^ and ^^ - How's the battery life? Everyone keeps telling me the same thing, that it seems big in the store but once you get it, you'll be glad you did...

9/9/2010 9:05:54 AM

Battery life gets better over time and 2.2 will really help it out also. My phone only dropped 50% over 18 hours yesterday with moderate-heavy use; a couple of calls, lots of wordfeud, ~50 text messages, checking email, etc.

9/9/2010 9:14:52 AM

Quote :

"Battery life gets better over time and 2.2 will really help it out also"

Oh really? How so?

9/9/2010 9:20:59 AM

Quote :

"^ and ^^ - How's the battery life? Everyone keeps telling me the same thing, that it seems big in the store but once you get it, you'll be glad you did... "

Quote :

"My Droid X charged all night and was at 100% when i left for work around 7:45. At lunch I bring out my phone to discover that it is already down to 60% battery. My activities on the phone today include 3-4 minutes of internet use, a two phone calls, a couple texts, and a brief use of the show savvy app. Looking at the Battery Use screen my usage includes teh following breakdown... 4h 58m 26s since unplugged 56% - Display 21% - Voice Calls 18% - Cell Standby 4% - Phone Idle 3% - Shop Savvy Considering I made two voice calls I clicked on the "Voice Call" icon to confirm the amount of use. In the screen the phone indicated that my Minutes of Voice usage was 4m 33s. Is this normal? So basically my phone drained 10% of the battery while not even on the phone for 5 minutes. I guess I am screwed the next time my g/f wants to blabber for a long conversation or I need to call [insert slow gov't agency here] for customer support. "

Quote :

": "what is your battery setting set to" "

Battery Saver Mode

Quote :

" "How long have you had the phone? How many times have you charged it? Has it been reset since you got the phone? What kind of stuff do you keep on/off all the time?" "

I have had phone going on 3 weeks.
I charge it everynight when i go to bed and usually during the day otherwise it dies.
I pull the battery out once a week.
Nothing stays on. I even have the Juice defender program turn off data when not in use and when screen is off.

[Edited on September 9, 2010 at 9:22 AM. Reason : a]

9/9/2010 9:22:25 AM

Quote :

"^ and ^^ - How's the battery life? Everyone keeps telling me the same thing, that it seems big in the store but once you get it, you'll be glad you did..."

My experience with the battery life after the first 4-5 days (seemed like it took a handful of recharges before it really was at full strength - but also I was messing with it a lot more then) has been awesome.

On a typical workday I am off the charger by like 6:45am and I don't put it back on the charger until I go to bed at 11pm and it is still around 30%. Now, obviously on a work day I am not messing with it a ton since I tend to be working at least most the time but I am messing with it a decent amount still . I play a little bit of WordFeud sporadically as time permits, text some, check some sports scores/articles, maybe make a phone call or two, check my email, browse some sites blocked at work etc. No extended video streaming, some Pandora streaming (still use my ipod mainly though), screen brightness down, wifi; gps; bluetooth; and auto-sync+background data off the majority of the time. However, I don't get good reception where I sit, so I consider how well my device holds charge during the day to be pretty solid.

Also, considering the fact that my previous charger works with this phone as well as my previous car charger, I have 3 chargers for the phone now (the one that came with it as well as the other 2 I had with my last phone). So, if I really needed, I could charge as much as I wanted at work and also have a charging option in the car as well as at home.

I was a little hesitant about smartphone battery-life coming from a phone that would last for days but I can honestly say my X has only dipped below 30% once without me being near a charger in the month I have had it. Often on the weekends it is off the charger Saturday morning and I don't charge it again until Sunday evening.

Quote :

"Nothing stays on. I even have the Juice defender program turn off data when not in use and when screen is off."

I tried JuiceDefender on a suggestion from someone here and I can honestly say that my battery life was the worst it ever was while running that program. I had been having great battery life and was looking for a way to stretch it even further and instead it got worse. Maybe something was buggy with my phone or something, I don't know. I had all my settings set to the most conservative that the free version would allow and I still got shorter battery life than me just manually having background data, auto-sync, gps, wifi, bluetooth off with screen brightness down. As soon as I uninstalled it and started just manually managing again my battery life jumped back up to what it had been. Just as a test, after a few days I installed it again, checked all the settings, etc. and sure enough my battery was dropping quickly the 2 days I re-used it. Uninstalled it and the battery life was back up.

