If you have a Motorola Droid X Android Smartphone, you probably love almost everything about it. I say almost because there is one thing that keeps my relationship with this phone from going to the next level. And that one thing is battery life. To say that the battery life of my Droid X is short would be an understatement. It is rare that I can go a full 24hrs without having to recharge it. I keep an AC charger at my day job desk and another at my Gadgeteer HQ desk. In an effort to reduce my dependency on the all powerful wall outlet, Wireless Emporium sent me the Motorola OEM Extended Battery for review.
Note: Some images in this review can be clicked to see a larger size.
Wireless Emporium offers Motorola Cell Phone Batteries for a variety of Motorola phones.
The battery on the Left is the original battery that ships with the Droid X and the battery on the Right is the extended battery that was sent to me. Both are OEM lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. The original battery is rated for 1500 mAh and the extended battery is 1880 mAh. You can see from the image above, that the extended battery is noticeably thicker.
Installing the battery is a simple matter of swapping it out with the battery already in the Droid X.
The original battery door can then be replaced with the door that is included with the extended battery. I’ve read that some people have been able to shoe-horn the original battery door over the extended battery, but I don’t mind that the new battery door is slightly thicker.
Original battery + battery door = flush fit.
Extended battery + extended battery door = very slight hump.
The only issue with the added thickness caused by the extended battery door is that some form fitting cases will probably no longer fit… I don’t use a case, so it’s a non-issue for me.
As I had mentioned previously, with the original battery, I was lucky to get 24hrs of use before needing to recharge. Most days I would plug it in to charge before going to bed, unplug it the next morning and then need to plug it in at my day job desk at some point that afternoon. I guess I wouldn’t mind having to do this if I was constantly using the phone for calls, surfing, etc. But this was the case even when only using the phone for a handful of text messages, android app market updates and email checks. Definitely not hard work.
I’ve only been using the extended battery for 6 days now, but so far I’m noticing a big improvement. Even though it isn’t 2 times the capacity of the original battery, I’ve found that when doing the same tasks as before, it lasts at least 48hrs between recharges. That’s just switching out the batteries. I haven’t done anything new to try to optimize battery life. The screen brightness is still set at the same setting and the various apps that ping the internet for info are still running as before. I should note that I always leave GPS and WiFi turned off unless I need them.
I’m going to give this battery a big thumbs up. I sure as heck won’t go back to using the original battery now that I don’t have to remain chained to the AC adapter.
Product Information
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| Manufacturer: | Motorola |
| Retailer: | Wireless Emporium |
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I have the BP7X 1800mA extended battery for my Droid 2. It adds very little thickness. I couldn’t live without it. I never have to conserve and I rarely drop below 50 percent charge after a full day of heavy use. GPS use is the really only noticeable drain I have to be wary of. Be sure to install any new battery and let charge overnight before using it at all.
I also have the BH6X battery for my Droid X. It’s a must-have, and I’m completely used to the extra “bump” in the battery door. It’s not much of a difference at all.
I will say to those who may be tempted to force the original, thinner battery door on with the thicker battery… yes it does fit. But, I’ve heard stories of this adding extra pressure against the LCD, so I decided against it.
Will the phone still fit into the multimedia station with the extended battery installed?
@Barnett I don’t have a multimedia station to check….
I believe it does. I know it will fit the car dock because I have one.
You should review the apps you have on the phone, I easily get a full day out of the standard battery. One thing to get rid of is any kind of task killer, they can cause battery drain when the apps they kill keep restarting themselves.
@Mikey I really don’t have THAT many apps installed. I used to have a task killer, but got rid of it ages ago.
I have a Droid X with the standard battery and have no problem getting through the day. I have wi-fi on 24-7 but only run the GPS when I need it and never use bluetooth. I also run Advanced Task Killer which is supposed to help but I don’t really know if it does. What I do know is when I hook it up to the charger at night it is usually between 40 & 60% charged right off the bat.
Disagree: Must be something wrong with his standard battery. I chose to get the seidio extended battery that FITS with the standard door. I have GPS and Bluetooth on 24/7 and use my DX quite a lot and only have to charge it at night w/ varying charge left from 60% to 20%. The Seidio extended battery is I think 1750 but works well. I use the standerd battery for emergencies when I watch too much video. ( carry it in my pocket)
@Andy. Great news on the car dock. I was wondering about that.
@Barnett I am pretty sure it will fit in the multimedia dock. Looking at it, the metal vertical piece fits below the battery cover, and there appears to be a nice gap against the plastic where the cover is. I can’t say 100%, but I am pretty confident. Now if Julie will just send me the battery to check… 😉
i have a droid x and i got a battery off e-bay the cover they gave me is rely big.my case dose not even fit any more. a new battery and it dost not last 5 hours be for life on it is gone. i don’t know what to do or what i am doing wrong. but i wish i could fix it. i love my phone.but i just wish it will last longer.
Verizon is selling a BH6X by Motorola for the Droid X but it’s stated capacity is 1930mAh.
Can you shed any light on the stat change?
@Collin Weird… No, I can’t shed any light. If it really does have more capacity, go for it! Either way, it’s a nice upgrade from the original battery.
Leaving your GPS on does nothing for battery life in and of itself as the GPS is an “on demand” feature. Unless there’s an app using it, it isn’t running and using up battery power. And leaving WiFi on actually will show an increase in battery life as it cuts the 3G out of the equation and your phone thus stops trying to maintain a connection. As noted by a previous comment, something is amiss if you can’t get through a day with the DX. I’m a heavy user; 3 Gmail accounts, 1 Yahoo account, 1 Hotmail account, 1 AOL, 1 Corporate Sync account, Twitter, Facebook, dozens of text messages, and web surfing. With all of that going on I still get at least 6 hours before I need, 30%, to plug it in. Occasionally, when I’m in the basement of our building at work, battery life suffers but that’s because of the phone constantly trying to get a stronger signal. CDMA phones will suck a battery dry trying to maintain a connection and or searching for one.
Would a different charger be needed for this extended battery type??
@Dan Nope, it charges just fine with the original charger 🙂 I am still using it.
I bought the Motorola extended battery with the case, of course, and it is somewhat better than the standard battery. I get 6 hours extra totalling 18-20 hours, depending on my usage, but certainly not 48 hours as one person commented earlier. I have lots of things turned off but I do a lot of surfing now and then but it does eat up energy, I’ll tell you that much. Quite frankly, the standard battery is a waste of time and money. Go for the extended. But I can’t wait until my upgrade because I may go with a different smartphone.
New to the Droid x, how do you tun off applicationsw?
@mike Are you asking how to close an app? Google has built in memory management so that it will automatically quit apps that are not in the foreground when it needs more memory. There are also task killers that you can download from the market.
Who dose my driodx die in 10 mins with out a extra battery. There’s nothin running
My husband & I both got Droids same time. The batteries started losing power needed charged too often. He ordered 2 new batteries. We had BH5X and received BH6X. He installed his and is fine. Mine says it does not recognize battery and then phone shuts down. I am using the old battery, but must stay plugged into charger. Back to having a “land line”!