my own original article with original thoughts for starting my first post on xda its also on my blog
Android technology is one of the exceptional operating systems of the world. With its great embedded features its quick and loaded. Billions handsets are running on this OS these days. Right from Eclair to ICS 4.0 all are great to use android versions of OS. But with certain brilliant embedded apps like google apps i.e. gmail,gtalk and some other bundled apps like facebook,twitter and other downloaded apps it becomes a rather heavy os and uses handset battery a lot.
Though Android OS is a revolutionary one but still it has shortcomings which we think Google will certainly with its innovative perception will make it more efficient in near future. Android based handsets are mostly run on either GPRS(3G)or WiFi. They are kind of internet based OS handsets. So it requires a constant use of internet on these handsets and that makes it even a more battery draining OS. Certain applications which we download from Google Play(app store) also uses the internet and battery in background. These are mostly free apps as because these are available to you for free but developers to have to adhere a cost on it and they try to recover it from inbuilt ad packages that some times becomes annoying for us while using the app or playing the game but we have to bear with it as nothing in this worlds comes for free.
Certain issues with android OS according to me are :-
1. Applications most free applications uses battery a lot as it runs in background and that drains a battery a lot
2. Some applications require a constant gprs or wifi facility to stay updated like facebook,twitter etc. again use of constant gprs will surely drains battery 40% faster then when gprs is off.
3. Sync problem every time you add Twitter,Facebook,Gmail of other social apps it tries to sync the phone book with it thus contact list become so huge even when you try to send a message you cannot differentiate whether its a phone number or an email of the contact your are selecting thus converting it to a multimedia message(Again battery is used to a great extent)
4. Location services running in background drains battery a lot as they use gps
with all these problems android still seems promising to me as it has changed the way mobile OS used to be. It gave mobile computing a new heights, with a use of gps,3g and wifi like services in a average looking handset.
To overcome these issue i have a made a checklist which you can follow to overcome these battery draining issues in your android handset:-
1. Always turn off your location services by turning of wifi and gps in settings will make your battery's life longer than usual.
2. Turn off GPRS and WiFi when not using internet so that your battery doesn't drains out quickly as it used to be as we know the major source of battery consumption is anytime activated internet services on OS.
3. Use a good kill task app as it will kill your apps running in background so as to reduce the battery usage for example Taskman etc.
4. If you like a free version of app and game try to buy the full version of it as it will come free of annoying ads thus will reduce your battery usage to a great extent.
5. Try not to stay login onto social apps for automatic login as they will run in background to keep continuously for resumption of internet services to sync back to where you left previously. I know its a bit annoying but a good way to reduce your battery consumption
6. Try to adjust the screen brightness to a an extent it makes your phone screen optimum for your eyes don't keep the brightness to 100% as it will drain the battery much faster.(Ideal would be to keep 50%-55%).
7. Last but not the least try to fully dry out your battery and then when your phone is switched off then plugin the charger for charging as it will reduce your battery usage and increases the life of battery.
These are few of my suggestions regarding the battery draining related problems in your android based handsets. I know we all love our android devices because of their amazing capabilities and multi tasking abilities as we know every good things comes attached with certain shortcomings though we have to bear them but still it is fruitful enough to enjoy. Try my suggestion will certainly make your android experience a bit better.
Hi there,
Nice first post. It's good to see folks contributing their thoughts. I do have some comments on a few of your suggestions...
mukus said:
1. Always turn off your location services by turning of wifi and gps in settings will make your battery's life longer than usual.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The GPS-based location service doesn't actually consume any battery power unless an app is actively polling for a location - in which case you'll see the GPS indicator in your notification bar. Just go ahead and leave GPS enabled - again, it won't drain the battery when it's not being used. Additionally, in the unfortunate event that your handset comes up missing, apps like Lookout's Plan B require GPS to be enabled in order to locate your missing device.
2. Turn off GPRS and WiFi when not using internet so that your battery doesn't drains out quickly as it used to be as we know the major source of battery consumption is anytime activated internet services on OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I'm guessing that the number one source of battery drain on any given device under normal usage will be the display. Similar to the GPS, the radios don't use all that much power when they're not being used. A better suggestion would be to use wifi whenever it is available, as the wifi radio is much more power efficient.
3. Use a good kill task app as it will kill your apps running in background so as to reduce the battery usage for example Taskman etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NO. Task managers are a no-no. They interfere with Android's built-in memory management and cause way more harm (and battery drain) than any benefit they might provide.
4. If you like a free version of app and game try to buy the full version of it as it will come free of annoying ads thus will reduce your battery usage to a great extent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, but more so just to help support the developers that create great apps and games.
