Good by RAZR M - Hello Samsung S6 - Warning Battery Bulge

Smitty77_7 · August 14, 2015

I was hoping to wait for the iPhone 6S to come out, with an expected potential of 300Mbps, double the max speed of the existing iPhone 6 or 6+.

But dang if the dreaded 'battery bulge' did not develop in the RAZR M. I suspect having he unit in the cradle of the Sleek, which runs pretty warm itself, and then streaming movies while charging - contributed to this problem. It would get pretty hot to the touch at times.

Not cost effective to replace the battery, and quite a bit of disassembly to do so, for this now becoming older phone.

We're on the road traveling, now in the Denver area. Found a few phones on Craigslist that looked like reasonable deals, but after two times where the seller was not interested in meeting me at Verizon to do the exchange (one would not even give me the ESN) - I decided to take a look at SWAPPA. Found a retailer out of Texas, The Wireless Guys, that had several Samsung S6's, the base units with 32GB, for $480. Deliver out of Texas, no sales tax, and that price included two day USPS delivery. These are new in box units. I was finding asking prices of over $500 for the same phone on Craigslist.

The only small hitch in this internet phone purchase, is that they only deliver to PayPal Verified Addresses. For us, that is our Box Elder mail forwarding. If I had wanted to pay the fees to wire transfer funds to their accounts from a third party business, they would have shipped it the RV Park. (Credit Union, well for sure ours, will only wire transfer from an 'in branch' request. Not sure why, and did not push to find out. We'll just have our mail forwarded send it to us with our next delivery of mail.)

For now, have the sim out of the RAZR, and back in our UML290, so still getting data feed. (Blue taped the UML290 into the cradle of the Sleek, vs hard wiring it to the external antenna via the units port. This worked well for us when traveled to Alaska in 2014.)

Happy with the off contract price for the Samsung S6, it's a good unit, and should serve me well for a couple of years! We'll then trickle it down to my MIL, and it will be big improvement over her current phone.

WARNING - WARNING - WARNING !

Believe this has been covered well on this site, and even the mainstream news will talk about this from time to time. Sure not exclusive to Motorola, just so happens that this is one here. If you do have a cell phone that has started to run extremely hot, and for sure if you detect a bulge in the case. Turn your device off, and if cost effective, have the battery replaced. I have personally known people that have been hurt by phone's melting in their pockets, receiving thankfully small burns. And one gent heard a loud 'pop' sound, and when checking, his phone had burst opened and papers around it had actually been burned. Fires can be caused by these sick batteries bursting. (Suppose any battery device, not just cell phones.)

Google will bring you back many hits, on many phone brands, about such problems. Many people have been hurt. Take hot units and bulges in the cases seriously.

Best to all,

Smitty

BrianT · August 14, 2015

My wife and I both have RAZR M phones so we'll definitely be on the lookout for possible heat and battery issues.

Thanks!

Smitty77_7 · August 14, 2015

Brain - Mine was about 3 1/2 years old, and had had a few 'drops' over the years too(:!

When I was trying to determine if I wanted to replace the battery and hang onto it for awhile longer, I found out that it's quite a disassembly fete to get down to the actual replacement of the battery. I watched a few You Tubes on how-to, and decided it was not something I wanted to do without all my smaller tools that are at home. Could have probably found a repair place to do it, but then would have a repair charge too. I liked the RAZR M, convent size, and for it's day, good performance.

Suspect I'll be just as happy in a few years, with the S6 too.

Best,

Smitty

docj · August 14, 2015

Sure not exclusive to Motorola, just so happens that this is one here. If you do have a cell phone that has started to run extremely hot, and for sure if you detect a bulge in the case. Turn your device off, and if cost effective, have the battery replaced.

I had this happen with my Samsung Galaxy S4. The bulge was almost unnoticeable because the phone is kept in an Otterbox. As a result the battery was bulging dangerously by the time I realized it. As for cost effectiveness of replacing it, I bought two Samsung batteries on Amazon for $13 (non-retail packaging). Sure can't buy a phone for that!

Smitty77_7 · August 15, 2015

Yes to new batteries on Amazon, or elsewhere. It was the calls I made to three cell phone repair places that gave estimates of from $75 to over $120 to replace a battery - if, I brought the battery. (I wanted to ensure it was a newer battery, and would have bought it Amazon Prime for under $30.)

My RAZR M had a few nicks and scratches due to it's years being with me:)!! Plus, I expect a newer phone to provide aster Data speeds. I looked at Motorola's new Droid Turbo ("All the time in the world." commercials.) Good specs, and great battery life. A plus, is that I'm familiar with Motorola's format and function. But, it was in third place behind the iPhone 6, and Samsung 6. (Did take a good look at the HTC One also, an Nexus. But, figured for price, features and performance - the S6 was worth paying a bit more money for now, while still under the cost of a New In Box Off Contract iPhone 6.

Again, not knocking the RAZR M. And in my history of helping my former company pick out cell phones for our staff (Three levels: 1) Those who needed to be on standby; 2) Those who needed to also have tethering; 3) The Exec's.... Motorola's always had very good signal pick up. (Not near as important as it was say 10 to 15 years ago, due to more cell's being established by the carriers. But for us, while in the RV, every little bit of extra coverage you can get, is a positive. IMO, gains in chip set and cell phone antennal technology, has resulted in most of the top phone manufactures having very similar 'reception quality'.

I'm positive, that I'll have an adjustment period ahead due to the differences between the Motorola DROID type configuration, and Samsung - they have differences in approaches to navigation.

Spending a bit more now, to go to a new phone, gives me 1-3 years to let some of the recent changes not just in equipment, but also in Service Plans, simmer....

Best,

Smitty