Is Battery Life Really That Bad?

[BraulioB]

I have a couple of days to make a decision to buy a new cell phone. The Razer is currently $99 on Verizon and I don't want to miss the deal if I can help it but I haven't made up my mind to buy it because of the horror stories I hear about the battery life. I have an Original Droid Incredible with the same stock battery when I got it 2 years ago. I'm never really far from my charger (home, car, work), but I'm still scared to buy.

Let me ask you, is the batter life really that bad? I don't want to be constantly turning features on and off just to get some more battery life.

Please help.

B

 

[Matt8296]

I think that i would put myself as a medium user. do a little web browsing, send a bunch of texts, emails, calender, defiantly play a few game. also i'm always changing settings and finding new apps or widgets, mostly because i'm not sure of how i want my setup to be yet...

With the setting that i have done, it last me from 7am till 2pm with about 30 - 40% left. the only reason i charge it at 2 is that i leave work at 4, and with the 2 hour charge its back to 100%.

Setting that i have most of the time:
-i keep the screen brightness to the minimum most of the time. i have a widget to change to auto brightness for mostly when i'm outside.
-GPS and Bluetooth off all the time
-i use juice defender to not always have my data on (turns it on and the off every 30 mins to get emails and other stuff)
-i use 3g instead of 4g 99% of the time (use 4g when on the web or downloading)
+ more stuff

to answer your question, i don't think its all that bad. for me the schedule of having to charge it works nicely.

hope this helps

 

[Misleadb4]

My razr is un plugged at 6am then used all day(some web,some talking/texting) and at 8pm its plugged back in with about 20% left. Depends on how much web i use.
Also i disable data after web usage, and enable before, thats been working for me for about two months now.
Great phone no batt problems ever.

 

[OlManRivah]

It depends on a lot of factors that have been documented on this Forum. Since the last update (.181) it has significantly improved for me.

 

[thedrizl]

i haven't really experienced any battery issues with this phone. i came to the Razr from a DX with an extended battery, and in all honesty i haven't really noticed a difference. the great thing about this phone is all the different tweaks you can do to optimize battery life. great handset at a great price.

oh yeah, and the latest update improved battery performance, too.

 

[leela222]

Same here, I have no problems with battery life. I use the Smart Actions to disable data when the screen goes off. I can get 24-36 hrs of use on a full charge with light-medium usage and about 8-12 on really heavy usage.

I don't know why people complain about this battery! I have no issues at all and I LOVE this phone!

 

[fdnj48]

Battery life isn't really horrible on the OG Razr. If battery life is a huge factor to you then go with the Maxx. But if you are able to charge your phone when need be, the regular Razr will be just fine. And for $99 you can't beat it! Go for it! I think you'll be happy you did

 

[Adauth]

I have access to a charger most times im also on wi-fi a good amount of time so I can use it heavy if I have to without worrying about battery.

 

[helloimanton]

The battery life is okay. I would say it's pretty good comapred to some other phones.
You just need to turn screen bightness to the lowest, and then dim the screen. Then change the rate of updates from social media sites from the default to a longer time, so your phone doesn't constantly refresh for new email etc etc. Turn off wireless, and turn of location setting from your GPS.

I am a heavy user, from the morning (7:45am) I play online games (pocket legends) for about 1 hour. I text alot, and I do a fair bit of web browsing(youtube and emails). When I get home(5:00pm) I still have about 15%-20% of battery left which is still pretty good.

All in all the battery life is not the best, but it is not as horrible as some reviews say it is. Just follow some basic steps (like the few I quickly outlined ) and your battery should last you for the whole day. Just get ready to charge it when you get home .

Hope I helped!

P.S You don't have to turn off and then turn back on features. Just completely turn off features you don't need untill you can/need to use them.
For example GPS. Turn it off, but when you need it, you can quickly turn it back on.

 

[Podivin]

I came from a DInc to the Razr also, battery life is comparable between the two. If your DInc gets you through a day, so will the Razr.

 

[jroc]

I also came from a Droid X1. Battery life is comparable between the 2 IMO. Thats including using 4G on the RAZR. The Droid X1 had good battery life for a phone that size.

I agree with the post about about it being pretty good compared to most phones, especially LTE phones. Its not that battery life if bad...its more so the Maxx has a massive battery, came out about a month later, and other phones can have extended batteries put in.

Some ppl look at the Maxx being released so soon as Moto saying the battery in the RAZR is bad. Not to me. They had specific marketing for the RAZR and its thinness.

What I will say tho is because they are identical...I would look at the Maxx just for the battery size. And if I could do it over again...I woulda just waited. Still like my RAZR, dont get me wrong. But I have never heard anyone say they didnt want more or better battery life...lol. Well...I did actually....a fanboy defending his Rezound. I feel the Rezound has decent battery life too, might be better than some ppl think. So I will give him that.

And you can look at some battery life tests, this is 1 of the sites I use for go to info:

AnandTech - Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX Review - 1.8x The Battery

AnandTech - Nokia Lumia 900 Review - Windows Phone with LTE

Trying to show as many current phones as I can. Their Bench tool is good to for comparing different phones.

