A new phone and a new question~

[KuroErin]

Greetings,

I am new to the Droid Universe (just got a Droid Bionic this past saturday upgrading from a blackberry. I think a swerve.). I must say I fell in love with this phone after I first got it. However, my brother said that the problem with a few droids were that when it came to the battery it had to be ran down or it'll seem like its at 100% when it isn't (something like that).

Now the problem I am facing is that the battery now seems to take forever to charge. Yesterday at work the phone wouldn't turn on and I had to take the battery out and put it back in while I was at work. Ever since yesterday it seems like I can't get the charge to 100%. I let it charge overnight and barely got to 80% and a few hours later the battery drained to 5% and since I have been charging for about 4 hours now.

I am still new with smartphones and touch screen so any knowledge on this is appreciated. ^^;;

Thanks again,

Kuro

 

[aaf709]

There are many factors that have to do with batteries and smartphones. One is newness of the battery; they seem to hold a charge better after they've been run completely down and recharged a few times.

Another is the apps and widgets. News, Facebook and widgets like that are constantly polling for information. If you're in an area with a weak signal, you'll use more power. Same is true apps; playing games or watching movies can take a toll on the battery as well.

When you're charging, are you using the wall or connected to a PC? If it's the latter that really slows down your charging time.

If you can get the extended battery at $26, I suggest you do so as smartphones are notorious for using a battey up. It's also possible that you have a bad battery.

I have the extended battery with the app Juice Defender and can get 20+ hours with power left over.

 

[cbrmike]

Sounds like a bad battery, take it in to vzw and have it swapped out.

 

[KuroErin]

Thanks for the replies. Well I have it plugged into a surge protector but even when I had it charging the the first time it charged to 50% from 5% in about 30 minutes to an hour. There were a few times where I played a game but over the course of half an hour the battery went down 5% for constantly playing but that was understandable when I first got it. Now it just seems like it dies fast on me. I'll see if I can make it to a Verizon store sometimes soon and swap this battery. I will take a look into the extended life battery. Can you give me any tips on how to manage my battery life?

 

[deduct]

Are you using charger that came with phone? If so then sounds like a bad battery. You might as well go and buy an extended battery anyway. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC

 

[deduct]

After unplugging from charger in morning...let it run all the way down before you plug it in again to charge it. That's what i love about extended battery... you can use it all day, sometimes 2 days before you need to charge up. I have 14 hours on mine and am at 30%. 4g all day. If u only use 3g, it will go even longer. I have gotten over 30 hours while on 3g only. It's hard not to use 4g though when you live in an area that has great 4g coverage.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC

 

[Concistency]

Go on Verizon and get the Extended Battery like he had mentioned above, well worth the money. When you add to cart, the price drops to $25 from like $49.99.

 

[aaf709]

Can you give me any tips on how to manage my battery life?

Lots of treads on this. One is to shut down data when not using it. There are several apps and widgets (like Data Enabler Widget) that can do it.

Take a look at http://www.droidforums.net/forum/mo...732-bionic-tips-make-battery-life-longer.html for some ideas.

 

[KuroErin]

Is this a common issue with Droid phones?

EDIT: Just now I had a 2 minute conversation on the phone with my mom and it went from 40% to 30%.

 

[aaf709]

Is this a common issue with Droid phones?

It's a common issue with all smartphones as they have larger processors and use data more.

 

[KuroErin]

It's a common issue with all smartphones as they have larger processors and use data more.

I didn't think to take that into account since I really am holding a smaller version of a computer (that probably runs better than this dying laptop). Also could some of the pre-installed apps that take up space also be a problem? Like the Blockbuster and V-Cast stuff that probably never gets used?

 

[k1ngr4t]

Shouldn't cause any problems unless it was already messed up to begin with. You can do something to your phone called rooting it, and you can go into the system and "freeze" those apps, basically removing them from the phone without actually removing them. They'll still be there for if you need them, but are no longer visible or available.

 

[KuroErin]

Shouldn't cause any problems unless it was already messed up to begin with. You can do something to your phone called rooting it, and you can go into the system and "freeze" those apps, basically removing them from the phone without actually removing them. They'll still be there for if you need them, but are no longer visible or available.

Is rooting it anything like jailbreaking or just a better way to manage my phone?

 

[aaf709]

Is rooting it anything like jailbreaking or just a better way to manage my phone?

Yes, it's the Linux version of jailbreaking. Take a look at http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-hacks/632-what-root-means-stop-asking.html but ignore the title, it's an old post.

There are rooting threads all over this site. This is just one of them http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-bionic-hacks/169993-how-root-your-motorola-droid-bionic.html

Is this a common issue with Droid phones?

EDIT: Just now I had a 2 minute conversation on the phone with my mom and it went from 40% to 30%.

For me; I have the extended battery on 5.9.901 and Juice Defender and I'm at 68% after 12 hours with moderate use (playing games, Live Wallpaper, 4G turned on all the time and the app System on monitoring)