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Droid 3 - First Impressions

The Dock is really nice. Dont think I am going to get a car mount this time.

And the battery is going to drain if you keep it running crap all the time - deal with it.
 
I saw reviews noting Droid 3 photos have a bluish tint. Seems to be true in photos posted here. (Nothing a little Photoshop can't fix, I imagine.)
 
To try to get this idle time thing squared away I'm thinking about doing a factory reset and install every app one by one. Just to confirm before I do this (possibly tomorrow), other people are experiencing high idle percentages, right?
 
ekyle said:
To try to get this idle time thing squared away I'm thinking about doing a factory reset and install every app one by one. Just to confirm before I do this (possibly tomorrow), other people are experiencing high idle percentages, right?
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Yes, I am but before you go through all of that...I'd like to say that I think it is just reporting high. My phone doesn't appear to be actually draining at a higher than expected rate. Battery life actually seems quite good after a few days with the device.
 
ekyle said:
To try to get this idle time thing squared away I'm thinking about doing a factory reset and install every app one by one. Just to confirm before I do this (possibly tomorrow), other people are experiencing high idle percentages, right?
Click to expand...

Yeah, my battery life seems fine, but it is still showing idle time and standbye time at really high %.
 
sharkh20 said:
Yeah, my battery life seems fine, but it is still showing idle time and standbye time at really high %.
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Maybe because the other items are so small. If you never use thephone, standby will have the highest percentage. Want it lower just use the phone lol.
 
Lars said:
Maybe because the other items are so small. If you never use thephone, standby will have the highest percentage. Want it lower just use the phone lol.
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That isn't really the case though. If I start up the phone at 100% and just straight web browse to get the battery to go down to lets say 90%, display will be like 8% and web browser will be 2% and then the 2 I mentioned will be around 45/45. It should be mostly display.
 
UBRocked said:
Yes, I am but before you go through all of that...I'd like to say that I think it is just reporting high. My phone doesn't appear to be actually draining at a higher than expected rate. Battery life actually seems quite good after a few days with the device.
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I'm beginning to wonder that myself. I thought about it last night before I went to bed. I'm just trying to get the same life I got out of my X. That's hitting the 90% mark after 2.5 hrs. With an extended battery of course. I still really like this phone. I took a bunch of pictures over the weekend and didn't experience the camera lag issue some people are reporting.

Thanks for the idea. I think I'll just save myself the headache and skip it. Hoping a few more charge cycles will give me what I'm looking for out of the extended battery. I like how they made a case to fit it :)
 
Quick question, and forgive me if it's already been answered. How well do live wallpapers run on the Droid 3? I've always wanted to have a phone that could handle them and keep scrolling smoothly.
 
noob here. can some one explain what "rooting" is? I assume it whipes the bloatware...such as all vz apps....nfl bs...an a bunch of other useless stuff they forced on there. heard it voids warranty. not tryin to sound dumb....complete newb to this...thanks.


ekyle said:
I'm getting impatient for root access lol This bloat has to go and I want screen shots :(

I'm confident the devs will pull it off though. :)
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fierywater said:
Quick question, and forgive me if it's already been answered. How well do live wallpapers run on the Droid 3? I've always wanted to have a phone that could handle them and keep scrolling smoothly.
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They run fine, but IMO are battery hogs that have no functional point on a portable device, since even less battery life.
 
joeb1999 said:
noob here. can some one explain what "rooting" is? I assume it whipes the bloatware...such as all vz apps....nfl bs...an a bunch of other useless stuff they forced on there. heard it voids warranty. not tryin to sound dumb....complete newb to this...thanks.
Click to expand...


Rooting is a term for unlocking the device so things like bloatware can me uninstalled (amongst other things).
 
joeb1999 said:
noob here. can some one explain what "rooting" is? I assume it whipes the bloatware...such as all vz apps....nfl bs...an a bunch of other useless stuff they forced on there. heard it voids warranty. not tryin to sound dumb....complete newb to this...thanks.
Click to expand...
Basically, it gives you root access to the phone, meaning administrator rights. At that point you can remove the bloatware that VZW preinstalls, take screenshot, etc. You can also install custom ROMs that developers create.
 
ekyle said:
I'm beginning to wonder that myself. I thought about it last night before I went to bed. I'm just trying to get the same life I got out of my X. That's hitting the 90% mark after 2.5 hrs. With an extended battery of course. I still really like this phone. I took a bunch of pictures over the weekend and didn't experience the camera lag issue some people are reporting.

