Help Is Moto actively working on the battery issue?

[thehikingdude]

I've now owned a Droid X for just under 1 week. Between my own poor battery life issues and what I've read of various threads (GPS Bug/50% Signal Bug) on different forums I have to believe that the short battery life dilemma is very widespread. My main question is does anybody know definitively if Motorola is working on this?

I have owned dozens of battery powered phones, MP3 players, GPSs, cameras, kid toys, etc to know that what we are experiencing with the DX is far from normal. My phone can now go from 100% to 20% within 2 hours with nothing more than a couple of phone calls. I've continued to remove apps, leaving GPS off, increasing refresh times for email, and anything else I can think of or have read. Nothing seems to really make much of a difference when you look at the big picture.

Don't get me wrong, other than this I love the Droid X. I'm surprised that Apple fans haven't grabbed a hold of this and run with it as a defense to the iPhone Death Grip. I have to say that a phone with a weak signal is going to work better than a phone with a dead battery.

I won't even bring the car dock into this conversation at this point, that's a whole different story which I believe is even worse than the stand-alone phone battery issue.

Not ready to throw in the towel! Yet!

 

[jp3_99]

Sounds like you might just have a bad battery, I would call or go to a store and request a new battery, they should give you one without to much issue.

 

[thehikingdude]

Sounds like you might just have a bad battery, I would call or go to a store and request a new battery, they should give you one without to much issue.

I had told myself the same just after posting this. I'm really hoping that does the trick. If not, I and a lot of other X owners will be marching with pitch forks and torches in hand.

 

[Travisimo]

I've read about battery issues, but going from 100 to 20% in 2 hours is certainly not normal by any stretch of the imagination. Mine typically goes from 100 to 20% in about 10 hours of moderate use. That is, mostly listening to Bluetooth music/podcasts for several hours per night, a few quick phone calls, some web browsing, etc. Now I have seen dramatic drops when using GPS Navigation, however, but that's to be expected and I normally just plug it into my car charger when using it that way.

 

[thehikingdude]

I understand the GPS part running it down. But sadly the car dock doesn't really charge the battery while in use, even though the Charging symbol shows up in the task bar. Just one more known problem that I can't determine if it's being resolved or not.

Sadly the Verizon store has no batteries. I will have to call into Customer Service to see about getting a replacement.

 

[novemberwhiskey]

I had battery issues before. They were resolved, but I am not sure what changed. I had the battery replaced by Verizon, I did a factory reset (causing me to cut down on apps I didn't use).

I think I've noticed that deleting bad apps usually increase performance/battery life. You can use ATK to check how much free memory you have running. after deleting some apps, i noticed that the free memory was much higher, and battery life improved.

 

[thehikingdude]

I did find a store that has replacement batteries so I will give that a shot. I deleted ATK after reading many posts questioning its use, so I'm not sure on free memory. I may reinstall to find out.

 

[jreed2560]

I've now owned a Droid X for just under 1 week. Between my own poor battery life issues and what I've read of various threads (GPS Bug/50% Signal Bug) on different forums I have to believe that the short battery life dilemma is very widespread. My main question is does anybody know definitively if Motorola is working on this?

I have owned dozens of battery powered phones, MP3 players, GPSs, cameras, kid toys, etc to know that what we are experiencing with the DX is far from normal. My phone can now go from 100% to 20% within 2 hours with nothing more than a couple of phone calls. I've continued to remove apps, leaving GPS off, increasing refresh times for email, and anything else I can think of or have read. Nothing seems to really make much of a difference when you look at the big picture.

Don't get me wrong, other than this I love the Droid X. I'm surprised that Apple fans haven't grabbed a hold of this and run with it as a defense to the iPhone Death Grip. I have to say that a phone with a weak signal is going to work better than a phone with a dead battery.

I won't even bring the car dock into this conversation at this point, that's a whole different story which I believe is even worse than the stand-alone phone battery issue.

Not ready to throw in the towel! Yet!

Have you ever had an android phone?

There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to getting the most out of the battery.

also check this thread out. it might be causing your issue

http://androidforums.com/support-tr...428-battery-drain-due-software-bug-w-gps.html

 

[thehikingdude]

Have you ever had an android phone?

