4G Android phone megathread

EddieYost

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Think I can convince my wife that our almost three year old needs a phone?
I know you are kidding but if you want a different phone just look around on Craigslist and buy one, then sell your old phone to partially subsidize it.
 

Corsi

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Made a few calls on the phone Maxx last night. Best signal I've ever had on a phone, hands down.
 

Corsi

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Ubergizmo with a great rundown on the Razr Maxx: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/01/droid-razr-maxx-review/

Conclusion:


The Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx is an excellent smartphone (up from “very nice” for the Droid RAZR). Overall, both RAZR phones are very similar and but the nearly double-sized battery capacity makes the user experience much better as it removes the battery “anxiety”, and the Motorola software allows for further optimization that can extend the battery life even more. 3300 mAh: wow. Just wow.

Coming from a Galaxy Nexus LTE, I miss some aspects of Android 4.0, but in the grand scheme of things, battery life trumps Android 4.0, at least for me. A smartphone that is alive will always be superior to one that is dead. Down the road, the RAZR Maxx will also get ICS, although “when” is an unknown, and history shows that updates can take a while…
 

Corsi

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I hope for your sake they fixed the signal issue that plagues the Bionic and I believe also the RAZR.
Upon first boot of the phone (which the rep did in the store), I was dropping my connection over and over. Obviously a huge concern. I decided to re-boot right then and there and it hasn't happened since.

I work and live in Boston, so the signal has been strong pretty much anywhere. Whenever I put 4G on, I'm able to pick it up.
 

Foulkey Reese

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Upon first boot of the phone (which the rep did in the store), I was dropping my connection over and over. Obviously a huge concern. I decided to re-boot right then and there and it hasn't happened since.

I work and live in Boston, so the signal has been strong pretty much anywhere. Whenever I put 4G on, I'm able to pick it up.
The jump to 4G is pretty noticeable huh?

I still can't believe how fast it is compared to 3G. Like going from dial-up to DSL for the first time.
 

johnmd20

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The jump to 4G is pretty noticeable huh?

I still can't believe how fast it is compared to 3G. Like going from dial-up to DSL for the first time.
Unbelievably noticeable. When I went from the 3G mifi to the LTE, it was glorious. I can't wait to get a 4G phone but I am still waiting for the Droid 4.
 

Corsi

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The jump to 4G is pretty noticeable huh?

I still can't believe how fast it is compared to 3G. Like going from dial-up to DSL for the first time.
Seriously. Jumping around the mobile SoSH site has been a joy on 4G. Almost no delay at all.

And app downloads take no time at all. Almost instantaneous.
 

Foulkey Reese

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I've never tested it, but it certainly feels faster than Wifi.

Another major point in favor of a new Android phone over an iPhone for now. I can't imagine going back to 3G.
 

Three10toLeft

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Yeah, I'm using an iPhone 4S as my daily driver now. I recently purchased all Apple products after dancing around the idea for a while. If my iPhone didn't just work so well with all my other Apple products, I would buy the Razr Maxx in a heart beat.

It's funny how accustomed we, and the people who cover the industry, have gotten to the idea of constantly needing to charge our phones now. This phone kinda seems to bring it back to the dumb phone era where we could go a couple days without a charge and how much that is now appreciated.

I would definitely forsake ICS in favor of having twice the battery life. I'm sure ICS is nice and all, but I don't think that it can really do anything that Launcher Pro or GO Launcher can't do.
 

Corsi

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FWIW, my Maxx has been off the charger since 7am yesterday and is currently at 33% battery.

This includes listening to the radio for about an hour, tons of browsing on 4G, texting, a couple phone calls, a bunch of app downloads, etc.

On any other phone, the battery would have been shot by 7pm last night.
 

Foulkey Reese

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That's amazing. Every single smart phone going forward should come with that kind of battery life since it's clearly doable. Who cares if it adds a few more millimeters to the size?
 

Fratboy

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I love this phone.

I received the phone yesterday, but didn't do much with it. Got up this morning, activated it, connected to Wifi, installed AppBrain/Fast Web Installer, and it installed all 146 of my apps while I was taking a shower. Since then, done the customization on it, etc., and it's all set up and ready to go.