Thanks for the idea. I think I'll just save myself the headache and skip it. Hoping a few more charge cycles will give me what I'm looking for out of the extended battery. I like how they made a case to fit it :)
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We may want to see what settings we are all using, since I still do not seem have the issues you folks are mentioning. I have no stand-by battery drain issues or any apparent problem related. Battery life is better than the Incredible for me, but that does not mean much, since the Inc kind of sucked for battery life.
 
ekyle said:
I'm beginning to wonder that myself. I thought about it last night before I went to bed. I'm just trying to get the same life I got out of my X. That's hitting the 90% mark after 2.5 hrs. With an extended battery of course. I still really like this phone. I took a bunch of pictures over the weekend and didn't experience the camera lag issue some people are reporting.

Thanks for the idea. I think I'll just save myself the headache and skip it. Hoping a few more charge cycles will give me what I'm looking for out of the extended battery. I like how they made a case to fit it :)
Click to expand...

Obviously, do what you like...I just hate to think of you going trough all that with a non-rooted phone (no Titanium Backup to make easier work of it). I had to sleep on the couch last night (daughter broke her foot on Saturday :() and I plugged my phone in earlier in the evening so I could have it fully charged and next to me as I use my phones (yes plural) for my alarms (I sleep like a rock and set 6 alarms total). I'm at 70% battery life after 12 hours off the charger. I've sent a few emails with my phone this morning, made a phone call...and I'm at 70%. Not bad IMO. Cell standby is reporting as having used 32% (of that 30% total) of my depleted battery and is the main "process" in terms of my battery drainage. But what % of battery life would you expect to be remaining after 12 hours off the charger in mostly standby mode? 70% seems about right to me.

fierywater said:
Quick question, and forgive me if it's already been answered. How well do live wallpapers run on the Droid 3? I've always wanted to have a phone that could handle them and keep scrolling smoothly.
Click to expand...

Very well on this phone actually. I always end up turning off LWP's because of the sluggish performance they tend to cause (even the simple ones). But I have been surprised with how well my Light Grid Pro LWP has been running. Page redraws are a little more frequent and slower but actual operation (swiping through screens, etc.) has not been impacted much if at all.

fierywater said:
But they're so SHINY.:D
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Aren't they? :D
 
UBRocked said:
Obviously, do what you like...I just hate to think of you going trough all that with a non-rooted phone (no Titanium Backup to make easier work of it). I had to sleep on the couch last night (daughter broke her foot on Saturday :() and I plugged my phone in earlier in the evening so I could have it fully charged and next to me as I use my phones (yes plural) for my alarms (I sleep like a rock and set 6 alarms total). I'm at 70% battery life after 12 hours off the charger. I've sent a few emails with my phone this morning, made a phone call...and I'm at 70%. Not bad IMO. Cell standby is reporting as having used 32% (of that 30% total) of my depleted battery and is the main "process" in terms of my battery drainage. But what % of battery life would you expect to be remaining after 12 hours off the charger in mostly standby mode? 70% seems about right to me.
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I think the Starbucks app was keeping the phone awake or something. I took that off yesterday. This morning I listened to music for 20 on my way into work, I've been texting all morning, maybe 15 total, and sent two pictures. Still reading 90% which is great. Maybe it's all in my head :p. I'll put the Starbucks app back on tonight and see I can get a repeat of the performance today, tomorrow.
 
ekyle said:
I think the Starbucks app was keeping the phone awake or something. I took that off yesterday. This morning I listened to music for 20 on my way into work, I've been texting all morning, maybe 15 total, and sent two pictures. Still reading 90% which is great. Maybe it's all in my head :p. I'll put the Starbucks app back on tonight and see I can get a repeat of the performance today, tomorrow.
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Cool. If Starbucks is causing excess battery drain...time to switch to Seattle's Best :D
 
A little dressing up and it doesn't create the least bit of drain on the battery :D

DroidUC.jpg
 
Just came back from my local Verizon store. I'll throw in my 2 cents on the Droid 3.

I spent maybe 20 minutes comparing Droid 3, Droid X2, and Inc2.

