A little less than 3 months ago I received the Verizon Droid Incredible and though the phone is one of the best Android devices I have ever owned I was pretty disappointed with the phones battery life from time-to-time.
When using the short fused Droid Incredible I would often carry 3 spare batteries with me to hold me over (this is with extreme heavy use of course) so this week when I received the Droid X I knew what needed to be done.
I knew that it was my job to let the Verizon Android ,customers of the world, know which phone had the battery life to get them through their days.
First, let me give you a little background information about both of the phones and their stock batteries. The Droid Incredible is a phone that is currently running Android OS 2.1 with Sense UI skinned on top of it. The Incredible is packing a stock battery which holds 1300mAh and is running a 3.7 inch screen. The Droid X on the other hand has a whopping 4.3 inch screen (which almost looks bigger than the HTC Evo’s) and comes equipped with a sweet 1540mAh battery. The Droid X also runs Android 2.1 and is skinned with a new more stylized Moto-blur that can’t be called Moto Blur just yet.
I decided to do this little Verizon head-to-head battery test because for the last few days I have been using the Droid X and my battery has been lasting all day (something I could never seem to accomplish on my Droid Incredible). When using the Droid Incredible I was in phone heaven, I loved everything about the device except the one little dinosaur that always seems to be in the room when talking about Android Phones (battery life).
Each phone will be running the exact same programs and widgets. The only differences will be the skins (Sense UI or Non-Moto Blur/Moto Blur), battery size, and their processors (1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor vs. 1GHz Texas Instrument OMAP processor).
1.) Both the Droid X and Droid Incredible were set up before the test began. Both phones were running GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Data Sync, and both were also fully charged to 100%. The widget running on the home screen were Pandora, Clock (Sense Clock, Beautiful Home Widget Clock), Facebook and Twitter (running same account info), YouTube Widget, and a battery indicator widget that updates every 1% for the Droid Incredible and 10% for the Droid X (thanks Motorola). Both Screens were also set to their auto-brightness settings (both phones seemed to have the same brightness).
2.) The test began around 4:00 pm and consisted of 4 different tasks which were performed identically on each device (example if a game was played: same game/same amount of time). The tasks took a total of around 7.5 hours and the last reading was taken from both devices around 11:30pm.
a.) Around 4 Hours Standby Time
b.) 2 Hours of Music Play: Source Pandora (both devices same playlist)
c.) 1 Hour for a Video Game (Sky Force Reloaded: Played on both phones at the same time for the same length. It was very difficult playing one on left hand and one on right, you should try it.)
d.) Internet Search/You Tube Video’s (I Watched four 10 min You Tube Clips: Same clips on both devices, and for 20 mins I searched articled on Droidedup.com)
e.) 30 min Phone Call (Both phones called one local number and the phone was left in the call for 30 min)
Although the Droid X reading could only be taken in 10% increments I was still able to determine that the Motorola Droid X displayed much better battery life than the HTC Droid Incredible. At 4pm both devices started at 100% but by 11:28pm the Motorola Droid X read 70% (and it just turned to 70% a few mins earlier) and the HTC Droid Incredible read 47% (seen below). The Droid X reading can be off by up to 9% from 79% to 70% but the HTC Droid Incredible is pretty accurate at 47%. If the phones were used all day I believe that the Droid X could get up to 40% extra battery usage compared to the HTC Droid Incredible.
After testing the two devices I wasn’t surprised at all. During my one week with the Droid X I could clearly tell that the phone was lasting much longer than my HTC Droid Incredible ever lasted in the few months that I had owned it. Before doing this test I considered myself somewhat of a HTC fan-boy so I’d hate to say it but I was actually pulling for the Incredible when the test started for the battery showdown but the evidence was clear enough. The Droid X is Verizon’s Android King in my mind due to this one huge factor that will affect everyone.
Guys remember this is only my findings and in no way are these factual for all HTC Droid Incredible devices so please do not go crazy with comments about how the test is incorrect. I would love to hears others experiences as well so please leave comments telling me if the battery has been good or bad on either device. Thank You…