What do you dislike about the Turbo 2

[TOW100]

I'm coming from the Droid Maxx which I really liked mainly because f battery life.

Here are my first impressions:
I love the shatterproof screen, having gone through 3 Droid Maxx shattered screens, I hope that phase will be behind me. Thanks to the info provided by this forum about how easy the top layer of Turbo 2 scratches, I did order a 3-pack of screen protectors.
Screen is crisp, much nicer than the Maxx.

Things I'm not so crazy about:
The jury is still out on battery life which doesn't seem to match the Maxx, certainly not 48 hours. In fairness it might be the "new toy" syndrome as I've only had it a few days. The edges seem very slippery and kind of sharp, holding it by the edge is a bit unpleasant. Finally, while this may be a nit, the icons seem to be poorly designed for the screen, they are out of proportion and don't look right. I especially dislike the phone icon.

I bought the phone as a result of a sales mailer from Verizon offer up to $300 off a new Turbo 2 ($100 off the phone and $200 off your old phone as a trade in [even with a cracked screen], that brought the cost of the new phone down to a more reasonable $320+). However, in the next several days if the battery life doesn't improve, it will go back to Verizon.

 

[Thom]

I suggest you give a new phone a week before even looking at the battery. New Toy Syndrome for sure.

Icons ... they are less sharp on the Turbo 2 then the Maxx when using the stock launcher. Curiously the Turbo 2 stock launcher, Turbo 2 Nova launcher, and Maxx Nova launcher are identical. The change came with Lollipop. Your Maxx was on Kit Kat. I think you are going to have the same concern with any device running Lollipop (and probably Marshmallow).

... Thom

 

[doogald]

The jury is still out on battery life which doesn't seem to match the Maxx, certainly not 48 hours [....] However, in the next several days if the battery life doesn't improve, it will go back to Verizon.

Are you easily getting through a day with the Turbo 2? If so, do you really need any more battery than that?

 

[TOW100]

Are you easily getting through a day with the Turbo 2? If so, do you really need any more battery than that?

I' m not really getting through a day. Today for example, I had charged the phone fully yesterday evening, this morning the phone showed 73%, which I thought was a lot of drain for overnight, (I expected about 10%). Then I had a meeting across town, I used the navigation for about 45 minutes, other than than 1 call, some text and viewing my emails a couple of times during the day I didn't touch the phone. Albeit, the DT2 was connected to the Ford Sync system in the car during my travels which was probably about 4-5 hours. When I got home about 6:00 pm, the charge was down to 1%. I can't live with that, I don't want to be shutting down radios or Bluetooth, or actively having to manage battery usage to make through the day. That was the beauty of the Maxx, if I rarely used it during the day, I could get 2+ days out of it. If I was using it to connect to the internet quite a bit (2-3 hours) I'd be down to 10-20% at bedtime, but hardly ever did I have to charge it during the day.

 

[TOW100]

I suggest you give a new phone a week before even looking at the battery. New Toy Syndrome for sure.

Icons ... they are less sharp on the Turbo 2 then the Maxx when using the stock launcher. Curiously the Turbo 2 stock launcher, Turbo 2 Nova launcher, and Maxx Nova launcher are identical. The change came with Lollipop. Your Maxx was on Kit Kat. I think you are going to have the same concern with any device running Lollipop (and probably Marshmallow).

... Thom

Thanks Thom for the info on Lollipop, I wasn't aware of that. My more serious concern is the battery life. See my reply to Doogald concerning making it through the day. One of things I forgot to mention, I love the fast turbo charge, but that is no substitute for an all day battery.
T.

 

[doogald]

I' m not really getting through a day. Today for example, I had charged the phone fully yesterday evening, this morning the phone showed 73%, which I thought was a lot of drain for overnight, (I expected about 10%). Then I had a meeting across town, I used the navigation for about 45 minutes, other than than 1 call, some text and viewing my emails a couple of times during the day I didn't touch the phone. Albeit, the DT2 was connected to the Ford Sync system in the car during my travels which was probably about 4-5 hours. When I got home about 6:00 pm, the charge was down to 1%.

So, what would have happened if you charged it overnight while you slept and took it off the charger when you woke up with a fully charged phone?