The experience is very familiar, as I suspected it would be, and for me, that's a very good thing. Everything on here is just top notch, from phone build quality, to speed, and the UI. It doesn't have the social interconnectivity as, say, the HTC phones do, but more so than GN courtesy of being able to simply add your Facebook account to the phone, which is all i wanted.

The display, while more vibrant than the Droid X's, which appears washed out compared to the RAZR MAXX's, does reveal more pixellation than the Droid X's, despite having a higher resolution. This bugged me a bit in the beginning, but I think I'm more used to it now. This is one area where the Nexus abolutely trumps the RAZR/MAXX. I won't deny that the display on the Nexus is, bar none, the absolutely best feature of the phone. But I'm looking for overall excellence, not just the stud with the most handsome face.

I'm set up with Launcher Pro to ease my transition over to the phone, but installed GO Launcher too, because that looks pretty nifty and useful.

I began to regret the Galaxy Nexus purchase the day I started playing with it. I don't regret this one at all. This is a phone I can love for the next 20 months, even without ICS.

Quadrant Standard scores 2507 vs. Droid X QS 1621. Pretty zippy.
 

Three10toLeft

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Damn, this is really tempting me to get the RM.

I was googling some reviews and it seems like the battery life is no joke/gimmick. Motorola seems to have nailed it.

IMO, this could be a huge differentiator for Moto going forward if they choose to bring this technology across their devices. I think Shanjay Jha said they want to scale down the number of devices they release throughout the year starting in 2012, along with HTC. But if Moto can offer the Razr and the Droid with a slide out keyboard with a battery that can last for 1.5 days - 2 days, that would be a great selling point without much of a need to refresh those two devices more than twice a year. I'd much rather see this type of differentiation amongst devices then just skins and number of "megapixels" each phone has.

I think Moto definitely set the bar going forward for what the next iPhone needs to be capable of.
 

Corsi

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What's interesting is that Verizon still isn't running spots for the Maxx. They're still pushing the original Razr. Perhaps they're just trying to get rid of Razr inventory and will start advertising the Maxx shortly, but it's still surprising.

This phone is a game-changer, IMO, and if fitting such a small battery into such a slim phone is Moto's competitive advantage (for the time being), you'd think they'd like to milk it for all it's worth.
 

smastroyin

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Hmm, you guys are starting to convince me that I should go complain to VZW about my X's quirks and see if they'll let me upgrade early (I'm due in April), especially if the new version of Blur is less annoying.
 

Dollar

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So, I'm eligible to upgrade from my Incredible, and I'm definitely leaning toward the Maxx.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what I'm doing with regards to getting rid of my old Incredible. With Verizon, can I just activate the new phone, reset the Incredible to factory settings, and sell the phone on ebay/craigslist? Or is there something else I'm missing? I know it's been talked about in this forum, but I can't seem to find any help.
 

EddieYost

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So, I'm eligible to upgrade from my Incredible, and I'm definitely leaning toward the Maxx.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what I'm doing with regards to getting rid of my old Incredible. With Verizon, can I just activate the new phone, reset the Incredible to factory settings, and sell the phone on ebay/craigslist? Or is there something else I'm missing? I know it's been talked about in this forum, but I can't seem to find any help.
Yes, its that easy.
 

Zomp

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I'd jump on the MAXX right now but I can wait a few more months and would really like to see where the HTC Edge is heading before I choose anything.

The only thing that worries me about the Edge is if it has a quad core chip the battery seems a little small and it seems like batter life would be shot.
 

The Napkin

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right here
I played with it a bit yesterday at a store and it sure seemed nice. The only thing is it just feels weird in my hands. Probably because I've had my incredible for 2 years and am used to that I suppose. I'll probably head back down some night this week and grab it. It sucks that the ones in stores are so tied down with things, it's hard to get a feel for how they'll really feel. I understand why they do it and all but bah.

Guess my next step is looking at cases (if it even needs one) and screens or whatever. IT never ends...
 

