity. In those situations, the phone will reach a state of discharge far sooner than the same phone with a battery that was fully charged. This recognition of what a full charge is happens every time you remove it from the charger AFTER it has completed what it believed to be a Full Charge cycle to 100% of capacity. Once the charger terminates the charging cycle by measuring the threshold voltage, it sends a message to the phone's battery meter to tell it the battery is at 100% capacity. This does NOT happen with short interim charging cycles such as when you plug in at 40% and unplug at 80% for instance.

Please read below:

Simple Guidelines for Charging Lithium-based Batteries

• [*=1]A portable device should be turned off while charging. This allows the battery to reach the threshold voltage unhindered and reflects the correct saturation current responsible to terminate the charge. A parasitic load confuses the charger.

This is the first in a group of recommendations from Battery University (link below).

This means, while charging if the phone decides to do something (such as downloading email, updating the facebook stuff, or some other activity that increases power consumption), the charger could be fooled into thinking the battery has reached its overcharge cutoff threshold due to the sudden pull-down of current draw, or the reverse when the application stops, so the charger stops charging the phone. This could happen even at only 70%-80% of capacity. This is likely why those who have charged their phones while powered down "seem" to have "fixed" the bad battery issues they were having previously.

This is also why some claim (incorrectly) that you "need to cycle your phone's battery several times from full charge to full discharge before you will see the battery's full charging capacity". There could be nothing further from the truth about this statement. The battery isn't a balloon that you can "force" additional power into and have it simply "expand" to accept it. It can only move as many ions from the anode to the cathode and back as are available and free to move. It's no miracle, just simple electrochemistry.

Also information on Wikipedia (which actually came from the Battery University website), shows that charging or discharging to the limits actually reduces battery lifespan, and that multiple charges of lesser amounts throughout the day, and avoidance of deeper discharges will help to extend the battery's life.

Prolonging battery pack life
​

• Avoid deep discharge and instead charge more often between uses, the smaller the depth of discharge, the longer the battery will last.[SUP][96][/SUP]
  ​
• Avoid storing the battery in full discharged state. As the battery will self-discharge overtime, its voltage will gradually lower, and when it is depleted below the low-voltage threshold (2.4 to 2.9 V/cell, depending on chemistry) it cannot be charged anymore because the protection circuit (a type of electronic fuse) disables it.[SUP][96][/SUP]​
• Lithium-ion batteries should be kept cool; they may be stored in a refrigerator.[SUP][96][/SUP][SUP][97][/SUP]​
• The rate of degradation of Lithium-ion batteries is strongly temperature-dependent; they degrade much faster if stored or used at higher temperatures.[SUP][96][/SUP][SUP][98][/SUP]
  ​

​

The full scoop is here, and scroll to the bottom to get the nitty gritty on this subject (including the one-liner above).

Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries

 

[xmguy]

I agree. Current battery tech doesnt develope memory. Older NiCad did. But modern ones dont. You can charge mid way though use or at near depleted. I have heard its not good to let the battery go totally dead.

Sent from my Motorola (Droid) Razr Maxx.. out in the boonies of TN while picking on a guitar!

 

[FoxKat]

I agree. Current battery tech doesnt develope memory. Older NiCad did. But modern ones dont. You can charge mid way though use or at near depleted. I have heard its not good to let the battery go totally dead.

Sent from my Motorola (Droid) Razr Maxx.. out in the boonies of TN while picking on a guitar!

Right on all points.

 

[xmguy]

This is strange. Had my Razr off the charge for only 30 mins and it's down to 95%. Not much running either.

Sent from my Motorola (Droid) Razr Maxx.. out in the boonies of TN while picking on a guitar!

 

[xmguy]

It's worse today. Been manually turning data off. At this rate it won't last half a day.

Sent from my Motorola (Droid) Razr Maxx.. out in the boonies of TN while picking on a guitar!

 

[Zandar]

You have a lot of awake time. I'm betting you have apps that aren't taking up much processor time, but are forcing the phone to stay awake so you never really go into standby. My guess would be Norton Security, from the list there, and maybe a few others. Why do you have Norton Security installed? Android doesn't need a virus checker, just a brain (e.g. if you're sideloading a wallpaper app from a random internet site and it asks for permission to make phone calls and have access to your contact list, DON'T!). That could be an issue right there. DaTuner is using a little bit, too (unless you're actually using it; if not, it could be polling your CPU in the background and making it so your processor never really sleeps).

Also, how long are all of these off a charger for? If I recall correctly, the "time on battery" will be the time since it was last plugged in, not total time; so the above might be misleading.

Another thing: do you live in a 4G coverage area? I see that your phone says 3G. If you have your phone set to LTE/CDMA (4G/3G), it will sap battery like a hippie going through weed, so you'll want to turn that off. Homescreen --> Menu --> Settings --> Wireless and Networks --> Mobile Networks --> Network Mode --> CDMA only. Or you can use this nifty app (free):
https://market.android.com/details?...NvbS53bWJhLmFuZHJvaWQudG9nZ2xlNGdmb3JyYXpyIl0.

Also, what are your exact Smart Actions? How are you manually turning data on and off? Realistically, if you have a Maxx in a strong 3G area with no Smart Actions set up, you ought to be able to get 1-2 days easy unless you have apps misbehaving in the background. What's your usage like? Number/duration of phone calls? Video? etc. This info might help us all diagnose the issue, because your battery drain definitely isn't normal.