 

[Thom]

Albeit, the DT2 was connected to the Ford Sync system in the car during my travels which was probably about 4-5 hours

With little to go on ... was the screen on constantly for 5 hours? Since you didn't wait the week ... what did the battery stats say on the day you are reporting? What was eating the battery?

... Thom

 

[doogald]

With little to go on ... was the screen on constantly for 5 hours? Since you didn't wait the week ... what did the battery stats say on the day you are reporting? What was eating the battery?

... Thom

Also, since the phone was in a car for 4-5 hours, why not plug the phone in to charge?

I don't understand why people are so reluctant to charge the phone when they get an easy opportunity like that. The point isn't to get from 100 to 0 without ever charging - the point is to get you through the times when there is absolutely no chance to charge at all.

 

[Thom]

I had a strange day yesterday. I was workling on a Tasker problem continuously so the screen was on continuously. After 9 hours of this I had gone from 100% to 3%.

On a typical measurement (after having it for a month) I measured 46 hours to go from 100% to 0%.

So ... the range for Thom seems to be 9 to 46 hours.

... Thom

 

[TOW100]

With little to go on ... was the screen on constantly for 5 hours? Since you didn't wait the week ... what did the battery stats say on the day you are reporting? What was eating the battery?

... Thom

The screen wasn't on the whole 5 hours, only when I had the Navigation App running. I should have checked with Battery Bot to see what was eating the battery, but with 1% left, my first thought was get it on the charger.

And to answer Doogald, I was driving my wife's car and she unfortunately subscribes to the dark forces from Cupertino, so I didn't have a USB cable available to charge the phone.

Today, at almost 9:00 pm, starting from a 100% charge this morning at 7:30 am, it's at 29%, with very little usage, I did do some Internet surfing this morning. According to Battery Bot the battery usage is Screen 15%, Android System 12%, Cell Standby 9% and Google Services at 6%. Various other services utilizing less than 5% per service. Is there a better App to detail my battery usage?

BTW, Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays.

 

[Thom]

The traditional approach to evaluating is ...

Don't use third party apps to manipulated or measure battery.
Do a ... Wipe Cache Partition.
If the problem persists ... run in Safe Mode.
If the problem stops ... it is caused by an app that you added ... find out which one.

... Thom

 

[doogald]

BTW, Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays.

To you as well!

I think all of the battery apps are reporting the same thing. From what I have read from others, using the display on the turbo 2 can drain the battery hard. It seems that maybe this isn't the phone for you based on your use.

I can't think of many phones that would have better battery life on android for your use case. Maybe the note 5 or gs6 edge plus? Maybe the Maxx 2 or the nexus 6p? I can think of one phone that would have adequate battery life but you belittled it referencing your wife's phone...

 

[weatherlover1]

Delete or disable bloat. There is a list of apps you can disable I will grab the link and post it. I started out with crappy battery life and was all over the forums looking for answers. I have had my phone now for a month and finally am happy with the battery life. The big help has been getting rid of bloat. Every time I start disabling unused apps my battery life gets better. I of course am not getting rid of one's I will use but if I'm not using it and it's on the safe to disable list I am. The back ground apps are draining this phone a lot. Why some people don't seem to need to disable and some do I don't know.

 

[weatherlover1]

Here is the link. http://www.andromods.com/tips-trick/disable-bloatware-apps-droid-turbo-2-list.html

 

[Thom]

I find the referenced list to be rather odd. The fact that Moto is on the list is REALLY odd. One of the strongest attributes of this device is touchless control.

I suggest caution in using this list.

... Thom

 

[kmf]

I agree. What's the point of having a Motorola phone if you are going to disable what makes it a Moto.

 

[doogald]

I agree. What's the point of having a Motorola phone if you are going to disable what makes it a Moto.

Well, I could see some people who want as close to stock Android as possible with a large battery who have no interest in Moto Voice (I rarely use it myself), Moto Display (I could live without it), or Moto Assist (this is harder, as I love the meeting silence feature and the silence at night feature, but there are third party apps that can do that as well. I finally turned off drive assist because I found it was too annoying - turning on when I was a passenger, when I was on a boat, and the frustrating inability in most cases to dictate responses and the inability to read group MMS messages.)