5. Try not to stay login onto social apps for automatic login as they will run in background to keep continuously for resumption of internet services to sync back to where you left previously. I know its a bit annoying but a good way to reduce your battery consumption
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is good advice. Any app/service that is constantly or frequently polling for updates will use up juice in a hurry. Many of these auto-syncing apps will have a configuration option for how frequently to poll. Try perhaps every half-hour rather than 10 minutes for email, and 3 hours rather than 1 hour for weather.
6. Try to adjust the screen brightness to a an extent it makes your phone screen optimum for your eyes don't keep the brightness to 100% as it will drain the battery much faster.(Ideal would be to keep 50%-55%).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you can just set it to Auto-brightness and forget it.
7. Last but not the least try to fully dry out your battery and then when your phone is switched off then plugin the charger for charging as it will reduce your battery usage and increases the life of battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're saying here what I think you're saying, this is also a no. You should never (or at least rarely) let your device drain all the way before charging it. At least with the popular Lithium Ion batteries, "If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses." (source)
number 4
just install adfree if you are rooted user.
But i read @ sony forum that draining to full atleast once a month and frequent charging ( wont affect battery life) will help the lasting of battery ( from the forum staff) which way we go now?
s-X-s said:
But i read @ sony forum that draining to full atleast once a month and frequent charging ( wont affect battery life) will help the lasting of battery ( from the forum staff) which way we go now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on the technology of the battery, really.
And there is some benefit to fully draining an Li-Ion battery, as it helps with calibration so the OS can more accurately measure the battery's state. It's certainly not something you should do every day though.
codesplice said:
It depends on the technology of the battery, really.
And there is some benefit to fully draining an Li-Ion battery, as it helps with calibration so the OS can more accurately measure the battery's state. It's certainly not something you should do every day though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But nobody ever want to drain their battery daily though... all these talks are to extend to max days... but its not wise every time to drain it out, once a month may be good as they suggest...
Depends on Technology means ? now a days most of smartphones comes with Li-Ion battery only i think.. Are there different technology within Li-Ion itself ??
s-X-s said:
But nobody ever want to drain their battery daily though... all these talks are to extend to max days... but its not wise every time to drain it out, once a month may be good as they suggest...
Depends on Technology means ? now a days most of smartphones comes with Li-Ion battery only i think.. Are there different technology within Li-Ion itself ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "(source)" linked by Codesplice is an excellent resource for dispelling some of the myths we've learned over the years about batteries. It certainly opened my eyes about a few issues.
mukus said:
my own original article with original thoughts for starting my first post on xda its also on my blog
Android technology is one of the exceptional operating systems of the world. With its great embedded features its quick and loaded. Billions handsets are running on this OS these days. Right from Eclair to ICS 4.0 all are great to use android versions of OS. But with certain brilliant embedded apps like google apps i.e. gmail,gtalk and some other bundled apps like facebook,twitter and other downloaded apps it becomes a rather heavy os and uses handset battery a lot.
Though Android OS is a revolutionary one but still it has shortcomings which we think Google will certainly with its innovative perception will make it more efficient in near future. Android based handsets are mostly run on either GPRS(3G)or WiFi. They are kind of internet based OS handsets. So it requires a constant use of internet on these handsets and that makes it even a more battery draining OS. Certain applications which we download from Google Play(app store) also uses the internet and battery in background. These are mostly free apps as because these are available to you for free but developers to have to adhere a cost on it and they try to recover it from inbuilt ad packages that some times becomes annoying for us while using the app or playing the game but we have to bear with it as nothing in this worlds comes for free.
Certain issues with android OS according to me are :-
1. Applications most free applications uses battery a lot as it runs in background and that drains a battery a lot
2. Some applications require a constant gprs or wifi facility to stay updated like facebook,twitter etc. again use of constant gprs will surely drains battery 40% faster then when gprs is off.
3. Sync problem every time you add Twitter,Facebook,Gmail of other social apps it tries to sync the phone book with it thus contact list become so huge even when you try to send a message you cannot differentiate whether its a phone number or an email of the contact your are selecting thus converting it to a multimedia message(Again battery is used to a great extent)
4. Location services running in background drains battery a lot as they use gps
with all these problems android still seems promising to me as it has changed the way mobile OS used to be. It gave mobile computing a new heights, with a use of gps,3g and wifi like services in a average looking handset.
To overcome these issue i have a made a checklist which you can follow to overcome these battery draining issues in your android handset:-
1. Always turn off your location services by turning of wifi and gps in settings will make your battery's life longer than usual.
2. Turn off GPRS and WiFi when not using internet so that your battery doesn't drains out quickly as it used to be as we know the major source of battery consumption is anytime activated internet services on OS.
3. Use a good kill task app as it will kill your apps running in background so as to reduce the battery usage for example Taskman etc.
4. If you like a free version of app and game try to buy the full version of it as it will come free of annoying ads thus will reduce your battery usage to a great extent.