[Edited on September 9, 2010 at 9:32 AM. Reason : ]

9/9/2010 9:26:11 AM

Anyone with the Incredible willing to lend an opinion?

9/9/2010 9:58:16 AM

Quote :

"Oh really? How so?"

The first week I had my DX the battery life was atrocious. An hour after unplugging it with little to no use and it would already be at 50%. It wouldn't last even close to half the day without dying. I actually ordered 2 spare standard batteries and an extended battery (which never came because Verizon is fail).

After the first week the battery life dramatically increased. It could actually make a significant amount of the day without getting so low I had to plug it in. I still had to charge it at some point before going to bed though.

After installing 2.2 (and now FlyX rom) I unplug it around 7:45am and it's at 30-40% when I plug it back in around 11:30pm. I actually use the phone a lot more than I did when I first got it and it still lasts significantly longer. This is with the same battery it came with, I have the extras as spares just in case.

2 hours, 15 minutes since I unplugged it, 1-5 minute call, around 15 texts and 10 moves in Wordfeud and I'm still at 100%. That would not be the case when I first got the phone.

9/9/2010 10:02:58 AM

Up time: 313:53
Awake: 99:59

snap.

9/9/2010 10:10:49 AM

This is something that will really take some getting used to. This will be my first experience with a smartphone, my little POS motorola I have now can go 2-3 days solid without needing charged.

9/9/2010 10:19:10 AM

Like I said: I was like that too coming from my LG Dare. Easily 3-4+ days without needing a charge and was a little leery of getting used to a smartphone and charging my phone more. One month in and I have no problems at all. As long as the phone makes it from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed under normal use conditions, it isn't an inconvenience at all. I'm just plugging it in every night on the nightstand instead of every 3-4 nights.

9/9/2010 10:23:18 AM

battery life on DX for me:

1st week it would barely make it through the day on an overnight charge with light-moderate use
from then on (next 2-3 weeks), I could use it heavily pretty much throughout the day and it will die late evening/night (that's with wifi and the screen on pretty much all day)

but now I'm on a new DX already... so I've started over

automated battery management (using battery saver or smart battery profiles) will help
manual battery management (turning off wifi, BT, etc) will also help

using a custom build.prop can also greatly improve battery life, depending on what changes are made

custom roms can help, depending on how they're written

2.2 will help due to better system management

I've heard mixed reviews on the extended batteries... I don't plan on getting one, at least for now.

and if you're transferring from a dumb to smart phone, keep in mind that almost no smartphone with at least moderate use can compete with a dumb phone in regards to battery life. it just doesn't work that way. to my knowledge, every android phone can make it through the day on a full charge at moderate use

[Edited on September 9, 2010 at 12:20 PM. Reason : .]

9/9/2010 12:16:07 PM

gah, never gonna get that OTA 2.2 update...."early september" my ass

9/9/2010 12:25:46 PM

This may be a dumb question...

How come DX runs 2.1, but Incredible and D2 run 2.2?

9/9/2010 12:38:35 PM

The manufacturer's are the ones who release new operating system updates. Motorola is slow.

You can get 2.2 on your DX with the leaked update.zip or through the ROM manager (if you are rooted with the bootstrap recovery installed).

9/9/2010 12:40:59 PM

My situation with the DX battery

Quote :

" I think you're reading it correctly and I think it must just be a crap battery since Cell standby, Display, and Idle use have stayed consistent. I will try the factory reset suggestion posted earlier when I get an opportunity. 8 hours 15 minutes since unplugged Battery Level: 40% Voice calls: 27% 4minutes Cell standby: 34% time w/o signal 4% Display: 29% 16 minutes Phone idle: 11% Signal Strength: -81 dBm 0 ASU "

Quote :

" My Droid X battery situation magically cured itself a day or two after posting about terrible battery life. Thursday night I charged it for about 30 minutes before heading out because it was about dead as usual up to that point. The Google GPS application froze while in the car and I had to shutdown and turn back on the phone to reset it. Ever since then the battery life has worked like a friggin champ and im getting 30-40 hours of light use before I get to 50% battery life. I know i've had the phone off before because I tried removing and reinstalling the battery. I may have just removed the battery after the phone had died though instead of manually shutting it down. Maybe it just took going through the proper shutdown sequence once to correct/apply updates/duplicate rainbows. "

9/9/2010 12:45:53 PM

Can anyone offer any insights on the advantages of the DX over the Incredible, other than the larger screen size?

9/9/2010 12:50:18 PM

^ substantially better battery life

9/9/2010 12:51:23 PM

Pimp vs not pimp!