Corsi

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So, I'm eligible to upgrade from my Incredible, and I'm definitely leaning toward the Maxx.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what I'm doing with regards to getting rid of my old Incredible. With Verizon, can I just activate the new phone, reset the Incredible to factory settings, and sell the phone on ebay/craigslist? Or is there something else I'm missing? I know it's been talked about in this forum, but I can't seem to find any help.
Yep, this is exactly what I did. I was able to fetch $132 on ebay for my Incredible and extras (extended battery, extra battery, rubber case, sleeve, screen protector, original box, etc).

You should be able to get at least $90 for the phone itself.
 

Corsi

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droid-life.com has been doing some Maxx battery tests and I agree with this assessment:

I’ll just say a couple of things to wrap this up. This phone, will easily last you all day long even with heavy use. I have yet to turn on WiFi during the last 3 days and have never once had to worry about battery issues. I would however, recommend that you make sure to plug this phone in at night because of the amount of time that it takes to charge. At 3300mAh, this isn’t going to be a quick 1 hour charge job. So while battery life isn’t a concern, making sure you have time to charge is.
http://www.droid-life.com/2012/01/29/droid-razr-maxx-battery-test-day-3-why-cant-every-phone-have-this-battery/#more-59881
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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droid-life.com has been doing some Maxx battery tests and I agree with this assessment:

http://www.droid-lif...ery/#more-59881
You guys obviously have no idea what you're talking about. The Maxx has one star based on VZW user review (that's REVIEW, singular). The good (and bad, as it's tempting me and my wife would kill me) news: my b2c discount gets it for me for an extra $50 off.:


Comments

Wow this phone heats up but i guess you knew that given the size of the battery and the thinness of the device.I think its horrible that Moto launches this phone 2 months after the original RAZR which was supposed to be all that... Bionic to Razr then Razr to Maxx... whats next a quad core next week ???
Pros

nice build
Cons

huge bezel motorola slaps customers get hot!!!
 

Three10toLeft

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What's interesting is that Verizon still isn't running spots for the Maxx. They're still pushing the original Razr. Perhaps they're just trying to get rid of Razr inventory and will start advertising the Maxx shortly, but it's still surprising.

This phone is a game-changer, IMO, and if fitting such a small battery into such a slim phone is Moto's competitive advantage (for the time being), you'd think they'd like to milk it for all it's worth.
They actually did run some advertisements for the Razr Maxx during football last Sunday, I believe.

They just weren't your typical, in your face/sodomized by a robot style of ads that Verizon typically runs for their 'Droid' brand.

http://youtu.be/dh9py1eggHo
 

jercra

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I'd jump on the MAXX right now but I can wait a few more months and would really like to see where the HTC Edge is heading before I choose anything.

The only thing that worries me about the Edge is if it has a quad core chip the battery seems a little small and it seems like batter life would be shot.
The Tegra 3 chipset is actually supposed to provide an increase in battery life, according to Nvidia, despite having 4 cores due it's use of DIDIM and a companion single core to handle single threaded tasks like watching video. I'm not sure those claims can be justified yet since it's only been released in tablets so far but it at lease makes sense on the surface that less screen usage and low drain from video would increase battery life.
 

Foulkey Reese

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Comments[/b]

Wow this phone heats up but i guess you knew that given the size of the battery and the thinness of the device.I think its horrible that Moto launches this phone 2 months after the original RAZR which was supposed to be all that... Bionic to Razr then Razr to Maxx... whats next a quad core next week ???
Pros

nice build
Cons

huge bezel motorola slaps customers get hot!!!
I really don't get why Motorola wouldn't just release one Razr phone and try to push the hell out of the battery angle. I mean anybody who bought the Razr back in November has every right to be pissed about this now that they're stuck with a crappy battery in comparison for 24 months while the Razr Maxx was in the works the entire time. I think they blew an opportunity to release the dominant phone of 2011/2012 by splitting them up this way. A 4G phone with a massive display that you don't have to charge at all during the day should be a HUGE deal instead of a barely advertised version 2.

Imagine how well the Maxx would have sold if they just released it in January with the extended battery and ICS.
 

smastroyin

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I would guess that at some point last summer they didn't know if they were going to get the larger battery into the form factor and decided they needed to proceed with the brand.
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
I would guess that at some point last summer they didn't know if they were going to get the larger battery into the form factor and decided they needed to proceed with the brand.
I'm also thinking it was something like that. They figured out the battery angle and got much better results way sooner than they expected to.