5. Try not to stay login onto social apps for automatic login as they will run in background to keep continuously for resumption of internet services to sync back to where you left previously. I know its a bit annoying but a good way to reduce your battery consumption
6. Try to adjust the screen brightness to a an extent it makes your phone screen optimum for your eyes don't keep the brightness to 100% as it will drain the battery much faster.(Ideal would be to keep 50%-55%).
7. Last but not the least try to fully dry out your battery and then when your phone is switched off then plugin the charger for charging as it will reduce your battery usage and increases the life of battery.
These are few of my suggestions regarding the battery draining related problems in your android based handsets. I know we all love our android devices because of their amazing capabilities and multi tasking abilities as we know every good things comes attached with certain shortcomings though we have to bear them but still it is fruitful enough to enjoy. Try my suggestion will certainly make your android experience a bit better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of the 7 points which you have given, after reading the 2nd point, switch off the phone and throw that away, thats the best think we can do.
Everywhere , almost everywhere this is the solution given to save battery, if all features ( atlast the basic features ) are meant to be turned off, then why a Smartphone ? Nokia 1100 phone is better. I will wait for somemore time on android, and next I will defintely to switch to iOS, atleast its using the battery while we using the phone, not while sleep.
KK
Related
*Disclaimer* This is all from a personal experience and testing/research from a long time android user, what I have discovered over time and has helped me and some friends. This will work whether your rooted OR not. I kept it as basic as I can so everyone can benefit. If you dont like what you read and disagree, or want to add something PM me, Ill change/add and give credit to you. Hopefully, this can grow with the community.
*Rooted Section Will be Added*
*When I charge my battery I usually drain it all the way down or as much as i can (around 20% left) then charge plugged in till green, then power down and charge for another hour or so. Not sure if this matters or not but seems to help me out try it!*
This guide will help you if your rooted or non-rooted, all the apps I talk about I honestly have no ties to the devs. I don't use any SUPER AWESOME AMAZING BATTERY SAVER 5000 apps or anything like that. Those mostly just turn ur radios off and on and kill apps in the background. In my experience a lot of them cause syncing issues with my e-mail and other notifications. I like to receive my information instantly not have an app waiting for me to turn my screen on to check for updates.
About my personal setup: Basically, I want my phone to last me all day but still perform well with a heavy use, WITHOUT needing to constantly change settings to save battery. With what I have here Im able to keep my Sensation running for a full day of moderate-heavy use (7:30am to around 10pm) with its STOCK battery (Did damn well on my Evo 4G too). Days of very minor use Ive gone into the second day with 60% + battery. Yes, I use all my home screens and have a good amount of widgets, I love sense and its widgets. I play games, surf the web, do a lot of texting, listen to a lot of music, decent amount of fbing and email, usually take a few pictures a day. Half my day is wifi/other is mobile data.
Here goes the real basics, mostly common sense here not trying to insult anyone. Feel free to browse thru it quick (green text) if your not totally new to the android scene, whats after it will be a good read for noobs and vets.
*I use the power control widget, make getting to a lot of settings quicker. Why waste battery digging thru menus?*
Basics:
-Screen brightness: (duh ) these pretty screens eat battery brighter=quicker drain naturally and from my experience leaving it on Auto Brightness kills more battery too. Each time your phone pulls information from the sensor to decide on how bright it should adjust itself too.
-GPS: If GPS is on it should not effect battery unless an app is using it and you see the GPS icon on your notification bar. I noticed a very slight increase in mA discharge when i had it enabled, to be safe leave it off if you dont use it extremely frequently.
Location thru mobile networks: Not to hard on battery. I leave mine on it does add drain but it takes away from my weather widgets updating when Im traveling.
-Bluetooth: Moderate battery drain. I honestly don't use it at all myself but if you do try your best to keep it off when not in use.
-Wifi: Android has gotten a lot better at managing wifi over the past few years. It doesn't drain that bad on battery and it shuts off/on periodically on its own when screen is off depending on whats using it.
Google Back-Up: Takes a little juice here and there no biggie. I dont use it just because I like to fresh install my apps when I try a new rom, run into less problems that way.
2G/3G/4G: This varies phone to phone, the slower speed the better battery life. If you know your not going to be using 4G for a while turn it off. I leave mine on 4G or wifi all day with my sensation. When I had Sprint and my Evo I would leave it off most of the time. Depending on your carrier and how their data works this is a big one. T-Mobile seems to handle well, Sprint and Verizon's 4G Ive seen eat an insane amount of battery.