9/9/2010 12:51:58 PM

Ha, I'm really trying to talk myself into the Incredible because I don't want to have to wait on the dumbass special order for the X!

9/9/2010 12:56:53 PM

Has anybody got the Fascinate yet?

9/9/2010 1:28:47 PM

I perfer Motorola

9/9/2010 1:53:21 PM

Quote :

"Ha, I'm really trying to talk myself into the Incredible because I don't want to have to wait on the dumbass special order for the X!"

The Incredible is fully unlocked so you can install custom kernels on it.

That's +1 for the Incredible in my book.

What's the wait time for the DX these days?

9/9/2010 2:17:56 PM

Online orders say they will be shipped by 9/21 - Not sure if that is a hard date or if they often get shipped earlier than that.

9/9/2010 2:35:30 PM

^so ~12 days?

9/9/2010 2:35:58 PM

Quote :

"Ha, I'm really trying to talk myself into the Incredible because I don't want to have to wait on the dumbass special order for the X!"

I have the Incredible and once I got the extended battery, I love it. I think the only differences are the larger screen on the DX and whether you like Sense UI or not. But even the UI can be customized so that's kinda a moot point.

9/9/2010 2:36:52 PM

I own a droid incredible and absolutely love it. Perfect size and weight. Battery life is only about 10-12 hours on the stock 1300 mAh battery.

Not sure if you are planning to or not, but of the 3 you mentioned its also the easiest to root and has several roms and kernels that can be flashed to it.

9/9/2010 2:51:08 PM

The DX and D2 are just as easy to root. There are ROMs out for the DX already and I think there's one about to be out for the D2. The big difference with the DX/D2 versus the DInc is the bootloader. The DInc's bootloader is unlocked and lets you run custom kernels while the DX/D2 is still locked up tight. There might be custom kernels out for the DX/D2 but then again, there may never be.

9/9/2010 2:57:22 PM

^^10-12 hours, really? That sucks...

9/9/2010 2:58:18 PM

I can get up to around 14 hours when I underclock my phone, but thats about it. Thats why several incredible owners end up buying the extended battery. But the stock battery works fine for me, I use my phone all day and then put it on the charger when I get home from work.

9/9/2010 3:37:05 PM

Quote :

"The DX and D2 are just as easy to root."

The guy who figured out the Droid 2 root method is a genius. Method works on like 9 different phones, including two previously thought to be unexploitable.

Method is also very very simple.

[Edited on September 9, 2010 at 4:00 PM. Reason : asdfg]

9/9/2010 4:00:13 PM

universal androot FTMFW! download, install, press root, YOU ARE ROOT!

9/9/2010 4:36:17 PM

You are root indeed!

9/9/2010 4:37:26 PM

So I have a question for you android-smart guys, since I'm still figuring this stuff out.

I'm awaiting the 2.2 OTA (yeh, yeh, I know, I can get a leaked copy/custom rom... but I'm old fashioned... and rooted 2.1 gave me everything I needed thus far..., but I digress...

1.) The official 2.2 OTA won't be rooted by current methods.. someone will have to figure it out, right?
2.) Are most custom roms just built on the official rom (modified from there)?
3.) If #2=yes, then if I wanted to go to a custom rom after getting 2.2 OTA, how would I know which rom was based on official 2.2? If #2=no, yo holmes to bel air!

9/9/2010 4:47:52 PM

Just went and checked out the fascinate, pretty awesome looking phone...anyone have any opinions on it?

9/9/2010 4:49:20 PM

Quote :

"universal androot FTMFW! download, install, press root, YOU ARE ROOT!"

doesn't work on the second 2.2 build for the Droid eventhough it worked on the first. You have to use RSDLite to flash SPRecovery and then run an update.zip.

Quote :

"Just went and checked out the fascinate, pretty awesome looking phone...anyone have any opinions on it?"

Stopped by a Verizon store on the way home and played with one for about 15min. It was an Authorized retailer and they didn't even have it on the shelf and the phones they did have were the dummy models. The girl working there had to look in their system to see if they even had them and then pulled a new one out of the box that was under the counter. It's just so light and Touchwiz is smooth. Phone didn't have a data connection so I couldn't play with the browser or try out the GPS but I wouldn't hesitate in calling it the best android device on Verizon. The wifi, gps, etc shortcuts in the notification pull-down are nice and the size of the device feels just right in the hand. Came close to leaving with one but talked myself out of it.