AnandTech - Bench - Smartphone11

So I dont think it has bad battery life. And looking at the Rezound results....its wild some ppl complain about battery life of that phone. I have that phone too and thats one of the good things about it. Anandtech STILL hasn't reviewed the Rezound....guess they never planned to...lol

 

[Joshbear]

The battery life is okay. I would say it's pretty good comapred to some other phones.
You just need to turn screen bightness to the lowest, and then dim the screen. Then change the rate of updates from social media sites from the default to a longer time, so your phone doesn't constantly refresh for new email etc etc. Turn off wireless, and turn of location setting from your GPS.

I am a heavy user, from the morning (7:45am) I play online games (pocket legends) for about 1 hour. I text alot, and I do a fair bit of web browsing(youtube and emails). When I get home(5:00pm) I still have about 15%-20% of battery left which is still pretty good.

All in all the battery life is not the best, but it is not as horrible as some reviews say it is. Just follow some basic steps (like the few I quickly outlined ) and your battery should last you for the whole day. Just get ready to charge it when you get home .

Hope I helped!

P.S You don't have to turn off and then turn back on features. Just completely turn off features you don't need untill you can/need to use them.
For example GPS. Turn it off, but when you need it, you can quickly turn it back on.

I may be wrong, but I've found that leaving GPS enabled all the time has a very minimal effect on the battery. If anything, it seems that turning it on and off consumes more battery.

 

[JediZombie]

I have the OG Razr, I am on wifi and a network extender all day; I can watch a movie on Crackle, browse the internet, make a "ok" ammount of calls, allong with a few other features and apps, with gps on all day, and I get to about ~35% after 12 hours.

 

[Adauth]

I may be wrong, but I've found that leaving GPS enabled all the time has a very minimal effect on the battery. If anything, it seems that turning it on and off consumes more battery.

True, because its only being used when an app needs it.

 

[jroc]

The key with GPS being left on 24/7 is making sure apps and widgets dont use location, geo caching features. And on the Droid X1 there was GPS bug that caused battery drain.

So all things being equal, I agree leaving GPS on 24/7 and shouldnt hurt battery life.

 

[mike2000z28]

With everything optimized and turned off I get about 3hrs of browsing the net mostly text pages and not videos. My phone is bad and the last update made it worse.

 

[TG1]

I came from the iPhone 4 and battery life is definitely more of an issue with the Razr. I otherwise love the phone so I'm going to go ahead with the battery conversion kit sold by cellphonerepairshop to give it the Maxx's battery.

 

[Adauth]

I came from the iPhone 4 and battery life is definitely more of an issue with the Razr. I otherwise love the phone so I'm going to go ahead with the battery conversion kit sold by cellphonerepairshop to give it the Maxx's battery.

Yea that's to be expected though. Better spec phone and LTE.

 

[leela222]

I got 27 hrs on my phone from yesterday morning (5:30AM) until this morning 8:30AM and it was at 30%. I used it for about 1/2 of internet radio and 2 hrs listening to my music. I was on FB and Google Play for a bit an only a couple of phone calls. This is on 3G. I have 4G in my area (both at home and work) but I don't use it as I feel the battery gets to damn hot and my 3G speeds are fine.

 

[rouxe41]

With medium usage, I am able to get at least 18 hours if I take proper precautions. e.g. turning off LTE when i dont need it and turning the screen down manually.

 

[nfotiu]

I came from a DInc to the Razr also, battery life is comparable between the two. If your DInc gets you through a day, so will the Razr.

I did as well, and would say the Razr is about 20% better than the Dinc on average. Also there were some things that sucked the Dinc dry quickly (ie GPS apps like Sportypal and golf logix, that have comparitively minimal effect on the Razr).

 

[you2]

I would definitely get the Maxx if buying today; for daily routine I can get 24 to 30 hours (but on a day to day basis I only use the phone for 20 or 30 minutes). When I travel and use the phone significantly I've run the battery down in under 8 hours (5 hours if i charged it the night before) which I find pretty crappy.
-
The only reason I have the razr instead of the maxx is I purchased it 6 weeks before the specs on the maxx were known.

 

[rushmore]

Razr Maxx over thin- anyday IMO. As far as battery life, seems too subjective. My high use may be somebody elses light use and anything in between. I think the battery life is not too good, but with Android data needs, an inefficient 4G chip, big display and 4430 dual core- I am not surprised. My Razr will not last half a day if I watch a movie (local on card) and surf 4G much. If I stream the movie, even less battery life. 4G LTE is a battery sucking demon.

Simply put, there is a REASON the Maxx was brought to market

In the Razr's defense, my Incredible was worse with stock battery.

Added: If the Razr HD has the new S4 chip and a new LTE chip- I am probably sold. Well, and if a global phone.... too much to ask for?

 

[Sportster]

Since the latest update, my Razr has gotten much worse on battery useage. It's terrible! Need to either go back to the last update or get a ICS build because this thing has gotten much more frustrating as far as having to keep charging it.

 

[Mr. Orange 645]

I wish I could do the conversion kit on mine but alas I decided to be different and got it in white. Different for me that is... I've always had black or Grey phones. If I could paint the casing pearl white and make it look good I would consider it.

I have to have Lotus Traveler on push all day for work and it keeps my phone awake the whole day and burns up the battery in a flash even with no use.