Sync/Background Data: I lumped them together because sync is pretty much reliant on background data. These kill a lot of your battery in general. It syncs your apps (email, facebook, google data, contacts, etc.), the periodic checks your apps do to check for and download new emails and notifications, using background data (data still transmits when screens off). I always leave these on and still manage great battery life, I like things instant if I wanted to wait Id just wait till i got in front of a PC. Sync and Background data are the settings most battery saving apps control because they really can help your battery if you turn it off. You can control what core apps sync in settings>accounts and sync. Or the power widget that 95% of android phones have has it on there. I recommend minimizing the amount of apps you allow background data with, example: WeatherBug first launch it asks if it can automatically update itself in the background for apps were thats not necessary hit no.
Radio/Airplane Mode: Pretty self explanatory, turns off your connection to your wireless provider. No point in ever turning it off in my eyes, your phones no longer a phone.
What has really helped me with my battery life (non-basics):
There is a lot to be said when it comes down to 2.2+ android phones and whether they need a task killer anymore or not. Since Ive had a lot of android phones and a few now that are 2.2+ Ive done a lot of testing. I usually go about a 2 weeks on one idea or new task killer and keep a close eye on battery drainage using Battery Monitor Widget, free app in the market. It tells you exactly how much of your battery is being drained without killing battery itself. Each phone/rom settles at a different average mA lower the better. In my experience if I can keep my phone anywhere under 100mA when idle im doing good. This held true on both the Evo 4G and my Sensation. Some ASOP roms i could get down to the 30's but for sense under 100mA is good. Keep in mind you will get the occasionally spike here and there its just android and/or apps in the background. You can view the a chart of the battery data in Battery Monitor.
Instead of boring you guys with each task killer Ive used and its results, Ill just get down to what I found out in the end.
Basically, the way android 2.2+ works it really isn't necessary to run a task killer it does a decent job removing apps from memory when you need more memory. But at the same time I found running a task killer periodically (BUT not killing frequently used apps) results in a lower average mA drain leading to overall better battery life.
The best application I have used has to go Automatic Task Killer , trust me Ive used a lot from the top free ones to a few of the more popular paid ones. What this task killer does is kill a selection of apps you allow it too every time your phones screen shuts off and goes idle. On Automatic Task Killer's first boot your shown a screen of every application that could at some point run in the background on your phone. This part sucks a little bit but it is worth it, you need to select which of the apps you want to allow it to kill automatically. It does not kill foreground apps the ones you currently have open on the screen aka a browser or a game. Example your playing NFS: Shift and your boss walks by so you quickly pause and hit the power button turning off the screen, next time you turn the screen on it will kill all other allowed background apps but your game will still be up front and center.
Now the trick is to go thru and set it to kill apps you know your phone won't automatically just restart or you don't use 90% of the time. So don't select things like Dialer, Contacts, Clock, Calendar, Messages or apps you constantly use/check such as a third party SMS app or your main E-Mail Client or third party keyboards (various by person and what you use most). Letting the app automatically kill those is just going to lead to worse battery life because your phone will just restart it each time leading to more CPU cycles (not what you want and part of the reason some consider task killers bad things).
Also, when using any task killer and killing the proper apps sense runs smoother, a big deal with sense 3.0.
So hopefully with a little messing around you can get a good setup where your phone lasts you all day without having to constantly keep changing settings and watching your battery life. All while everything stays syncing and instant. Hope this helps!
*ROOT Section (now that we have s-off )
Everything posted above can be done on any rom, rooted or none. There has been a lot of posts on "freezing apps" that you dont need or typically use, which does in fact really help battery life. Since, we (by we i mean sensation users) now have a permanent root this is my tiny second part of the guide for rooted devices.
I dont freeze my apps I prefer them to be gone for good if its something I dont see myself using or its bloat that came with my phone/rom. Since 98% of us will be using custom roms now this usually isnt an issue since most dev's r good at what they do and remove all the bs we dont need or normally use. Still there is some apps we may not want on our phones so for that I use SystemApp Remover . Its a great App for people who dont want to have to worry about going in manually and getting rid of system apps.
Its just basically an Uninstaller that allows you to access any and every app on the phone for you to uninstall (thats y roots needed). For me I just go in an drop the apps I know i wont use. A lot of roms come with carrier add-ons and such, those I normally delete as well as a few HTC sense widgets and apps I see no need for. It will free up space and increase your phones battery life with most things you delete.
Now, be careful. You are prompted upon opening SystemApp Remover that messing in system apps is dangerous and it is. If your not sure what something is DONT touch it, simply do a google search or ask around to see if its safe to remove first.
Re-calibrate Battery: After you flash a new rom or start using a new battery, you should use your recovery (CWM or other) to Wipe Battery Stats. Before you do this make sure your battery is at 100% and has been on the charger for over an hour with the fully charged green led on. This will allow your device to better drain your battery and can really help battery life.
So hopefully with a little messing around you can get a good setup where your phone lasts you all day without having to constantly keep changing settings and watching your battery life. All while everything stays syncing and instant. Hope this helps!
