[Motorola Droid RAZR] Deron Baker:
Smart phones are an interesting bunch when it comes to battery life. So much is debated and posted on web pages about the subject; it has become a primary concern for potential buyers. It is rather difficult to get a good description of battery life when perusing message boards because user’s expectations are not the same. What is one man’s “great battery life” is another man’s reason to return the phone and get another one.

In an attempt to provide some sort of objective, verifiable evidence of battery life for the new Droid Razr, I conducted a series of (somewhat) controlled experiments. To help bring a better perspective, I also ran the experiments with my previous phone, the Droid X.

What can be gleaned from all this? I think there are two important conclusions. First, it can give potential buyers an idea of how the Razr compares to a previous generation smartphone. The Droid X is a good comparison since both phones have 4.3 inch screens and are marketed to the same type of user. In other words, does the more powerful phone sacrifice battery life or does its larger battery make up for this? The second conclusion is that Droid Razr owners may learn how to better manage battery life, or at least understand the tradeoffs that come with using the mighty 4g network.

I start by summarizing the results so you can get the quick and dirty on it. In a subsequent post I will discuss my methods. The term PPPH = Percentage Points per Hour. PPPH is the average percentage points of battery capacity you can expect to lose when doing a particular activity for one hour. This happens in a (mostly) linear fashion, although battery capacity drains somewhat faster once the percentage drops below 30%. For example, if watching Netflix via 4g LTE network drains about 35 PPPH, just subtract 35 from your starting battery percent to get the percent battery after an hour of use. So if you start at 95% battery capacity, an hour of watching Netflix via 4g will drain your battery down to 60% (95 minus 35). Or if you start watching Netflix via 4g with a battery capacity of 50%, an hour later you will be at 15% battery capacity (50 minus 35). Or if you start at 90% battery and watch for 2 hours, your battery will then be 20% (95 minus 35 x 2). Another way to use this information is to divide 100 by the PPPH to obtain the approximate time you can do an activity, starting from a full battery. So, at a 35 PPPH battery drain, starting with a full battery you can watch about 2.85 hrs, or 2 hr 50 min of Netflix via 4g. (I know, it sucks.)

In my subsequent post I will provide a link which shows the specific settings I used for each experiment. In general, all tests were done with Bluetooth off, screen brightness 50% or screen off (depending on the experiment), speakers/headphones volume 50%, landscape view for videos.

Droid X data

Activity---------------------Avg PPPH---How long on full battery

Netflix Video 3G--------------40---------2 hr 30 min

Angry Birds------------------35---------2 hr 50 min

Web/Email Browsing 3G-------28---------3 hr 30 min

GPS Navigation 3G-----------25---------4 hr

YouTube Video WiFi----------20---------5 hr

Phone Call-------------------10---------10 hr

Streaming Music 3G----------7----------14 hr

Droid Razr data

Activity---------------------Avg PPPH----How long on full battery

Angry Birds------------------40----------2 hr 30 min

GPS Navigation 4G-----------35----------2 hr 50 min

Netflix 4G--------------------35----------2 hr 50 min

Youtube 4G------------------35----------2 hr 50 min

Web/Email Browsing 4G-------33----------3 hr

Netflix 3G--------------------32----------3 hr

GPS Navigation 3G-----------28----------3 hr 30 min

Web/Email Browsing 3G-------27----------3 hr 40 min

Netflix WiFi------------------17----------5 hr 45 min

Youtube WiFi----------------17----------5 hr 45 min

Phone Calls------------------9-----------11 hr

Streaming Music 3G----------7.5---------13 hr

Passive Battery drain---------0.5---------200 hours

Side by Side Comparison

The numbers are the PPPH drained for each activity. (Remember that Droid X does not have 4g.)

Activity---------------Droid X-----Droid Razr

Netflix 3G--------------40---------32

Angry Birds------------35---------40

Wed/Email 3G----------28---------27

GPS Navigation 3G-----25---------28

YouTube WiFi----------20---------17

Phone Call-------------10---------9

Streaming Music 3G----7----------7.5