Anything else, and they had to realize how they would tick off most recent buyers of the plain Razr.
 

PortlandSoxFan

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Finally got the extended battery for the Nexus...can't even tell it is in there, except it is a tiny bit heavier. We'll see how it is performance wise; I really haven't had an issue with the battery but an extra hour or two can't hurt.
 

Foulkey Reese

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Finally got the extended battery for the Nexus...can't even tell it is in there, except it is a tiny bit heavier. We'll see how it is performance wise; I really haven't had an issue with the battery but an extra hour or two can't hurt.
It was a big jump for me.

I can unplug at 7am or so and come home around 6:30 with like 20-40% left depending on how many podcasts I listen to during the day. Blows the battery life of the Droid X out of the water. I don't even plug it in at work anymore unless I'm going somewhere afterward.
 

PortlandSoxFan

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My office is in a 3g/4g fringe area, and gets zero reception inside the building...so the battery drains pretty quickly if I don't plug it in.

Finally getting a case, too...I never use them, but I already dropped and cracked the screen on this one. Thankfully since it is so new I got an entirely new retail box Nexus, so I have extra headphones/battery/back.
 

Nick Kaufman

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I would guess that at some point last summer they didn't know if they were going to get the larger battery into the form factor and decided they needed to proceed with the brand.
Or conversely, they really wanted to sell something for the holiday season and they had to push something out the door....
 

Omar's Wacky Neighbor

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Leaving in a bit to the studio :)
A friend in the the industry just emailed me to say that this grabbed his attention. The old small battery, tho:

New Motorola RAZR™ Developer Edition will feature unlocked bootloader in Europe
January 30, 2012 : BY Motorola
We have some news for the community of people interested in unlockable/relockable bootloaders. Today, we announced a step forward in Europe with the availability of an unlockable version of our most in-demand product: the Motorola RAZR™ Developer Edition. This solution allows us to continue meeting our carrier and regulatory obligations, but also meets the needs being expressed by our developer community.
In the coming months, we also plan to introduce an unlockable developer device in the United States through MOTODEV, Motorola’s global developer network. Stay tuned to Motorola’s Developer site for additional info.
 

behindthepen

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one day into my relationship with the RAZR MAXX and I'm in love. Great screen, snappy response, overall comfortable and after a full work day of use, I'm at 70% battery. And I haven't even begun to tap the "smart actions".
The form factor is a little bigger than I'd like, but given the thinness, it makes the phone seem really, really light. And I do miss some of the HTC widgets, but not enough to change my mind.
 

Trlicek's Whip

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Thanks to everyone that's game-threaded their MAXX purchases. I have an Incredible and am due for a re-up in April, so the specific Incredible-to-RM comps have been extremely helpful.

And all things being equal in smartphones, a battery that's this strong is my number one priority.
 

Three10toLeft

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Oct 2, 2008
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I decided to get the Razr Maxx, now I need to craigslist or ebay my iPhone if I decide to stick the Razr. I already miss the refinement of iOS but the battery life on this thing is ridiculous. That coupled with 4G makes this device so hard to pass up.

I love being able to stream music, play games without worrying about battery life.
 

teddykgb

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I decided to get the Razr Maxx, now I need to craigslist or ebay my iPhone if I decide to stick the Razr. I already miss the refinement of iOS but the battery life on this thing is ridiculous. That coupled with 4G makes this device so hard to pass up.

I love being able to stream music, play games without worrying about battery life.
this is strange to me, it's not like the iphone 4/4s has anything but great battery life. Worse with the 4s, but nothing like some of these android devices that aren't the Maxx
 

Huntington Avenue Grounds

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Upgraded from the original Droid yesterday, so my experience is probably even more pronounced than others here, but the Maxx is amazing! The one surprise is that it's lighter and thinner than the Droid, guess the slide out keyboard was to blame there. Aside from being blown away by the screen size, the speed of 4G is not just noticeable, it's downright scary how this thing hops along. Battery life is all it promised, unplugged this morning and still over 90%, sure it was idle most of the day but by now my Droid would be visibly sucking juice and around 15-20%.