Thanks to people who have contributed:
-JadeSoturi
thanks for sharing the experience
i'm trying Automatic Task Killer
devine might said:
thanks for sharing the experience
i'm trying Automatic Task Killer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no problem. let me kno how it goes for you
very good info! would also help if you specify which versions of android.....
Thanks for the info, hope it will increase my battery life to last a day
Airfaire said:
very good info! would also help if you specify which versions of android.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im on my sensation so 2.3.3. Been getting a lot of hate on the sensation forums since task killers are officially deemed no longer needed, but this method really helps me with battery life hoping itd help some of u too
Watchdog> then any task killer
ADR6300
Hmm, ill try auto task killer as well, tried a few others.
I use JuiceDefender, I like it. It manages my connectivity pretty well and it does help.
This is excellent, many thanks. As a converted WM 6.5 user I have to say, I am enjoying android considerably more and I prefer it to the Metro interface of WP7. It's nice to know the little tricks to get the most out of it. Thanks again. ^_^
DarkSwanKnight said:
I use JuiceDefender, I like it. It manages my connectivity pretty well and it does help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same here, JD works pretty good
TastyTorge said:
same here, JD works pretty good
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worth getting the full one or will the free version do?
Sent from my HTC HD2 running TyphooN CyanogenMod 7 via XDA Premium App
Thanks
Thanks for the info, and for sharing, i will try the different methods
i havent really bothered with task killers but ive found reducing the brightness and disabling data and sync makes my battery last alot longer. i just re enable when i need them.
also, i downloaded setcpu and added a profile for while the screen is off. that helps alot. the drain is about 5% with the screen off after every 3 or 4 hours.
Very good info thanks
You had me impressed until you mentioned task killers. Absolutely horrible...
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G
Martin_Toy said:
Worth getting the full one or will the free version do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Full version is much better.
It's killer app indeed. I think many of it's features should be natively included in android.
Options like "Turn off 3G/EDGE when connected to Wi-Fi", "Turn off all radios when screen is off", "Turn off Wi-Fi after x minutes if it doesn't connect to a network", "Set screen brightess to minimal when battery is low", etc....it wouldn't be that hard to implement and battery life, perhaps most criticized aspect of Android, would improve immensely.
fpu
floating_point_unit said:
Full version is much better.
It's killer app indeed. I think many of it's features should be natively included in android.
Options like "Turn off 3G/EDGE when connected to Wi-Fi", "Turn off all radios when screen is off", "Turn off Wi-Fi after x minutes if it doesn't connect to a network", "Set screen brightess to minimal when battery is low", etc....it wouldn't be that hard to implement and battery life, perhaps most criticized aspect of Android, would improve immensely.
fpu
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your mobile network DOES turn off when connected to wifi, and if all radios turned off when the screen went off, how would you ever get calls or emails with the phone in your pocket? The wifi after x minutes would be a nice feature, but I don't like things touching my screen brightness.
Thank you for your information.
Hey guys,
So after many months with the XT720 and alot of flashing and trying to get the most out of my battery, i've come up with a few conclusions about battery life in general and how to extend it. I thought I'd share here. This is mostly aimed at people who are new to android and have not experimented like some of the more advanced users we have on this forum. Hope you find this helpful and please feel free to make additions.
General Battery Info
The XT720 was my first android phone, and I came from a long line of typical nokia phones whose batteries would last for ages. I had no idea the kind of power an android device would use. When I started out using it, i was surprised at how quickly the battery would die. You'd think with advancing software we'd have better batteries but sadly batteries are lagging behind in technology. Generally speaking you can expect the following battery life from your XT720.
Heavy use: 10-14 hours
Moderate use: 16-20 hours
Light use: 1 day - 1 day 12 hrs.
Note: New batteries improve with each charge cycle. It is recommended to go through a few complete charge cycles when you buy a new phone. After that, complete discharges are not recommended and its smart to start charging your phone when it hits the 20-25% mark.
How to improve battery life
1: Battery Calibration
If you've ever flashed a new ROM, you must have noticed a sharp decline in battery performance. This is partly due to old battery statistics left behind from your old ROM. Android is a smart OS and collects information over time. The more you use it, the more accurate it gets. In the same way it collects information from your battery usage and reports your battery percentages according to that. When you flash a new ROM, sometimes android thinks that your battery is 100% when its really lower than that and that causes relative reduced battery performance. To deal with that it is recommended that you use a nifty free app called Battery Calibration from the android market. What this does it removes the old battery stats and allows your new ROM to create its own battery stats. Charge your battery to full, use the battery calibration. Drain once till phone turns off by itself and charge to full again. You will notice a sharp increase in battery life.
