SMARTPHONE: Poor battery and even poorer SPRINT customer service

[94BULLITT]

Doesn't it take a going from 100% charge to 0% to calibrate the battery level meter? Is GPS, Wifi, or Bluetooth on? Also if you charge thought a computer you will get more battery life.

 

[k0ua]

LD1 I can't add a lot here, but I will say my Motorola Droid Razr M came off the charger at 08:00 and it is now 22:44 I used the phone all day with several calls. maybe 2 hours total of talking on calls, no browsing today with it and no text. and the battery is at 63%. I have had the phone for several months, and of course use it every day, some days heavy talking, and browsing, or streaming audio, and have never seen the battery lower than about 40% for a 10 hour day even with heavy use. I have never run the phone down, I ran the phone for 2 days without charging once and I believe it was at about 15%. I am not bragging or complaining but I am just saying that some android smartphones can last a good long while and mine does. I run wifi all the time, I do not run the blu-tooth. I have done nothing but the default settings for battery life, and truthfully for my use I never worry about the battery life. I hope you get your situation resolved, and I would be upset too, if mine didn't do any better than that.

James K0UA

 

[LD1]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Most I have tried. And yes I have read the sprint forums and android forums and this is just a bad design phone from most of what I read. Yes, GPS, wifi, bluetooth, etc are ALL off.

I am hesitant to down load battery saving apps, new kernals, rooting, undervolting, etc. Mainly for two reasons, 1, I dont really understand them and I dont want to risk voiding any kind of warranty with them. and 2. I really shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get the performance that is advertised. Now I know 7.5 hours of talk time is a stretch, and I am sure it can vary. But I would expect to get at least 5-6 hours of air time. Certainly not 2. Kinda like buying a truck that says it has 350hp. That means it should have 350hp (or darn close) right off the lot. I shouldnt have to add a chip, exhaust, intake, etc...

I am also hesitant to drain the battery completely. I have heard some say do it, and others say absolutely not as it is bad for the battery. Old school of though says its bad for the battery. But I know these batteries are different. Maybe I'll give it a try. At this point, I dont have much to loose right...

And I am still waiting on a call back from the sprint exec. So hopefully this will have a happy ending once I get a chance to explain my situation to someone with the authority to actually do something.

 

[LD1]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Most I have tried. And yes I have read the sprint forums and android forums and this is just a bad design phone from most of what I read. Yes, GPS, wifi, bluetooth, etc are ALL off.

I am hesitant to down load battery saving apps, new kernals, rooting, undervolting, etc. Mainly for two reasons, 1, I dont really understand them and I dont want to risk voiding any kind of warranty with them. and 2. I really shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get the performance that is advertised. Now I know 7.5 hours of talk time is a stretch, and I am sure it can vary. But I would expect to get at least 5-6 hours of air time. Certainly not 2. Kinda like buying a truck that says it has 350hp. That means it should have 350hp (or darn close) right off the lot. I shouldnt have to add a chip, exhaust, intake, etc...

I am also hesitant to drain the battery completely. I have heard some say do it, and others say absolutely not as it is bad for the battery. Old school of though says its bad for the battery. But I know these batteries are different. Maybe I'll give it a try. At this point, I dont have much to loose right...

And I am still waiting on a call back from the sprint exec. So hopefully this will have a happy ending once I get a chance to explain my situation to someone with the authority to actually do something.

 

[94BULLITT]

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone. Most I have tried. And yes I have read the sprint forums and android forums and this is just a bad design phone from most of what I read. Yes, GPS, wifi, bluetooth, etc are ALL off.

I am hesitant to down load battery saving apps, new kernals, rooting, undervolting, etc. Mainly for two reasons, 1, I dont really understand them and I dont want to risk voiding any kind of warranty with them. and 2. I really shouldnt have to jump through hoops to get the performance that is advertised. Now I know 7.5 hours of talk time is a stretch, and I am sure it can vary. But I would expect to get at least 5-6 hours of air time. Certainly not 2. Kinda like buying a truck that says it has 350hp. That means it should have 350hp (or darn close) right off the lot. I shouldnt have to add a chip, exhaust, intake, etc...

