Droid 3 - First Impressions

[Barbara]

The only thing I have been doing since taking it off of the charger is waking it to check the battery. At 7:30 it's now at 60%. I have a feeling there is either something wrong with the phone or something wrong with the battery. I really lucked out with my Droid 1. I got one the first day and it's the only one I ever needed. Lots of other folks talked about getting a dud and having to return it for a replacement. I'm thinking I might be in that group with this phone and will be visiting my local Verizon store on Thursday.

 

[Clementine_3]

I think it's the cell standby. Mine is still the #1 battery usage, even after playing w/my phone a lot.
I took it off the charger at around 3 today, it's at 50% with cell standby at 34%, phone idle at 22% and display is only at 13%. I surfed the web, sent a few texts, checked G+ a few times and checked a few forums (here and using tapatalk). That's not so bad being at 50% but I really don't like the cell standby and phone idle numbers?
Mine gets warm when I'm home, low signal. I was in a good signal for most of the day and it did not seem to get too warm.
Edit: I actually downloaded a few apps too, I used it a goodly amount now that I think about it. NewsRob and Engadget, made sure GPS worked w/maps and navigation...

 

[rushmore]

Mine is doing this too. However, as a test, I am letting it run completely down. I'm at 8 hours now, and it's at 30%. Been at 30% for the last 2 hours now. Going to let it completely discharge and see how long it lasts (I suspect it'll possibly last through till tomorrow morning).

Oh, and I've been using it a fair amount during these 8 hours too, so overall, I think the battery usage will probably be acceptable, compared to the D1 which seemed to get about the same amount of time out of a battery charge w/ usage (possibly less actually!)

edit: Mine does not feel warm to the touch though, even after quite a bit of usage.

I think it could be that some apps might not be Ginger friendly, so difficult for Moto devs to catch. Unless a rash of reports start like Barb and some others are having, I will test out and then buy the D3 on Thursday

 

[rushmore]

I think you'll like it a lot more than the X2. I sent K at Droid Life a huge review with pics and commentary, so he'll probably get some of it up there at some point after he gets some more feedback from others. I'm generally very, very happy with it.

Can you PM me a draft?

 

[Barbara]

Something is running in the background. If you were to try a reset to stock and minimal apps on the device still do not help, may be another case of poor Moto firmware.

Is so, why is Moto not catching this?

Keeping on to hope the issues are not common and some installed apps are causing the issues. Just when I was going to get my local store to order one. I will wait until Thursday and check the D3 out before buying.

One thing that I did was to put the SD card from my Droid 1 into the Droid 3. I shut the phone down and took that out. I just restarted it and it's at 50%. I'll see what this does. If it doesn't seem to help, I'll do the factory restore and I won't put the apps back on and see if that helps. I can't really do anything about it until Thursday anyway.

 

[rushmore]

I think it's the cell standby. Mine is still the #1 battery usage, even after playing w/my phone a lot.
I took it off the charger at around 3 today, it's at 50% with cell standby at 34%, phone idle at 22% and display is only at 13%. I surfed the web, sent a few texts, checked G+ a few times and checked a few forums (here and using tapatalk). That's not so bad being at 50% but I really don't like the cell standby and phone idle numbers?
Mine gets warm when I'm home, low signal. I was in a good signal for most of the day and it did not seem to get too warm.
Edit: I actually downloaded a few apps too, I used it a goodly amount now that I think about it. NewsRob and Engadget, made sure GPS worked w/maps and navigation...

If not using the device much, cell stand by should have the most weight of use. Maybe the battery is not calibrating correctly, or is bad..... Have you timed how long or takes to run the battery dry? Anything is relative

 

[Clementine_3]

If not using the device much, cell stand by should have the most weight of use. Maybe the battery is not calibrating correctly..... Have you timed how ling or takes to run the battery dry? Anything is relative

No, I haven't really timed or paid attention to how long the battery lasts, it would be unfair as I have been using it more than 'normal'.
I know the standby will be high, but it was never this high on my D1...or even close. It just seems high to me :shrugs:

 

[aostang]

It may take a few cycles for the battery to both break in and for the system to learn what battery output is truly what charge percent. Also, did you disable GSM? No reason to have the phone hunting for that signal if it's not going to be used anyway. I've had no standby issues so far.

 

[Clementine_3]

Yup, GSM disabled. I'm not worried about it and so far battery life has been pretty good. I just noticed the high percentages and thought it was odd.

 

[ekyle]

I wish gingerbread still had the battery history menu in the *#*#info#*#* menu... that was the best way to find the rogue apps

 

[xXIncognitoXx]

My battery is at 20% with 8h 47m 8s on battery.

