Moto Droid charge time and battery life

[bkfist]

I just got my Droid yesterday, (Having had the Sprint Hero, and Moment for about 6 and 2 weeks respectively)

I'm thinking there is something physically wrong with the particular unit I have, and maybe someone else can verify if this is "normal" for their Droid.

When I got the phone and got it home, the battery (through settings / about phone etc.) showed 20% charge remaining.  I plugged the phone into the supplied wall charger, and was not paying a lot of attention to the charge, but it *seems* like about 30 or 45 minutes later the phone was showing fully charged.

I left the phone unplugged over-night, and this morning the phone was "dead" I could not turn it on.

Plugged the phone into the wall charger again, and after about 15 minutes it was showing 60% charged - now I understand "battery meters" can be a little "off" when receiving juice, as they are generally based on the voltage of the battery, and while charging the battery may not report completely accurately, so I just let it charge.

After about 45 or 50 minutes, the battery was saying fully charged, and the light by the USB adapter was off...

The charger is rated at 850mA output, and unless the charger is putting out a LOT more than the rated output, the charge time from "dead, won't turn on" to "Fully charged" on a 1500 mA battery, with 850 mA input (even assuming 100% efficiency, which does NOT happen) has got to be a LOT more than 50 or 55 minutes.

After having the Droid on now, and unplugged for about 2 hours, with only a few phone calls on it, little/no browsing or other usage, the battery level is now showing 40%

I'm guessing that this is *not* the experience other users are seeing with this phone?  Can anyone verify their experiences?

[ilikerice]

can't check my charger's output right now, but I'm using the standard, included a/c - usb charger.

Have used several droids so far, and have nothing like  your experience, sorry.

Also, either my use of screebl, or the latest update, or perhaps something else I'm not identifying is giving me significantly good battery life, since I've done the update.

Sorry for your experience, I think an exchange is in your future.

[Laytimator]

I think you got a lemon.  My battery lasts about a workday and charges fully in about 1.5-2 hours.

[bkfist]

That pretty much confirms my suspicions.  I'm going to let it fully discharge again, it's down to 40% now, after 3 hours, and plug it back in to charge and time it to get an exact charge time to confirm before returning it.  (The charge time is more suspicious than the battery life.)

Thanks for confirming for me.

[shawnb]

I agree with the previous poster...  check with Verizon, you might have a bad battery, charger, or phone.

I was surprised how quickly my battery recharges (another 10% every 10 mins or so).  I usually charge mine before I go to bed, and leave it unplugged all night.  I can use it lightly during the workday and browse for a couple of hours in the evening and still have a 30-40% charge left.

[willanaya]

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bkfist wrote:

I just got my Droid yesterday, (Having had the Sprint Hero, and Moment for about 6 and 2 weeks respectively)

I'm thinking there is something physically wrong with the particular unit I have, and maybe someone else can verify if this is "normal" for their Droid.

When I got the phone and got it home, the battery (through settings / about phone etc.) showed 20% charge remaining.  I plugged the phone into the supplied wall charger, and was not paying a lot of attention to the charge, but it *seems* like about 30 or 45 minutes later the phone was showing fully charged.

I left the phone unplugged over-night, and this morning the phone was "dead" I could not turn it on.

Plugged the phone into the wall charger again, and after about 15 minutes it was showing 60% charged - now I understand "battery meters" can be a little "off" when receiving juice, as they are generally based on the voltage of the battery, and while charging the battery may not report completely accurately, so I just let it charge.

After about 45 or 50 minutes, the battery was saying fully charged, and the light by the USB adapter was off...

The charger is rated at 850mA output, and unless the charger is putting out a LOT more than the rated output, the charge time from "dead, won't turn on" to "Fully charged" on a 1500 mA battery, with 850 mA input (even assuming 100% efficiency, which does NOT happen) has got to be a LOT more than 50 or 55 minutes.

After having the Droid on now, and unplugged for about 2 hours, with only a few phone calls on it, little/no browsing or other usage, the battery level is now showing 40%

I'm guessing that this is *not* the experience other users are seeing with this phone?  Can anyone verify their experiences?

---

this was the typical response of someone who received a bad droid before the updates.  the update was suppose to solve many of the battery problems (and it does) but the update might not help you with this problem.

exchange it today. decrease your frustration time and exchange it.

also when you get the new droid, use the power widget. and everytime you arent using the wifi, gps, screen brightness, sync,and bluetooth funtions, this widget will allow you to turn them off right away without going into the settings.

also deactivate "use wireless networks", "background data", and "use my location"  all three functions usually remain on and will drain the battery fast.

but exchange it now. you have a bad one. it happens but it is fixable.

[bkfist]

willanaya,

I'm not particularly concerned about the Droid's battery life (in a correctlly functioning model.) and am well aware of disabling WiFi, etc when not being used.  I had the Samsung Moment for about 2 weeks where the battery would drop to 15% in the first 1 to 2 hours, sometimes, and have had the HTC Hero for about 6 weeks and have learned to optimize battery life to what I need.

I've had Blackberry devices for the past 5 years and typically use 2500-3500 minutes a month so "topping up" charges throughout the day is just second nature to me.  I'm not someone who is coming from a feature phone who is used to charging their phone ever 3 or 4 day   (I've had a few laughs at posters on various forums saying "My XXX android phone battery life is terrible, I have to charge it *every night*.  My XXX phone used to be able to go 5 days without charging...."  I'm thinking to myself, the only time I've had a cell phone in the last 15 years of owning one where I didn't *have* to charge LONG before 5 days was when I lost one once for a week and when I dropped/lost it in the attic, the battery popped out, so it stayed charged  LOL)

(Don't get me wrong, your advice is completely appropriate, and hopefully it will help some noob reading this post to get better life out of thier phone!)

I'm pretty easty to satisfy when it comes to battery life, give me 6 hours stand-by, 90 minute of talk, and 90 minutes of web/email usage and I'm a happy camper.  Considering that this particular phone I have is only getting probably around 40% "true" charge at best (judging by the 0 to 100% charge time), the Droid should not have any problems reaching this level of performance once I have a properly functioning model.