Okay, kiddlets... I just upgraded my phone and I feel the need to report the facts on the little piece of Bad-Ass that I just acquired. My old phone, a Droid X, is on it's last legs, due mostly to Mr. Butterfingers here. I dropped the motherfucker... a LOT. Which, if I were smarter about things, wouldn't be as huge of a deal if I had just invested in a fancy pants case and screen protectors to keep the damage to a minimum. That lesson has been learned. Amazon is my savior and appropriate gear is on the way, to be delivered (hopefully) before I toss this thing down the steps inadvertently.
So... what'd I get?
This:
The RAZR MAXX
Quick specs for the geeks among you:
Now... the reason I bought the MAXX... over all other options, is the battery life. Motorola advertises that it has a standby time of up to 380 hours, and a talk time of 21.5 continuous hours. Do I take them at their word? No... those numbers are under optimal conditions; I understand that. However, straight out of the box, this thing showed some might in the "juice" department. I charged it up to 100% and went through the whole process of activating it. It came off the charger at 5pm on Wednesday and didn't go back on until Thursday at just a little before 2pm... in that time I did the following:
- a lot of time logged on Google Talk (didn't quantify it, but it was a fair amount)
- 25 total minutes of video calls to my sister and my mom
- constant Facebook updates
- downloaded essential apps that I used constantly on the Droid X
- surfed the internet (a lot of pic viewing on SG) in general
The video time alone would have destroyed the battery on my previous phone. Oh, and most of that was done on Verizon's 4G network... which, as I understand it, is a battery drainer. I did figure out how to switch back to 3G only. Which is what it has been on ever since.
So, the reason I wanted/needed the battery life is this--I hate my job. Hate it. Absolutely loathe it. The only way I make it through the day is by listening to lots of music (streaming or stored) and podcasts (mostly streaming) and chatting with friends on Google Talk. I was eternally tethered to my desk (and the electrical outlet) all day. And my day is filled with a lot of "up and down" moments.
I need that phone to last all damn day...
Today was the first test, and goddamn if it didn't deliver.
I let it charge overnight, unplugging it at about 6:30 this morning. My standard work day is 8-4:30. I hit the ground running as soon as I got to work and started streaming two episodes of WTF with Marc Maron, and most of most recent Joe Rogan Experience. This took me from about 8:30 until 12:30--four hours--and the battery had only dropped 20%. In addition to the podcasts, I had every GPS option switched on, Skype was running in the background, and I was on a constant back and forth on Google Talk with bunnygirl2417...
Throw in some occasional Facebook time (and the sneaky look or two at SG) and I would call it an exceptional run at draining the battery.
After noon, I stopped using it to stream audio and just continued Talk and occasional interwebs surfing.
It is nearly 8pm as I write this and my battery is at 30%...this following plenty of interwebs action and half a dozen tutorial videos that come pre-loaded on the phone.
I'm sold.
I'll be devising various "stress tests" to really sock it to the battery over the next few weeks, with further reports to come.
Nifty new phone! You put that think thru the mill!
Google talk? This is a moral imperative! I'll send you my info and we can kill some time.