2. Battery Managment
We all know that android has its own battery management built in but it usually doesnt give complete information about the phone. For that you need to dive deeper into the settings. Usually if you experience battery drain its because of a rogue app and believe it or not some common apps you wont think off drain unnecessary battery. To see your complete Battery Stats input this code into the dialer.
Code:
*#*#4636#*#*
This will take you to a bunch of options. What you're interested in is Battery History. When you tap that it will show you two drop down menu's.
1) Other Usage
2) Since last unplugged
Other usage shows you how long your phone has been running and how long it has been asleep. Also shows you how long your wifi has been on and running and how long your screen has been on. It is important to see how long your phone has been running. For example if your phone has an uptime of 20 hours and its been running 5 hours out of that. Your run time is 25%. Which is very good. Sometimes an app can run even when your phone screen is off. This will represent a longer run time even when you have your phone lying on a desk or something. See this setting and correlate with the amount you have used your phone. Does it seem normal? If no then use the first drop down menu and select
Partial Wake:
Partial wake is basically, any app which takes your phone out of sleep mode to use the CPU even when youre screen is off. These are apps which need to sync or use the phone resources. In this you will see a list of apps and how much they have caused a partial wake lock. See anything unsual? For me one app that caused unsual drainage was latitute. Yes, i had simply signed into it and i didnt know it was updating my location every 5 minutes. Extreme battery drain for me even when my phone was idle. See which app was draining your battery and either tweak the settings or remove altogether.
GPS, Sensors, CPU:
You can also see these in the first drop down menu. Certain apps like screeble use the sensors alot, and hence cause drain. Obviously games, camera, will stress the CPU. See if anything is causing drain in that and adjust accordingly.
Miscellaneous Information
After you have dealt with rogue apps that you don't use that drain youre battery your battery life will depend on how you use your phone. But hopefull these tips will help you with increasing your battery life. I do have some more information on different settings and supposed battery saving applications.
Autosync: When you enable auto sync, you allow google and other accounts to sync on a regular basis. This is important for people who need to use push email etc. It does not drain battery IF you tweak what you need synced. In google for example you can have your contacts, calendar, google+, google reader, gmail all to sync by default. If you just need email, please untick the rest. This will help you save battery life. Increase your update times for facebook and google+ if you dont recieve many updates all the time or turn them off altogether. If you have many services syncing at the same time you will get battery drain.
Wifi Sleep Policy: This is sort of a hidden menu. If you go into wireless & networks >> Wifi settings >> settings key >> advanced >> wifi sleep policy. This has three settings. Never close down wifi, never close when charging, or close with screen off. If you choose never your wifi will always be on, which will in turn crunch the **** out of your battery. If you use it off with screen off, remember it takes about 5 minutes to turn the wifi off. I personally use the never with plugged in. Its an intermediate. So when im plugged in wifi always stays on and when im not it follows the screen off protocol.
Wifi Vs Mobile Data: Having mobile data on all the time, does not drain battery. The only time the battery gets drained is when the data connection is active i.e you have many apps on autosync youll see your battery going down. If you arent doing anything and your phone is connected to Edge or 3G your battery will drain regularly. 2G networks drain less than 3G keep that in mind. If you are actively using your connection, wifi will take less battery because speeds are faster and you will be using it for a little time. Also your signal strength has alot of effect on battery. If you have crappy 3G signals your radio will actively be searching for a connection the same goes for wifi. That is important to keep in mind.
Control Background data: By selecting this option you can allow or disallow apps to connect to data without any permission. Some apps require this like the android market. If you uncheck this apps wont be able to sync automatically in the background.
Milestone Overclocking: This is fairly obvious. The higher you overclock with higher vsel the more battery drain you will have. Some use set cpu with profiles but I found that if i set the setcpu too low while idle It takes time for the cpu to charge up when i recieve a call or turn the screen on. Ringtones lag etc etc. I let android do my CPU management and its fine. and comfortable setting would be 850 MHZ, 56 vsel but you can change according to your phone usage.
Juice Defender/ Screebl / Task killers:
In my personal experience with juice defender ultimate I found that with the above precautions juice defender didnt make much of a difference and actually used more battery. First off theres an extra process going on in the back. Second activating and deactivating the connection everytime the screen goes off uses more juice because your radio has to search for the signal hundreds of times as compared to not having it in the first place. Screebl is good if you dont want your screen to annoyingly turn off while youre doing something but it surely doesnt save battery life. Task killers are a no no for android. They kill tasks which start up anyways, its better to use autokiller memory optimizer which tweaks androids internal memory settings and allows for more free ram without killing processes without reason.
System Apps:
Some system apps run uselessly in the background specially with stock ROM's this is called bloatware. Remove all unused system apps with titanium backup to stop them from running in the background for no reason at all.
A final word
Finally after all this tweaking, just use your phone as normal. Dont worry about the battery all the time checking how much its drained, itll mess your head up and make you enjoy your phone less. Battery temperature also changes battery life. Keep your phone out of the sun or in hot places.
