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Is every DX owner a 'techie'?

Outlaw71

Android Expert
During a discussion in another forum I was praising the impementation of a nice, juicy 1860 mAh batter being installed in the new Droid Pro. My viewpoint was that Motorola wants to pursuad RIM users away from their Blackberries and bring them over to the Android side of life. Which is fine, no quarrel about that here. Of course I was hit with the age old, "well of course Blackberries last forever, you can't do anything on them". Well I'm sorry, but that doesn't hold water with me. If Blackberry didn't care about their customers, they could have skimped on their batteries just the same as so many other OEM's have with their devices and saved themselves money.

But they have been catering to the business class for years and years. Long before Android, long before Apple, and long before 'apps' were part of our every day language. And one thing they were smart enough to understand is, people in business are often on the go all day long, on business trips, on airplanes, in taxi's, attending seminars, etc... they can't just 'plug in' whenever their phone is running low. So they made sure that for what their phone did, people could use them at least all day, if not for 2 or 3 days if they really needed to.

Enter the Droid Pro... just one look at this guy and you know it's made to steal RIM users away. So Motorola had the presence of mind to know to give it the juice to keep up with the business class. Well that's good for them, but it makes me feel a bit left out. Ok sure, it's pretty safe to assume that a large percentage of techies bide their time by a computer, or other power source. So maybe they do have a greater access and don't NEED the extra battery life, but I'm sure they would still appreciate it. But besides that, how many Dinc, EVO, Galaxy S, and Droid 1/2/X owners really are 'techies'? I'd say I'm more technical than not, but I don't know if I'd pigeon-hole myself as one.

And one thing that a lot of people don't seem to understand is that someone switching over to an Android device isn't going to automatically assume that there is going to be that much difference in battery life. The first time they unplug their phone and then look at it 5 hours later an the charge is down to 60% they're going to think, "what the hell's going on"? It won't just suddenly occur to them that, "oh, well this phone is 300 times more 'kick ass', so of course it isn't going to last very long". That's just not human nature, they will be expecting something close to what they've come accustomed to... I know I did.

So it kind of rubbed me a little bit the wrong way when I started to think about it. Motorola knows they have to give the market they're trying to capture a device that keeps up with their needs. Otherwise, they won't switch over to Android, they'll stay with RIM. So it seems to me that whatever market we're in, we haven't been demanding enough from the OEM's in terms of battery life.

If Motorola is willing to give their business phone more longevity to satisfy that market, then we had better decide what market we're in, and demand that they cater to our needs just as much. Otherwise, they might always just consider us a bunch of techie 'push-overs'.
 
Nope. I've met some people who have DXs that are not "techies" but just average smartphone consumers.
 
During a discussion in another forum I was praising the impementation of a nice, juicy 1860 mAh batter being installed in the new Droid Pro. My viewpoint was that Motorola wants to pursuad RIM users away from their Blackberries and bring them over to the Android side of life. Which is fine, no quarrel about that here. Of course I was hit with the age old, "well of course Blackberries last forever, you can't do anything on them". Well I'm sorry, but that doesn't hold water with me. If Blackberry didn't care about their customers, they could have skimped on their batteries just the same as so many other OEM's have with their devices and saved themselves money.

I have to disagree with you on this one. I don't think Motorola skimped on the X's battery life. I believe they incorporated a battery that is comparable to other smartphones within the same category (ie - iphone and other androids). Every smartphone manufacturer have to make business decisions that will give them best cost/performance/design ratio. IMHO I think they did a pretty good job.

I think the age old argument that "Blackberries last longer because they do less" is true. For one, most blackberries have smaller screens. This alone saves a lot of battery. Just ask storm users, they tell you that they get horrible battery life compare to their other blackberries like the bold or tour. It's just the way it is.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Android runs widgets and background apps that are constantly pulling data and updating info on your screen. That also takes alot of juice.

Yes, I agree it would be nice to have a phone that would last for days, but at what cost? Are we willing to compromise with paying more for the device or are we willing sacrifice the sleek design with a bulkier phone.

The fact is, battery technology is just not up to the demands of true mobile computing. Until they innovate new ways of delivering power, we'll always be tied to the charger.
 
All I can say is 42


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The Droid Pro and it's 1840 mAh battery doesn't cost any more than the Droid X. How much more do you think that battery is really going to add to the cost of manufacturing the phone... I'd say $5 bucks would be a generous guess. So throw that on top (if you buy your phone at Verizon they're still going to absorb it, they won't charge $204 bucks for it, it will still be $199) of the price instead of us having to go pay $50 for the extended battery... or should I say the stock battery in the Pro.

The Storm wasn't aimed at the business class. It was aimed at the iPhone. Which is the market we Android users are in. And that was the whole point of my post, this market we're in, we should tell the OEM's, "hey don't treat us any different than the business class, we want bigger batteries in our phones as well". Heck why is everyone so content on rolling over and giving them excuses.... "we have widgets, bigger screens, wifi...", ummm yeah, you're right. Exactly why we need more juice.

Looking around the different forums I see a lot of people complaining about battery life. When one of the main topics is, "what can I do to extend my battery life", that tells me I'm not the only one who would like to see Motorola, HTC, Samsung, Sony/Ericson and whoever else to beef em up a little. If you aren't someone who uses your battery in a days time good for you, I'm proud of you. It's not going to hurt you if you have more of your battery left when you plug in at night. When I used to plug my Curve in at night and it was only half way drained I didn't hop on the internet and complain, "man the battery in this phone is just too big, they need to come out with a smaller one". Those people will not be effected either way if they make the extended battery the stocker instead. But it would help those who run out of power too early, too often.

I dunno, maybe it's just me. I just started thinking about the reasoning behind the 1840 mAh in the Pro and I realized it was because Moto knew the business crowd was more demanding, and I wondered why we weren't? Why let them get away with giving the business class the extended battery but make us pay them $50 bucks for it?

Didn't seem right to me.
 
I'm not sure how the original question turned into all that but I'll answer anyway. No, not everyone owning a DX is a techie but I am.
 
No, my aunt and uncle both have DXs and neither of them know anything about technology.
 
I'm a pretty techie guy, but I wasn't attracted to the phone because of too many techie reasons. I liked Swype on my last phone, a MyTouch 3G, and I liked the X's huge screen and decent camera. The battery life doesn't bother me. It's much better than my MyTouch's was, and pretty comparable to the Sony-Ericsson flip phone I had before that. I think the average smartphone user probably wants something thinner and more stylish than your typical business Blackberry user will put up with. If they added even 2mm to the X's thickness for a bigger battery, I bet every review would comment even more about what a fat brick it was.
 
People THINK I'm techie but I tell them there is so much more to these phones that I don't do, it's amazing. I don't root, ROM, etc. but I do mess with the phone's features a good bit.
The average person is lucky to know how to make a call and maybe do a text. Above that is "techie" to them.
I had to show an 18 year old girl what Angry Birds is... and she had a Droid X. She didn't know about LP or any of that.
 
Everything I learned I learned from reading Engadget and Gizmodo (im not a techie). Honestly I love technology but I keep myself from getting too involved with it. I do know that punching, smashing, throwing, kicking, pounding, death gripping, and threatening does not fix technology.
 
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