9/9/2010 5:29:37 PM

I'm getting a new phone this weekend and I'm having a hard time deciding between the Droid X and the Fascinate. I just don't know enough about the Fascinate.

9/9/2010 5:52:21 PM

I'm in the same exact boat. At first I was deciding between the DX and the Incredible, but after seeing and holding the Fascinate, I quickly made it between DX and the Fascinate. I'm not sure I know enough about or would use many of the complex features of the phone, so I'm tempted to choose the Fascinate simply for its better look and feel...However, I'm still torn!

9/9/2010 6:02:59 PM

^Also, what do people make of this defaulting to Bing search engine crap? Is it really a big deal?

9/9/2010 6:03:43 PM

Doesn't really matter to me since I don't use the search widget or anything anyways. What is annoying is how they have VZNav set as the default navigation software and don't think there's a way to change it. The task manager short cut when holding the home button is also a nice addition.

9/9/2010 6:09:59 PM

^,^^ from what I read that completely disables Google Maps Navigation and the Google Voice Search/Actions. What's the point of having an Android phone if you can't use any of the Google stuff? That would definitely be a dealbreaker for me.

9/9/2010 6:24:00 PM

^From my understanding, you can just install google maps and navigation from the app market?

9/9/2010 6:27:17 PM

^I haven't played with that phone in person, but from what I've read, you can't change the default search from Bing. You might be able to open a Google Voice Search app and do it that way I'm not sure. But I've gotten so used to just holding down the search button in the bottom right of my Incredible, digging around and finding an app would be too tedious for me.

9/9/2010 6:34:19 PM

I'll probably run by the actual verizon store down the road tomorrow during lunch and see how it works with google search, maps, etc installed. I may bill it to the account and play with it for 30 days at least.

Fascinate review and Bing Demo
http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-fascinate-review-07100970/

9/9/2010 6:39:06 PM

^^You're right, you can't change the default search engine from Bing. The rep at Verizon confirmed that for me...not sure if that is a dealbreaker for me or not.

9/9/2010 6:43:40 PM

From the review I posted above.

Quote :

"The Motorola DROID range – currently led by the DROID X and DROID 2 – is perhaps the Fascinate’s biggest competition, not only in terms of consumers but for the amount of attention Verizon itself is paying. The Fascinate is undoubtedly the best phone Samsung has made on the best network in the US right now, but the carrier’s DROID focus means the Samsung is perhaps not receiving as much love as it deserves. We’d pick the Fascinate over the DROID X, and while we’d miss the Motorola’s physical buttons, the Samsung’s stronger camera performance and better display would be ample compensation. With Android 2.2 – which Samsung claims is due later in 2010 – the Verizon Fascinate will get even faster, but we don’t feel the need to hold off until the new ROM is released. This is one of the best Android smartphones we’ve tested, and certainly the best of the US Galaxy S family (assuming you don’t want to use your phone outside of North America). Samsung and Verizon have saved the best until last, then, and in doing so created a strong alternative to Apple’s iPhone 4."

Also looks like G2 is right around the corner for anyone on or considering tmobile.
http://www.androidcentral.com/t-mobile-g2-will-cost-199-best-buy-presales-start-friday-store-oct-6

Quote :

"T-Mobile G2 will cost $199 at Best Buy; presales start Friday, in stores Oct. 6 Posted on Thursday, Sep 9, 2010 by Phil Nickinson Best Buy just announced that it will begin presales for the T-Mobile HTC G2 starting Friday. You'll have to plunk down $199 and two years of your contract life, but we're willing to bet more than a few of you will be doing so. Best Buy also announced that the G2 will be available in stores starting Oct. 6. Still no official word from T-Mobile as to when it will have the G2 on sale. [Best Buy] Thanks, Jeff!"

9/9/2010 7:20:59 PM

wait, what defaults to bing? nothing on the DX that I've seen.

and on the DX, the nav is google maps... just a slightly different UI. and you can use google maps as the nav anyway (don't have to use the stock nav app)...

9/9/2010 7:32:28 PM

^The Fascinate, not the DX

9/9/2010 7:34:18 PM

ah, ok.

9/9/2010 7:58:54 PM

wireless tether impressed all my friends

so glad i rooted lol

9/9/2010 9:17:52 PM

Quote :

"You're right, you can't change the default search engine from Bing. The rep at Verizon confirmed that for me...not sure if that is a dealbreaker for me or not."

Root it and say fuck you verizon.

9/9/2010 9:49:55 PM