First thing I scrutinized was the pentile screen of course. It's not as bad as early reviewers have said. The pentile's on the Droid X2 and Atrix look worse than the one on the Droid 3. They must have made some improvements since. But on the other hand, it's not as good as the amoled on my Inc nor the slcd on the Inc2. On the scale of 1 to 10 I'd give the screen a 7. Comparatively I'd give the amoled on the Inc a 9. One concern was with Droid 3's screen was ghosting. A lot of ghosting occurred while I was playing Abduction (every time the cow jumped). So I tested a 3D graphics game (NOVA), and it looked good (no ghosting) and it ran smoothly (I'm sure my Inc couldn't do that). So I tested another 2d game, a Connect Four clone, and there was no ghosting in that game. So hopefully it was just isolated to Abduction.

I have pretty good eyes and I could see the pixelation but it didn't bother me unless I brought the phone within 6 inches of my face. Of course you should try it out for yourself before you buy.

The Droid 3 was bigger than I thought. It was a little thicker than I would like it to be. And it had a big bezel, that made it's outer dimensions seem like a 4.3" screen phone's.

The camera is decent. No blue hue. But I did not try taking pics with the flash on though.

The default launcher and menus were not as snappy as I'd expect from a duo core phone, but I think this was more the fault of motoblur. I bet it would fly using Launcher Pro. But it was by no means sluggish, it was fast, but not snappy.

The keyboard is nice. It had a good feel to it. Clicked just enough. The keyboard could be nice enough to offset the unwanted girth of the phone.

I found out that I do have an upgrade discount, so I was tempted to get it right then and there. I know about the Amazon sale on the Droid 3, so I gave a meager attempt to haggle with the CSR by asking if they would price match Amazon price of $149 (I'm on a family plan) instead of $199 listed in-store. No dice (I'm not much of a negotiator anyway).

So once I decide between Droid 3 or the Inc2, I'll order from Amazon. I'm leaning towards the Droid 3, just for the Dual Core OMAP4 goodness.
 
I think some of you are confusing the way battery stats reports usage. The % used is only a percentage of battery used since the last plugin.

"Cell Standby" is not a process that runs somewhere, and its not motorolas/google's fault. Its simply a measure of the power the radio is using to talk to the network while in idle mode. Even if areas of good signal quality, 50% or so standby is not abnormal. Ubrocked had it right.

If you leave your phone in a drawer for 6 hours, expect cell standby to be 75%+, and your phone to be dead. This will also vary HIGHLY with cell service in the area, the noise floor in your location, and other interference.
 
thrawn86 said:
I think some of you are confusing the way battery stats reports usage. The % used is only a percentage of battery used since the last plugin.

"Cell Standby" is not a process that runs somewhere, and its not motorolas/google's fault. Its simply a measure of the power the radio is using to talk to the network while in idle mode. Even if areas of good signal quality, 50% or so standby is not abnormal. Ubrocked had it right.

If you leave your phone in a drawer for 6 hours, expect cell standby to be 75%+, and your phone to be dead. This will also vary HIGHLY with cell service in the area, the noise floor in your location, and other interference.
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I think I understand what you are trying to say but I need to clarify a few things.

Unless you don't turn your screen on all day or are in a terrible coverage area, the number 1 biggest battery drainer of a cell phone with a 4" display will ALWAYS be the display. My wife's Motorola Droid pro reports the cell standby the same way and it is not accurate. Just no two ways about it...its wrong.

My Thunderbolt reports data that is more accurate. Display accounts for 66% of the battery usage where as the cell standby is only 8% (based on today's usage as everyday will fluctuate based on your usage for that day).

The exception to this is if you are in a really bad reception area for an extended time. Because your phone is constantly wasting power trying to lock on to a signal, your cell standby could be the biggest drain on your battery. This is the reason for turning your phone off if you are in a place without a signal (or at least switching to airplane mode).

Bottom line...Motorola devices do not accurately report cell standby data so people shouldn't pay too much attention to it.
 
10 hours 21 mins 100% to 0%. cdma on, words with friends only thing not stock. about 60 texts and 20 mins browsing. Hope it gets better I need something close to double that. Im rarely within reach of a charger. I didnt even take calls seems a little disappointing hopefully a couple charge cycles will help.
 
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