There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to getting the most out of the battery.

also check this thread out. it might be causing your issue

http://androidforums.com/support-tr...428-battery-drain-due-software-bug-w-gps.html

2nd Android that I've owned. Yep, I mentioned the GPS bug in the OP. Which brings me back to my main question, has Moto acknowledged that a problem exists?

 

[TheXFactor]

Which brings me back to my main question, has Moto acknowledged that a problem exists?

Moto and VZW are silent on almost every issue with the X.

 

[jreed2560]

very rarely do the come out and admit an issue. they usually just quietly issue a MR

 

[nofez]

Which brings me back to my main question, has Moto acknowledged that a problem exists?

Personally, I'm not sure it's a Motorola problem, or just a Motorola problem. My wife's HTC Incredible is kind of flaky at times, too, when it comes to something not allowing the phone to sleep.

Also, Google "Android not sleeping". Seems to happen with all manufacturers' phones.

 

[thehikingdude]

I just got a new battery. The person assisting me in the Verizon store tried everything possible to NOT give me a new battery, including telling me they didn't have any. When I refused to accept that answer (I knew they had them, I'd called yesterday) they FINALLY showed up from the stock room with one sealed in a box. I was told that I should only expect 4-6 hours of battery life. I explained that if that's all I'm going to get then I will return the phone.

Tomorrow will be a good test since today was very telling. I made a single 2-minute call, not even one text, very little browsing, looked at some news and watched the battery level go from 100% to 20% in 6 hours. That was with the screen anywhere from 15-25% brightness.

I've got my fingers crossed that the new battery will work much better. If not, the phone goes back. If you have to cripple a phone to get a full day out of it, or even half a day, then it's not really a phone at all. It's just a very poorly designed device that needs to go back to the drawing board. I hope Motorola will take a look at the known bugs and get a firmware fix out soon.

Ignoring the battery issue, I still love the phone. Updates to follow.

 

[Gareee]

Keep in mind your phone needs to learn your new battery, and you usually have to drain and charge it several times before you get the longest run time out of it.

 

[thehikingdude]

Keep in mind your phone needs to learn your new battery, and you usually have to drain and charge it several times before you get the longest run time out of it.

Are you suggesting that the X battery functions as the older NiCd or NiMH variety? If the X battery is like most other cell LiIon batteries then the battery itself reports the level of charge to the phone, not the phone itself. Also, memory issues (programming the battery) went out the window with LiIon, but maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion.

 

[nekoki]

Sorry to see of your battery issues but not every X is doing that. I easily get 12+ hrs of use (a few ave phone calls, lots of texting, checking Facebook, receiving Gmail and work emails). I leave auto brightness and GPS on. Only use BT in the car. I get less life than my BB but way better than my Eris. Completely acceptable for a smartphone. I hope your new batt does the trick.

 

[Gareee]

Are you suggesting that the X battery functions as the older NiCd or NiMH variety? If the X battery is like most other cell LiIon batteries then the battery itself reports the level of charge to the phone, not the phone itself. Also, memory issues (programming the battery) went out the window with LiIon, but maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion.

I don't know the technical aspects of the issue, but if you read any of the battery issue threads here, everyone who is "in the know" says you need to charge drain and repeat a number of times to get proper reporting of your battery level, and to maximize its capacity.

The first day or so, my DX only lasted an hour or two before it needed a charge. Now it can last forever on standby, and with moderate use, all day long.

Only time I see serious drain issues now is when I'm running intense live wallpaper, I have apps running in the background that did not shut down properly, or my gps is stuck on. Forunately, you can resolve all three of those situations.

 

[thehikingdude]

Quick Update: I've already seen quite a difference with the new battery. First thing, it will actually CHARGE in the car dock with both Nav and MP3 player running. My original battery would appear to be charging, but in reality it only dropped in remaining power.

So far this morning I'm sitting at 90%, again a difference from the original battery. I'm not ready to claim victory, but I'm leaning towards an issue with the battery itself.

I did see that the known battery issues have been shared over on the Motorola forum, but from the sounds of it everything falls on deaf ears. Hard to say for sure. What I don't understand is the common message "Shut this off, disable that, never turn that on, don't use that". Why would I want something if I can't use it? I just don't get it. Imagine you go in to your car dealer and say "My car stalls when I go over 40mph, can you fix it?" Would you accept the reply of "Then don't go over 40." OK, done ranting.

