Early on, I decided to see if everything I had heard about the awful battery life on the 4G LTE network was true. So, I turned off WiFi for a Saturday morning to simulate being out and about (I'm a hermit) and used it for some consistent Twitter activity and podcast downloads.
I woke up that morning at 8:40 am. I checked in again on the battery at 12:40 pm. In that time, it probably had about three hours of consistent use and one hour of idling. It was down to 50% already. I turned WiFi back on, and the battery drained a bit slower. Yes, you read that right: this is a phone that can actually save battery life by turning WiFi on.
I tweeted about that experience, and someone recommended an app called Juice Defender. It turns the radios on and off automatically based on whether the phone is in use, and it allows connections every 15 minutes (by default; that's configurable) for things like email checking. I installed it and kept the defaults, and it did help when not in heavy use. It wouldn't do a thing in the usage case above though because the 4G data usage is what was draining the battery so much.
The second thing I tested in relation to battery life is turn-by-turn navigation. I used it this past weekend on a short trip my wife and I took to north Georgia.
The particular drive I used it on was for about an hour, and it wasn't in perfect conditions. It was in an area with only 3G data, so the 4G was not a factor. It also was an area with signal coming and going (but never lost entirely). The GPS was on the whole time, obviously.
The app Battery Indicator said it had 97% battery when we left, and it was at 64% when we arrived. One hour sucked down a full third of the battery's capacity. I don't have a car charger because Verizon didn't supply one, but I have a feeling that having it plugged in would only slow the battery drain rather than halt it or even recharge it while navigating.
The phone comes with a Smart Actions app (which automates settings changes), and the first one it suggested to me was a battery saver action. It comes with a Guided Tours app from Verizon, and under "Basic Setup and Usage Videos" is "Battery Conservation Tips and Tricks". The rest in that section are basic orientation videos that are nowhere near as technical. On top of that, Motorola and Verizon released the Droid RAZR Maxx a mere three months after the RAZR, and it actually does have acceptable battery life. Someone knew this thing had poor battery life prospects.
The bottom line: unless you always have a charger nearby or are almost always in WiFi range, you will have to constantly worry about battery life with a Droid RAZR.
No comments:
Post a Comment