Can some Droid X users ease my fears!?

[jadelantern]

Hi guys... new to the forums and this is my "1st" poast

Ok I had wanted a Droid X for a while now, ever since ive seen the commercials and reading the phone reviews online. It was time for me to order a new phone and I kept going to the Verizon stores in my area after its release so I could see it and decided what I was going to do and so I could see it. No on EVER had a working model of the phone in and only ever had the non working display model.

I don’t feel its too big for me or anything like that, lucky for me I have big hands so that’s no big deal for me. What has me worried is I was reading the users reviews on the Verizon site and i'm started to worry a little. Ive read dozens of reviews online (engaget for example) and they all give it pretty good to decent reviews but what is said about the battery is ALWAYS mixed.

Now people are saying the battery lasts for litarly 2 hours, and not much past that, people are complaining about the screen, and saying its hard to use, that the software sucks and the facebook and twitter apps are substandard etc.

I'm going from a Blackberry Storm (1) to the Droid X and i'm hoping to hear from other Droid X users who “Have” the phone and can give me their opinion on the phone over all and whey they think. My Blackberry is ok but lets be honest, apps SUCK on a BB, and the keyboard is Bawls to type on, ive used it for 2 years, I honestly send/receive 1500 texts a month consistaly and I STILL have a fair bit of typo’s typing on this thing.

I was hoping the Droid would be fun, have lots of cool apps and would be a nice powerful phone and I looked forward to taking FULL advantage of the app’s, the 8mp camera, and plan on getting as much use out of this baby as possible.

I'm getting kind of worried now as I went ahead and ordered the phone about a week ago and it should be here next week…

thanks guys

JL

[RogerPodacter]

hmm i havent heard any of that yet about the droid X. it seems like every android phone gets poor battery reviews, but after a week it typically gets much better. about the twitter and facebook apps, i wouldnt worry either way since there are far better apps in the market to do that. well, actually facebook for android in general is not the best. i dont know if motorola included their own app for it.

[bs240]

I have been using my Droid x for about a week now. I am in love with it. i am a heavy user and I can not kill this Battery. No I don't use wifi because with Verizon in Houston there is no point. I also dont keep my gps nor bluetooth running all the time. no i search the internet all day while playing pandora in the back ground and this Battery last me all day. Motorola did a great job making this phone and the battery.

I hope this eased some fears

[Drillbit]

No need to worry. New batteries are always like that. In my experience over quite a number of phones, battery life improves gradually as the battery is exercised with recharges and discharges. Contrary to popular belief, a full discharge isn't necessary. What counts is the frequency.

You can also improve battery life by disabling background notifications of widgets and apps if they do have this ability. You only need background notifications on the stuff you need. You can also regulate the frequency of background notifications by increasing the time periods within and decreasing the frequency.

[Festus440]

I've only had mine for a few days. I'm coming from an Omnia, and I really like this phone a lot better. In fact it blows the Omnia away. My biggest problem is that I have poor coverage in my office. This is always a battery killer, even with a Razr. (I could double the battery life of my Razr in my office by wearing it on my left side instead of my right I would say the battery life so far is lots better than the Omnia. Due to the poor signal in my office, I keep a spare charger there.

[patrixl]

On any phone like this, the screen is the biggest battery drainer (leaving aside poorly-written apps, poor signal boosting power to the antennas, etc). And when you first get a new toy --- ahem, phone --- you can't stop using it, which means having the screen turned on, trying a lot of different things.

All that happens to drain the battery pretty fast.. so of course it seems initially like the battery life is horrible.

Add to that most apps defaulting to something like 15 minutes interval for polling (twitter, facebook, email, plurk, you name it!), constantly using data and cpu...

Add to that Android that, by default, keeps data on ALL the time so you can get your push notifications (and heck, I tried turning "background data" off or "always on data" , depending on which Android flavor you have.. but what's the point of these awesome phones if you limit their functionality?).. it IS going to affect battery life.

I don't have a Droid X, but my Nexus One easily gets through my day if I call and text a bit, and use IM a lot. With minimal usage, some IM and emails, some calls, some browsing, I can last 2 days (as in, 36 hours lol, unplug in the morning and use it till next evening when I need to charge it). increasing the interval for updates in various apps is what helped me the most.

Patrix.

[credemann]

JL,

I also had a Storm 1 and now have a Droid X. One of the noticeable differences is how you use the screen. With the X you just touch the screen to type or select an icon etc. on the Storm you "click" or press the screen down. I use GMail and i get my emails just as quickly as the BB. The browser is easier and quicker to use. There is an App called "Y5-Battery saver" that works with WiFi to automatically switch from 3G to WiFi for data etc. which is faster. You can also tether or connect the X to your laptop or PC vis bluetooth and use it as a modem for internet access. My battery lasts me all day but i dont use a lot of apps. An App called "Advanced Task Killer" helps turn off apps with just one click. With only 1 week under my belt i have only scratched the surface on the X's abilities. I believe you will really like the X.

[dmarkson]

I came from the Storm1, then to the Droid1, now to the DroidX. I would never turn back. The phone is just about the minimum size to make the web useful. It is much faster than the Droid1. Lets not even talk about apps on the BB. The battery life on the DroidX lasts me about 24 hours if it is just sitting there doing not much of anything, and about 3-5 hours if I am using it heavily (e.g the display is on more than its off). Just suck it up and get a second battery. I needed a second battery for the Storm1 and the Droid1 as well. There is no external battery charger available for the DroidX yet (there is one on eBay from HK for around $5 shipped that I will likely get soon).

[cellfreak]

I'm coming from an iPhone 3G.....

Battery life is about the same so far; it will make it through a day of use like this:

Off charger at 8am.
Couple hours of Slacker or other MP3
Lots of playing around.
Maybe 30 mins of calls.
On charger for the 20-40 minute ride home in the car.
Off charger
Listening to MP3's or Podcasts on my hour run.
Little playing at home.

Phone usually has 5-10% when I go to bed at 11pm.

I have BT, WiFi, 3G on all the time.
I have K9 Mail set to refresh my IMAP every hour and download e-mail as it comes in.
I read/delete a fair amount of e-mail.

The life is about the same as my iPhone 3G. The only thing I miss is my Mophie JuicePack Air which gave me a nice battery boost.

[Purple95]

I got my Droid X on launch day and of course played with it constantly for the first week or so draining down the battery each day at least once.

Now that the "new" has somewhat worn off, I'm returning to my normal usage per day:
30 minutes of phone calls
Checking email 2-3 times with a few replies
Checking weather 1-2 times
30 minutes misc surfing
30 minutes "just playing" (This will decrease as additional "new" wears off.)

I keep WiFi turned on around the house but turn it off when out and about. I do manual fetching of email and all other updatable items and have my battery profile set to "Battery Saver Mode".

With the above usage, I was able to make it two days this past week without recharging the battery that night, otherwise I recharge each night while sleeping.

I am extremely happy with the X's battery performance. This is equal or slightly better than what I obtained with my iPhone during my eight months of ownership or my Moto V9m prior to that.

Happy battery camper here, indeed.

dan