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Realistic battery expectations?

P

pseudoveritas

Newbie
I just moved to the Maxx from the Droid X and I have noticed that there is no real difference in battery life. I am an admitted power user: I stream talk radio for about 8 hours a day along with checking facebook, twitter and google reader about every 15-30 mins (however Wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS are off, no live wallpaper, the brightness is set to lowest with no transitions). All of this is done on 4G.

On my Droid X, I would just keep my phone plugged into my work computer all day because if I didn't it would die about half-way through. On my Maxx it is the same thing. I make it from 7 to about 12:30 before I am under 10% battery. Is this normal? I have read reviews online saying that people have streamed full movies for hours on end without problems.

My question is: Is it unrealistic to expect my battery to last a full 9 hours with such heavy usage or is my battery faulty? I don't mind plugging my phone in - I just want to make sure there is nothing wrong with it. Anyone have a similar experience? To those who have what they would consider great battery life how much do you use your Maxx? Thanks!
 
Only a couple of days. I am thinking about returning it. I noticed mediaserver is taking a lot of battery which seems to be a common problem.
 
I use my phone a lot. Although I do plug it in when I drive. I unplug at 7am. On car charger at 740 for 10 minutes to work. around 12 on car charger for 10 minutes (to and from lunch.) on the car charger at 5pm for 10 minutes back home. I still have a charge when I plug it back in at 11pm. I am a moderately heavy user. Constantly checking the phone. Tinkering with it. Emails. Facebook. Many Texts. 30 opponents on Draw Something. Pandora (especially when driving) AIM. GTA3 every now and then. browsing Play Store. And more. Tomorrow I am going to test how the live wallpaper(light grid pro) affects my battery. I am going to unplug at 7am and not charge it till I go to bed at 11 or till it dies. Whichever comes first. I will let you know my results tomorrow when it dies or in two days after I've charged it overnight.
 
Thanks let me know. Today I switched off 4G to test the difference between 3G and 4G. I just streamed radio today without checking Facebook or Twitter very much. From 7:30 am to 11:30 am my battery dropped to 40% with Mediaserver and Radio.com at 29% and 24% respectively.

I think I will just call Amazon and get a new one to be sure. As I said earlier, if Engadget can stream video on 4G for 11.5 hours then I should be able to listen to the radio on 3G for a lot longer than 5 or 6 hours.
 
Uplugged 6:50am
Display 44%
Android OS 16%
Draw Some 10%
Media Server 8%
Voice Calls 7%
Cell Standby 3%
Android System 3%
Phone Idle 3%
Browser 3%
Com.Motorola.Home 2%

Also used my camera for some pictures and played Pandora and Slacker Radio a bit. (screen at 100% and never sleeps) prolly about 20 minutes.

It is now 2:46pm
Battery Level 50% (8 hours uplugged)
Circle Battery Widget Level 46%

I will update again tonight.
 
50% wow. I was under 15% around 1 pm so I had to recharge. I unplugged about the same time as you and I also use circle battery. I had the screen off the entire time and just listened to Radio.com and some Tune in radio. Luckily I bring my charger to work so I just plug it in otherwise it would have never made 4:30.
 
pseudoveritas said:
50% wow. I was under 15% around 1 pm so I had to recharge. I unplugged about the same time as you and I also use circle battery. I had the screen off the entire time and just listened to Radio.com and some Tune in radio. Luckily I bring my charger to work so I just plug it in otherwise it would have never made 4:30.
Click to expand...

Wow, additional programs that drain the battery, lol.

I use streaming media for a good part of the day, and HEAVY use on txt and the browser with some streaming chat.

I'm on day 2 already and it's holding up at about a high 30%.

Drain the battery a few times so that the os can collect battery stats, that should be a no brainer.
 
pseudoveritas said:
I just moved to the Maxx from the Droid X and I have noticed that there is no real difference in battery life. I am an admitted power user: I stream talk radio for about 8 hours a day along with checking facebook, twitter and google reader about every 15-30 mins (however Wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS are off, no live wallpaper, the brightness is set to lowest with no transitions). All of this is done on 4G.

On my Droid X, I would just keep my phone plugged into my work computer all day because if I didn't it would die about half-way through. On my Maxx it is the same thing. I make it from 7 to about 12:30 before I am under 10% battery. Is this normal? I have read reviews online saying that people have streamed full movies for hours on end without problems.

My question is: Is it unrealistic to expect my battery to last a full 9 hours with such heavy usage or is my battery faulty? I don't mind plugging my phone in - I just want to make sure there is nothing wrong with it. Anyone have a similar experience? To those who have what they would consider great battery life how much do you use your Maxx? Thanks!
Click to expand...

im in the exact same boat, i got my maxx today, and charged it to 100%, and after downloading maybe 20 apps and playing on a gba emulator for 30 mins im at 39% with 10 hours on battery
display at 44%
android system at 9%
android OS 9%
gameboid 8%
etc

syntrix said:
Wow, additional programs that drain the battery, lol.