I am also hesitant to drain the battery completely. I have heard some say do it, and others say absolutely not as it is bad for the battery. Old school of though says its bad for the battery. But I know these batteries are different. Maybe I'll give it a try. At this point, I dont have much to loose right...

And I am still waiting on a call back from the sprint exec. So hopefully this will have a happy ending once I get a chance to explain my situation to someone with the authority to actually do something.

I read somewhere that rooting a phone is illegal. I use juice defeneder on my phone. I went from 1 day to 2 days. I use the free version cause I am cheap. I just downloaded the beta version today for my tablet. A batterry saver app should not void your warranty. I would think you should be able to get close to the advertised specs withou doing anything to the phone.

You don't have to drain the battery completely but let it get low to calibrate the meter. I read somewhere that you should kill the battery once a month to condition it.

 

[troutsqueezer]

I know this is totally unhelpful but hey, it's the Internet:
Another reason why I have zero use for a smartphone in my life. Who needs the aggravation?

 

[crazyal]

I've got the GNexus as well, but with Verizon. The first month was fine but after that the battery would go dead in about 2 hours even in the middle of the night. When I brought up the battery graph it would show at times the battery draining rapidly at the oddest times. I made plenty of calls to Verizon with very little help other than to replace the phone but I really didn't want a refurbished one. For a month or so I just lived with keeping it plugged in. I had installed a program called JuiceDefender, even that didn't do much. One day, I noticed the 4g symbol was on then was gone, never seen it before at the house. A couple of days later I went into the settings and turned off 4g LTE (just 3g). Magically the phone would last days on a charge.

I left it that way for several months until one day I turned 4g back on and left it. The next day the phone wasn't drained. After the fact I realized what was going on was the towers were being upgraded/ worked on and it was sending signals to the phone repeatedly. Now that 4g is turned on all around me the phone works fine. I don't know about 7.5 hours of talk time but I bet I can do 6 hours on a charge. I don't talk much, most of my battery life is used on the internet.

 

[wyeguy]

I've had very good luck with Samsung phones but the Galaxy Nexus is a dog. Mucked around for 8 months with a phone that would shut the data off randomly but often. 2 weeks ago they finally sent me a "like new" replacement that was a disaster. Locked up, no sound, screen wouldn't come on until after I reset it by taking the battery out.... Now on my 3rd phone. They've got me by the short & curlies. Good luck to you. (Good luck to me).

 

[LD1]

Wye guy, I too have had issues with data turning off. Even in Columbus where I work...and full bars of 3g signal, I can be browsing and all of the sudden the bars will go grey and no internet. Two minutes later... They turn blue an it works again.

 

[cqaigy2]

I've got the GNexus as well, but with Verizon. The first month was fine but after that the battery would go dead in about 2 hours even in the middle of the night. When I brought up the battery graph it would show at times the battery draining rapidly at the oddest times. I made plenty of calls to Verizon with very little help other than to replace the phone but I really didn't want a refurbished one. For a month or so I just lived with keeping it plugged in. I had installed a program called JuiceDefender, even that didn't do much. One day, I noticed the 4g symbol was on then was gone, never seen it before at the house. A couple of days later I went into the settings and turned off 4g LTE (just 3g). Magically the phone would last days on a charge.

I left it that way for several months until one day I turned 4g back on and left it. The next day the phone wasn't drained. After the fact I realized what was going on was the towers were being upgraded/ worked on and it was sending signals to the phone repeatedly. Now that 4g is turned on all around me the phone works fine. I don't know about 7.5 hours of talk time but I bet I can do 6 hours on a charge. I don't talk much, most of my battery life is used on the internet.

That's a good point. Fringe 4g areas will really drain the phone fast. My old phone did LTE but live in very spotty area. The phone would try really hard to hook up and you could just about watch the battery drain right before your eyes. Turned it off on the phone and the battery would last much longer. The other thing about "smart" phones, is they are changing so fast, especially the android ones, that the people that sell them don't really know them as well as the old phones.