Still getting it customized and finding out what apps are needed and what are no longer necessary.
 

Three10toLeft

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this is strange to me, it's not like the iphone 4/4s has anything but great battery life. Worse with the 4s, but nothing like some of these android devices that aren't the Maxx
Well I find myself playing on my phone a lot, trying out new apps or streaming music or podcasts. The iPhone will typically make it through the day, and since I have a built in USB media port in my car, I'm able to charge it off and on throughout the day. I will say, the battery life difference between the iPhone 4 and 4S is pretty significant. I was able to stretch the 4 to two days if I had to. The 4S is lucky to get me through a day with intermittent charges throughout the day.
 

behindthepen

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one day into my relationship with the RAZR MAXX and I'm in love.  Great screen, snappy response, overall comfortable and after a full work day of use, I'm at 70% battery.  And I haven't even begun to tap the "smart actions".
The form factor is a little bigger than I'd like, but given the thinness, it makes the phone seem really, really light.  And I do miss some of the HTC widgets, but not enough to change my mind.
MUCH heavier usage today, of the phone, navigation, and I turned everything on, wifi, and background updates for Facebook and Reader. All the way down to 60%!
 

Fratboy

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:astonished:

I hope the phone survived having such a low battery.

***

As I told a coworker yesterday, "the phone doesn't come with a charger port because the battery's rated to go two years between charges. When the battery's at zero, you just get a new phone."
 

EddieYost

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:astonished:

I hope the phone survived having such a low battery.

***

As I told a coworker yesterday, "the phone doesn't come with a charger port because the battery's rated to go two years between charges. When the battery's at zero, you just get a new phone."
Disposable Smart Phones! I think you are on to something.
 

The Napkin

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right here
I took the plunge tonight. Sadly my local store didn't have any stock so it's shipping to me.
Hopefully I'll have it in my grubby little hands on Friday. Probably Mon though. Meh.
 

jaba

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Guys, I can't decide and would love some opinions.

Do I get the:


Galaxy Nexus + the extended battery ($25). The regular battery is 1850 mAH, the extended is 2100, so I would just carry around the 2nd battery

pros: awesome screen (some say as good as the retina display), ICS, first updates, lots of custom ROMs


OR the:


RAZR Maxx

pros: awesome battery life, better build
 

Gambler7

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I'll add to the chorus about loving the Razr Maxx. I used it yesterday all day (unplugged at 6:30 am), answering emails on two different accounts, Twitter, GPS Navigation for over 2 hours, and when I went to bed at 10:30 it had just gone under 50% battery. My originail Droid would have been dead by lunch time with that kind of use. I am extremely happy I kept waiting on my upgrade and then took the plunge with this phone.
 

zenter

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Oct 11, 2005
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Guys, I can't decide and would love some opinions.

Do I get the:


Galaxy Nexus + the extended battery ($25). The regular battery is 1850 mAH, the extended is 2100, so I would just carry around the 2nd battery
pros: awesome screen (some say as good as the retina display), ICS, first updates, lots of custom ROMs

OR the:

RAZR Maxx
pros: awesome battery life, better build
In my experience, Motorola has generally-lower build quality than Samsung. I'm not talking about industrial design (which RAZR wins handily) but durability. So while I've heard good things about the new RAZR line, I worry that it's still a Moto phone. That makes build a wash, if I were deciding right now. Same with OS, since RAZR is getting it in the next couple months.

For me, the battery would be a deciding factor - in my Nokia days, I never understood why people carried extra batteries (2-3 days on a single charge on my E71), so the fact that the RAZR essentially doesn't need it for more than 24 hours is compelling. If they got to the point of having 2-3 days of moderate-usage, it would be a no-brainer. Tough call.
 

Three10toLeft

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For what it's worth, I pulled my phone off the charger around 25 hours ago, and I have 28% battery left with heavy usage. I've been streaming music on my car ride to work, and where I work at I get no signal, I decided to keep it off airplane mode and just see what effect it would have on the battery, to my surprise it didn't really kill it at all.

I'm sure once the novelty wears off and I don't want to keep playing the phone, and keeping track of turning off wifi and such, it could last two days.