Cell standby 32%
Phone idle 25%
Voice calls 24%
Display 11%
Android System 5%
Android OS 3%

I have used the phone a lot today, relative to how often/much I used the D1 in a given day (mostly playing around with stuff). I've installed/uninstalled quite a few apps, etc. I don't think it's an issue with apps, it's probably just the battery needs to "burn in" as others have mentioned. I'm going to let it run dry, and fully recharge, and see if that helps any.

Will suck if you can only get about 10 hours on a charge, that would be pretty awful. At the rate it's going, that's about what it seems like it'll be, unless it's calculating the battery % incorrectly.

 

[ekyle]

Hmmm... played Angry Birds for a few minutes and the phone got rather toasty.

 

[rushmore]

Hmmm... played Angry Birds for a few minutes and the phone got rather toasty.

That extrapolates to spontaneous combustion if you were playing Riptide or a similar 3D game. Angry Birds obviously should not tax a dual core.

 

[ekyle]

That extrapolates to spontaneous combustion if you were playing Riptide or a similar 3D game. Angry Birds obviously should not tax a dual core.

I'm really hoping this phone works out. I don't want another disappointment like the Thunderbolt.

Battery life is sucking pretty hard, but I ordered an extended battery. I do for all my phones anyway. It's outperforming the TB so far.

 

[motarded1]

Well I found the first bug in my D3 I can't turn on wifi, it keeps going from on to off and on to off until it finally reboots the phone mobile hotspot will say its on but its not and then I can't turn it off it gives an error on the enable screen and then so does the wiffi under settings had to reboot to turn off hotspot.

 

[xXIncognitoXx]

I'm really hoping this phone works out. I don't want another disappointment like the Thunderbolt.

Battery life is sucking pretty hard, but I ordered an extended battery. I do for all my phones anyway. It's outperforming the TB so far.

Same here. A 10 hour battery is unacceptable for me. The specs on the Verizon site say it has "up to" 300 hours of stand by time. We're not seeing anywhere near that.

My battery is @ 15% with 9 hours and 22 minutes.

 

[ekyle]

Same here. A 10 hour battery is unacceptable for me. The specs on the Verizon site say it has "up to" 300 hours of stand by time. We're not seeing anywhere near that.

My battery is @ 15% with 9 hours and 22 minutes.

I went to 40% with sporatic forum use, texting, and FB/Twitter. That was after unplugging at 9 and using it until 730.

 

[xXIncognitoXx]

I went to 40% with sporatic forum use, texting, and FB/Twitter. That was after unplugging at 9 and using it until 730.

Sounds like yours is getting better mileage than mine. Are you using the extended battery? Also, I don't remember seeing that in the vzw store, is that were you got it?

 

[Barbara]

Sounds like yours is getting better mileage than mine. Are you using the extended battery? Also, I don't remember seeing that in the vzw store, is that were you got it?

The extended battery with cover are under accessories for the Droid 3 on the Verizon website.

 

[xXIncognitoXx]

The extended battery with cover are under accessories for the Droid 3 on the Verizon website.

Thanks, just found it. Hopefully don't need to get that.

My D1 had an uptime of about 26 hours, with still over 90% battery remaining, unplugged since shortly after I got the new D3. Bleh.

 

[mikepinto65]

Well I found the first bug in my D3 I can't turn on wifi, it keeps going from on to off and on to off until it finally reboots the phone mobile hotspot will say its on but its not and then I can't turn it off it gives an error on the enable screen and then so does the wiffi under settings had to reboot to turn off hotspot.

Not having that issue with mine, nore is my battery performance poor once GSM was disabled. My phone is also not warm to the touch unless I am multi tasking.

 

[ekyle]

Sounds like yours is getting better mileage than mine. Are you using the extended battery? Also, I don't remember seeing that in the vzw store, is that were you got it?

Stock battery at the moment. It's available online. They have hard covers that fit with it in too. Blue at purple only right now and I think they're out of blue. Mine will be at my work Tuesday.

 

[Luigi Montanez]

I've had my D3 since yesterday (Friday). Weirdest thing: Today, the camera just stopped working. The camera app launches, and the image is all black. I switch to the front-facing camera and that works, but the rear camera gives me nothing. Take a picture, it's black. Take video, it's black.

Yesterday, the camera was working fine...

 

[motarded1]

I also turned off gsm and it seems to be helping out on battery life it should have been cdma by default

 

[Lars]

Can someone elaborate on the hard keyboard? The D1 was not known for a good keyboard. all the keys are connected with a plastice film. Seals them makes them hard to push. Is each D3 key by itself? How is it? Can anyone comment vs a Q or BB (which has the best hard keyboards)
Thx