Thanks, good article.
Very detailed and useful
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App
Thanks for this interessting article!
Could you make a list of the bloatware that can be safely removed?
I figured this would just list all the usual stuff I've heard. I'm glad to say I was wrong! A bunch of useful info here I now plan to put to use. Many thanks
Might want to mention the display being the biggest drain of battery on this phone. Setting it to automatic brightness or lower will increase battery life. I love the screen at full brightness so I don't really follow that, but for those looking to squeeze some extra time and don't mind less brightness...
Thanks guys, glad you people found it useful.
syrenz said:
Might want to mention the display being the biggest drain of battery on this phone. Setting it to automatic brightness or lower will increase battery life. I love the screen at full brightness so I don't really follow that, but for those looking to squeeze some extra time and don't mind less brightness...
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Yes! Can't believe I missed that one out. In the start id use the lowest brightness setting, which would be fine indoors. But outside it was impossible to see the phone because of its insanely reflective glass. Since we have an ambient light sensor I use it on automatic and it does a good job. Full bright strains my eyes abit thats why I dont keep it on full bright So for people really wanting to save the juice you can keep your brightness on the lowest level. Also when you take the phone out of your pocket and use it, its better to put the phone to sleep with the power button than let it timeout by itself. Those 10-15 seconds for each time you use phone count towards many minutes of unused display time in the end and does make a difference.
This is a very gd post with lots o useful info!! ok i have a qn, is using the phone a lot while the charging good for the battery? And if u let the battery charge even though its already 100 percent for an hour good? srry if it is noob qn...
androidlover123 said:
This is a very gd post with lots o useful info!! ok i have a qn, is using the phone a lot while the charging good for the battery? And if u let the battery charge even though its already 100 percent for an hour good? srry if it is noob qn...
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1. Using your phone while charging does not affect your battery life, and is neither good nor bad. It is perfectly normal to use your phone while charging and is sometimes recommended while doing battery intensive tasks for example navigating while driving, wifi tethering, playing memory intensive games and finally outputing video through HDMI.
2. Overcharging was a phenomenom is older lithium ion battery. New batteries have bypass circuits. So when your phone reaches complete charge, it does not charge any further. So you should not be worried about overcharging your XT720.
Hope this helps.
Excelent article and good quality info. Thanks and best regards!
awesome article! Great information. Thanks a lot for putting that together. I have already started using a few of the tips mentioned.
u da maaan dude, thanks for a very detailed and informative article
I know I've made a few posts about this in the past, but now I've learned a few things since then.
I know the battery isn't the greatest on the infuse (no rom that I'm using atm..) but would like to get the most juice out of my device that I can. I have root access and currently use the apps "battery calibration" and "no-frills CPU control" which I set my cpu at a relatively low frequency to help keep juice.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use. I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it. I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery. However, I have used this application in the past and after a few days of use, it shuts off my mobile connection altogether.
My question is, if I were to use this application again and my mobile network were to malfunction, would I be able to change my apn to regain my network connection? In the past I had to reset my phone to regain connection, which isn't really worth using if that's the only solution.
Or are there any other battery saver apps worth using??
Thanks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Dr_Nacho said:
I know I've made a few posts about this in the past, but now I've learned a few things since then.
I know the battery isn't the greatest on the infuse (no rom that I'm using atm..) but would like to get the most juice out of my device that I can. I have root access and currently use the apps "battery calibration" and "no-frills CPU control" which I set my cpu at a relatively low frequency to help keep juice.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use. I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it. I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery. However, I have used this application in the past and after a few days of use, it shuts off my mobile connection altogether.
My question is, if I were to use this application again and my mobile network were to malfunction, would I be able to change my apn to regain my network connection? In the past I had to reset my phone to regain connection, which isn't really worth using if that's the only solution.
Or are there any other battery saver apps worth using??
Thanks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
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A bit more information is needed before a specific course of action can be recommended. How much battery life are you using in an average 24 hour period? Also, what version of Juice Defender(beta, free, plus, ultimate) are you using, and what specific settings are you utilizing. It is a very customizable program after all. You might look into Battery Indicator Pro, which estimates your total remaining battery life based on your level of usage. I would also recommend CPU spy, which, if your device is rooted, will show the percentages that your device is running at various CPU levels.
If you turn off all the locational stuff, turn off 'update my current location' in Navigator, and set your CPU gov to conservative, you might get better battery life. I've not had any lasting luck with any of the battery saving apps. In the end, I decided to buy a couple of Anker batteries from Amazon just in case I have a bad battery day... Also some of the battery saving mods work, but I'm not sure about applying them to ICS and JB ROMS. I haven't tried!
Battery life is what you make of it..
