[HTC Droid DNA] Fastlivin:
As a Day 1 Thunderbolt user, I've had a assful of this device and am looking for My Next. However, before this device has even been released, I'm seeing a lot of misinformed or uninformed users crabbing about battery life, expansion memory (a significant problem), and other items.

Thought I'd round up the first crop of articles on media websites of the device. Obviously, you'd like for them to have had a little longer time hands-on, because I often find niggling problems or unexpected small surprises about a device a few weeks into use. And don't sleep on the user reviews here on XDA, which have the delightful feature of being interactive with the reviewers:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1989698

But here we go. I've pulled out the relevant battery information, which many of these sites test in an attempt at empirical data. The DNA yields interesting and unexpected results:

LAPTOP:

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/smartphone/htc-droid-dna.aspx

Battery life test = web browsing on 4G, 40% screen brightness

DNA: 6:29

SGSIII: 6:55 (DNA is 94% of this time)

HD MAXX: 8:25 (77%)

Note II: 9:27 (68%)

Thunderbolt (for kicks): 3:56

Other interesting notes: Includes a pretty robust set of benchmarks. The benchmarks indicate this phone is a grown ass man. They love the screen, in particular the color reproduction vs. the Note. Screen was measured at 311 lux; the Samsung devices are 211-213. Are lumens/lux linear? If so, this screen is 50% brighter, although 33% less bright than the Maxx HD.

4 stars out of 5

CNET:

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/htc-droid-dna-verizon/4505-6452_7-35536642.html

Battery test = "video battery drain test". Not sure if that's video recording, or if it's playing video constantly?

DNA: 8:43

SGS3: 9:24 (93%)

HD Maxx: 14:53 (59%) [????]

Note II: 12:30 (70%)

Notes: Some nice standardized photo tests so you can side-by-side with your other potential next phones. Gives a rundown of the Verizon bloatware.

4 out of 5 stars

Phone Arena:

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/HTC-DROID-DNA-Review_id3191

Battery test = real world use? Not clear.

DNA: 10 hours

SGS3: "Under the warmth of HSPA+ connectivity with the AT&T Galaxy S III, we’re happy to say that battery life is more than adequate, as we’re able to easily get a single day with normal usage. However, we also managed to use it under LTE connectivity, which quickly drained the battery like no other. Yeah, we appreciate the 50 Mbit/s speeds, but poor battery life is the inevitable consequence with it all." NOT. HELPFUL!

HD Maxx: "17 hours of talk time"

Note II: "two...days of normal usage". Note they used a T-Mobile HSPA+ model, not an LTE model

9 stars out of 10

_________________

Haven't seen too many other reliable reviews that attempt to create standardized tests across phones, but as I come across them, I'll post them here. It is notable, however, that not a single reviewer has noted the battery to be insufficient. At worst, it's average for an Android phone, and the tests indicate that it's on par with an SGSIII.

As it stands, however, the lack of an SD card is a pain point. If this phone had one, based on the battery tests that are starting to dribble out, this would be a no-brainer for me if it had one. Without one, and at only 16GB, my dollars aren't as eager to leap out of my wallet.