phone — Rambling — DroidDevelop

I've used the Verizon Razr Maxx HD for about a year now... and have been totally spoiled by the fantastic battery life it provided. On average I had about 5 hours screen on time per day and was generally at about 10% charge by the end of the day. This is with WiFi and Bluetooth both on, listening to music for about 2 hours a day, WWF, backgammon, emails, web browsing, the occasional tethering of my MacBook Air... I never worried about running out of juice during the day (for the first time since touch screen phone).

Of course all good things come to an end, and the Razr MaxxHD met its match getting thrown against the corner of a coffee table which smashed the screen. Since repairing the screen was the same price as getting a new phone, I opted for the latter and replaced it with the Droid Maxx.

I've had the new Maxx for about three days and here's my skinny:

I'm getting about 1 more hour per day on the same full charge - so now I get about 6 hours screen time. I rooted it and disabled a few pre-installed apps but not many. I have all the sensors on (so it responds to voice, has the active notifications on etc). basically I've done nothing to try to maximize battery life and am sure I could do a lot to improve this by killing all the bells and whistles that eat processor time. As of this writing, the phone has been off its charger for 6 hours, the screen has been on for 2 hours, and I still have 75% battery left.
It is noticeably faster doing everything.
Bluetooth is improved - syncing with my Volkswagen it now shares the address book (which the MaxxHD would not) and gives song information when streaming music over Bluetooth (where the MaxxHD always told the radio it was playing a voicemail.wav file when it was actually playing Google Music.)
The RAM (now 2gb instead of 1gb) means things like real racing 3 is that much smoother.
It is a tiny bit bigger - the MaxxHD was already huge in my opinion and this is bordering on uncomfortable to reach the upper corners of the screen. At 6' tall, I don't have small hands but they aren't huge either.
I love that it turns on without the power button when I pick it up or take it out of the holster - saves me wearing out the on button. (I had hacked the MaxxHD to turn on with the volume keys and may do the same here).
The camera is significantly improved over the Raxr MaxxHD - faster to open, focus, better low light performance, easier to access options, don't need to toggle between video/camera mode... the list goes on. The shake the phone to quickly access the camera doesn't really work for me however. I've gotten it to open 2 or 3 times that way - but there must be a trick to it because I've shaken it pretty vigorously and the camera didn't open... I just looked like an idiot shaking his phone.
The extra processors really help with voice commands. on the MaxxHD, if I said "Ok Google..." then some command, I would have to wait 3 seconds before giving the command or it would miss the first few words. With the new Maxx, I just talk in a continuous stream and it picks it all up.

I use the Verizon hard case - which is the same type of case I used for the Maxx HD. While it does make the phone larger and heavier, I love the slide out stand. It is perfect for commuting on the subway since I can slide my finger through it and end up with a very secure grip on the phone. I also use it vertically on my desk for quick speaker phone access and quick access to notifications.

If you are on the fence about purchasing this phone, or hate your current smartphones battery life... I highly recommend this phone.