 

[Thom]

I on the other hand have no add-on navigation in my car (2001 Honda Civic Si). I carry my Turbo 2 in my shirt pocket.

When driving I can simply say ...
OK Turbo what's the weather outside and I get a local report.
OK Turbo navigate home and I get turn by turn instruction on how to get home.

... Thom

 

[rdsok]

I went from the MAXX to the Turbo 2 as well... I got about the same battery time I had previously until I went through and disabled apps ( ie preloaded apps ) that I had no need of... I have exactly the same apps that I had loaded on the MAXX on the Turbo, I didn't have a need to add others.

I also charge each time I get a chance just because I do like keeping it topped off when possible. They do need to have a major battery innovation happen so that we get more battery time... While a day or two of battery life gets most people through, there are times when the need arises that means we just need more. Until that time, if we need more battery capacity and don't have access to a typical power source, we can carry an additional battery pack to recharge our phones from... if you go camping, it's a must have item.

 

[weatherlover1]

I find the referenced list to be rather odd. The fact that Moto is on the list is REALLY odd. One of the strongest attributes of this device is touchless control.

I suggest caution in using this list.

... Thom

I only shared the link so people know what they can disable if they want. I use the Moto features I have no plans to disable them.

 

[TOW100]

Thanks Weatherlover, I will look at disabling some of the Verizon crapware. But I like and use Moto so I will NOT be disabling that app. I had a very disturbing experience this past week. I drove to Florida, and I was using Google Navigation, (I know the route by heart, but Google Nav gives me traffic updates, which I needed as I-95 in South Carolina was a giant parking lot and I was using alternate routes that Google/Waze was suggesting.) the disturbing thing was even though I had the phone plugged into the cigar lighter the battery was draining faster than it was charging while using the Nav. Thinking I was fine with the phone being charged, I wasn't paying attention, all of a sudden I get a battery warning. WTF, the charger isn't capable of keeping this phone charged, what's that all about. Another disturbing issue is my wireless charging pad down South will not fully charge the phone overnight. I'll get up in the morning and the phone will be only 80-85% charged. The pad up North, which is a lot newer works okay charging overnight.

Thom, I've given the phone almost two weeks and today, using it very little, at 10:50 pm (it came off charge at 7:30 am) the phone is at 25%, a long way away from a 48 hour battery.

 

[doogald]

Get a new car charger. The one you are using is too weak to charge the phone while it is being used.

There are turbo charging car chargers on Amazon. Try one of those.

The only people who will get 48 hour battery are people who use the phone lightly and have fantastic mobile signal all of the time. What's great about the T2 is that it will get better battery life than any other android phone with similar display and processor specs. It may not be 48 hours, but it's better than you'll get from another phone unless you sacrifice with a worse display or a worse processor.

 

[Thom]

I don't know what chargers you are using. In the car? Down South?

If the charger for your 15 hours down to 25% was the Turbo charger my question would be ... did you try Safe Mode? If this was the result in Safe Mode I would talk to Verizon about a replacement.

... Thom

 

[TOW100]

Thanks Doogald and Thom, you are both correct, I stopped by my local Verizon store today and the rep recommended both a new car Turbo charger and a new wireless charger. I had intended to turn in the phone today (day 14), but since I got the phone at Christmas time, I have until January 15 to make a final decision. So my plan is to keep test driving the phone. Doogald, I always get my accessories from Amazon. Even with my corporate 25% discount, Verizon accessories are way overpriced.

Thom, I will give Safe Mode a run tomorrow to see what improvement I get with the battery. Does Safe Mode disable all apps and WiFi signal? And Down South was VERY rural South Carolina.

One of the pluses of this issue is while cleaning out my truck in Florida, I discovered a built in 110 volt plug that I never knew existed. Apparently Ford realized the electrical draw of some of these electronics and they have included a built in Inverter, which made the state of the battery charge irrelevant on the trip home with the phone plugged into the turbo charger.

 

[Thom]

Safe Mode will disable all apps tat you added without uninstalling them. It will leave pre-installed apps alone. It's purpose is to see if the problem disappears. If it does then it is caused by an app that you added. I am not aware of any adjustment that it makes to any setting in the system and pre-installed apps.

... Thom