I use streaming media for a good part of the day, and HEAVY use on txt and the browser with some streaming chat.

I'm on day 2 already and it's holding up at about a high 30%.

Drain the battery a few times so that the os can collect battery stats, that should be a no brainer.
Click to expand...
im gonna give this a shot, im sure the battery has stabilizing chemicals still in it too, hopefully it just needs broken in
 
pseudoveritas said:
I just moved to the Maxx from the Droid X and I have noticed that there is no real difference in battery life. I am an admitted power user: I stream talk radio for about 8 hours a day along with checking facebook, twitter and google reader about every 15-30 mins (however Wi-fi, bluetooth, GPS are off, no live wallpaper, the brightness is set to lowest with no transitions). All of this is done on 4G.

On my Droid X, I would just keep my phone plugged into my work computer all day because if I didn't it would die about half-way through. On my Maxx it is the same thing. I make it from 7 to about 12:30 before I am under 10% battery. Is this normal? I have read reviews online saying that people have streamed full movies for hours on end without problems.

My question is: Is it unrealistic to expect my battery to last a full 9 hours with such heavy usage or is my battery faulty? I don't mind plugging my phone in - I just want to make sure there is nothing wrong with it. Anyone have a similar experience? To those who have what they would consider great battery life how much do you use your Maxx? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Switch from LTE to CDMA. Profit. You don't need LTE except for video streaming, or heavy flash websites, or for actual file downloads. You can even stream music over Motocast on CDMA. Full LTE streaming can kill the battery in about 6-8 hours. Same thing over CDMA will stretch the battery considerably longer. Going minimalist can get you well over 48 hours out of a charge.
 
My Maxx is about 2 weeks old for me, and I was questioning battery life too. I needed to do a factory reset for other reasons, and WOW, that made a big difference. I'm purposely not charging all day, even in the car, just to see how long this battery lasts. I'm a heavy user, especially now that I've had to reset my apps, and play a lot on it because its my toy. At the end of the work day I was still at 65%. Did a lot of surfing and reading on it (no videos yet) and plugged in at bed time still at 44%. I should have let it go all night, too, with the Smart Action I set up for when I'm sleeping, but old habits die hard. It is amazing.

But, I will predict, that in 2 years when my contract is up and there are new phones out there, I'll be complaining about the battery and can't wait to get a better phone.

Stupid planned obsolescence.
 
Barkleyfan said:
Switch from LTE to CDMA. Profit. You don't need LTE except for video streaming, or heavy flash websites, or for actual file downloads. You can even stream music over Motocast on CDMA. Full LTE streaming can kill the battery in about 6-8 hours. Same thing over CDMA will stretch the battery considerably longer. Going minimalist can get you well over 48 hours out of a charge.
Click to expand...

then how did engadget manage 11.5 hours of movie streaming on 4g?
 
My guess is Engadget lied. Probably paid by Motorola to give a good review.

I have just noticed that my battery is down 20% already with the following stats:

2:45:54 on battery
Android OD - 57%
Display - 17%
Phone Idle - 7%
Cell Standby - 6% (13% battery for just sitting there?)
Scrabble Free - 6%
rild - 4% (what is that?)
Mediaserver - 2%

In other words...not much going on.

I have wifi turned off. I am in a boundary between 4G LTE and 3g. I see it switching back and forth as I move through my house. So I am guessing that's the culprit.

Tomorrow I will disable the 4G and just use 3G.

So far, I'm not terribly impressed after a week of using this thing.
 
Here are some photos of my phone at 10:54pm this was how long my MAXX lasted with pretty heavy use, unplugged at 6:50am and not charged ever. No smart actions were used. I had a live wallpaper, screen timeout set to 30sec and auto brightness.

snap20120329_225437.png


snap20120329_225721.png


snap20120329_225729.png
 
I guess it is just the Radio.com app that kills my battery. Yesterday I just used Pandora and Tune in radio on 4G. I unplugged at 6:45 am and made it to 3:30 pm at about 14% before I plugged it back in.

I let it charge full and then went out last night. I was on twitter and facebook a lot with a lot of camera use. When I came home I totally forgot to plug it in. When I checked it this morning it is at 78% while on battery for 14 hrs and 45 mins. I feel a bit better now. :)
 
i was gonna say lol, im on my second battery cycle since owning the phone (went from 100% to ~10% for accurate battery stats) and both times i left it on overnight and had the screen on max, and my battery is lasting about a full day and a half each charge, and ive been playing games too.

compared to my old droid x, id leave the screen on minimum brightness, and do nothing but text maybe ~200 messages a day, and it would be down to 30% at night

im impressed, but not amazed with the maxx's battery life.
 
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