 

[Ferris23]

My Droid X has really good battery life. I own an iPhone 4 that of course has awesome battery life, but the Droid X is no slouch in comparison. It doesn't have as good a life obviously with a 4.3" screen. But I've actually been impressed with battery life on my Droid X. I was expecting much less like the Evo

 

[thehikingdude]

Sitting at 70% battery with 5 hours of real phone usage. What a difference. For the rep at Verizon that told me it would make no difference: Find a different job.

 

[dahacker]

Sitting at 70% battery with 5 hours of real phone usage. What a difference. For the rep at Verizon that told me it would make no difference: Find a different job.

I used to be right there with you. My phone wouldn't last 6 hours just sitting in my pocket.

I got a new battery from Verizon and all is well. One thing I did do differently at the request of the tech guy was the first time I let the battery completely discharge before charging it fully. Now that is completely different than recommended for every other Lion battery I have ever owned. But I'm an Aerospace Engineer, not a battery engineer, so YMMV.

On the new battery, the phone lasts 36 hours with my usage. My usage is as follows:

- Battery Saver Mode
- No widgets except some of the Motorola switching ones, some quick dialing ones, and Beautiful widgets.
- Auto Brightness
- GPS ON
- Spareparts is reporting Screen On 16.3% of the 36 hours
- Spareparts is reporting Wifi On 6.6% of the 36 hours
- Spareparts is reporting Bluetooth on 10% of the 36 hours.

Since I've had a bad and a good battery, and have experimented significantly, I can tell you that the Brightness setting and the GPS settings are fairly negligible to the overall battery life. I can tell that the FEW that are having battery problems here are focusing on those settings and I would recommend looking elsewhere given my screen being on for almost 6 hours of the 36 with no problems set to auto brightness.

What I'm saying is to stop struggling with the settings. If your phone isn't making it with the screen on for nearly 6 hours, then demand a new battery from Verizon, because the phone can definitely do it.

 

[thehikingdude]

I used to be right there with you. My phone wouldn't last 6 hours just sitting in my pocket.

I got a new battery from Verizon and all is well. One thing I did do differently at the request of the tech guy was the first time I let the battery completely discharge before charging it fully. Now that is completely different than recommended for every other Lion battery I have ever owned. But I'm an Aerospace Engineer, not a battery engineer, so YMMV.

On the new battery, the phone lasts 36 hours with my usage. My usage is as follows:

- Battery Saver Mode
- No widgets except some of the Motorola switching ones, some quick dialing ones, and Beautiful widgets.
- Auto Brightness
- GPS ON
- Spareparts is reporting Screen On 16.3% of the 36 hours
- Spareparts is reporting Wifi On 6.6% of the 36 hours
- Spareparts is reporting Bluetooth on 10% of the 36 hours.

Since I've had a bad and a good battery, and have experimented significantly, I can tell you that the Brightness setting and the GPS settings are fairly negligible to the overall battery life. I can tell that the FEW that are having battery problems here are focusing on those settings and I would recommend looking elsewhere given my screen being on for almost 6 hours of the 36 with no problems set to auto brightness.

What I'm saying is to stop struggling with the settings. If your phone isn't making it with the screen on for nearly 6 hours, then demand a new battery from Verizon, because the phone can definitely do it.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it!! I'm seeing a night and day difference between the 2 batteries. Life is good!

 

[thehikingdude]

I now sit at 40% with heavy use including adding apps, GPS, Pandora, a phone call, texting, etc. - while just under 8 hours on battery. I'm very pleased!!!

I hope that any of you out there experiencing short battery life go and get a new battery. Ignore all the hype that your phone isn't meant to be used as a SmartPhone. It's all a crock.

 

[colchiro]

My settings:
Battery saving mode
Beautiful Live Weather
Display at 5% when at home or work, auto when traveling (sunglasses).
Sync, GPS, Bluetooth all off, but Wifi on only at home and Bluetooth on only when driving.

Easily get 2, maybe 3 days of battery life.
Charge before going to bed and at least 90% in the morning 9+ hours later. Usually have 80% or so when I get off work.

OTOH, if it rains, the Beautiful Weather can drop my battery to as low as 50%. Will see if the new settings help any. (CPU Hog turned off now.)