Anything running in the background will drain the battery.. email constantly checking for new messages, twitter, Facebook, GPS, WiFi if no connection is found, etc..
Anything that makes the phone process even while the screen is off is going to kill a battery..
What ROM are you using? Some ROMs have better life than others..
How much are you actually using the phone?
What's the brightness set at?
Have you tried changing the processor and slowed it down?
Lots of information that is missing is helpful..
Its powered by Jellybeaned AOKP!
I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery
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Some have good luck with these, others don’t. I prefer to try to adjust settings myself.
I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it.
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How about putting a widget on your homescreen to toggle data on/off. Keep it on only when you need it. I go a step further, I use Tasker to automatically turn my data off every time my screen times out (because that means I’m not using it... I can restart my data later with my widget when I need it). Maybe that’s extreme, but I’m not just watching my battery.. I’m managing my limited data plan.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use.
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It may be that you have wakelocks keeping your phone awake when it’s supposed to sleep. One way to see this is (in GB or above) Settings / About-Phone / Battery Use...then click on the small graph at the top... should expand it to a large graph with traces along the bottom including Awake and Screen On. If you have long periods of time where phone is awake while screen is off, that’s a wakelock problem. A good program to troubleshoot that is Better Battery Stats. If nothing else, follow the instructions in the first post in the BBS thread linked below, and then post a dump to the end of that BBS thread (the developer and a lot of other knowledgeable people follow that thread and will help you interpret results):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
Thru use of BBS, I found that Google Maps is one that was keeping mine awake and I think someone else on the forum reported the same. If that program (Maps) is causing problems, you can disable it from auto-starting on boot using Gemini Manager. It will still be available when you need it, just take a few seconds longer to load the first time after boot. Then need to reboot to stop it from causing wakelocks after use (there may be other easier ways, but this works for me).
Another program (Power Tutor) was helpful to me to see programs that were consuming unusual amount of battery although not necessarily thru wakelocks. In my case Dolphin Browser HD was occasionally drawing very high power even when that program was not actively in use.
electricpete1 said:
I found that Google Maps is one that was keeping mine awake and I think someone else on the forum reported the same. If that program (Maps) is causing problems, you can disable it from auto-starting on boot using Gemini Manager. It will still be available when you need it, just take a few seconds longer to load the first time after boot. Then need to reboot to stop it from causing wakelocks after use (there may be other easier ways, but this works for me).
Another program (Power Tutor) was helpful to me to see programs that were consuming unusual amount of battery although not necessarily thru wakelocks. In my case Dolphin Browser HD was occasionally drawing very high power even when that program was not actively in use.
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So how can I stop maps to running in background? only rebooting the device is the only option?or is there any other option?
TIA
atrix4nag said:
So how can I stop maps to running in background? only rebooting the device is the only option?or is there any other option?
TIA
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Just to provide more details on my previous post (not sure if it's answering your question):
I followed instructions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29420959&postcount=7059
In particular, I installed the free program "Gemini Apps Manager". That allows you to stop programs from auto-loading at boot.
So I used the program to stopp Google Maps from auto-loading at boot.
That stopped a large chunk of my wakelocks, as long as I don't manually launch Google Maps.
If I do manually Google Maps, then those wakelocks come back, and to get rid of them I have to reboot.
I don't use Maps that often (only when I go on trips), so it's not a big problem for me to reboot when I'm finished with my trip to help keep my battery use low.
It may also be possible to kill it from the list of applications at Settings/Applications/ManageApplications and killing botht the application and the process...but I'm not sure if it will stay killed that way... haven't tried. I know some applications have hooks that make it hard to get rid of them once they're launched.
But (if you haven't already), I think it's a good idea to use BBS to find out what programs are causing problems on your phone. You may have other apps causing lot bigger problems than Maps. And it certainly may be the case that a program that acts up on one phone can be fine on another phone due to differences in the way the user configures the application settings and the phone settings (along with other possible differences in application version, ROM used, etc etc).
electricpete1 said:
Just to provide more details on my previous post (not sure if it's answering your question):
I followed instructions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29420959&postcount=7059
In particular, I installed the free program "Gemini Apps Manager". That allows you to stop programs from auto-loading at boot.
So I used the program to stopp Google Maps from auto-loading at boot.
That stopped a large chunk of my wakelocks, as long as I don't manually launch Google Maps.
If I do manually Google Maps, then those wakelocks come back, and to get rid of them I have to reboot.
I don't use Maps that often (only when I go on trips), so it's not a big problem for me to reboot when I'm finished with my trip to help keep my battery use low.
It may also be possible to kill it from the list of applications at Settings/Applications/ManageApplications and killing botht the application and the process...but I'm not sure if it will stay killed that way... haven't tried. I know some applications have hooks that make it hard to get rid of them once they're launched.
But (if you haven't already), I think it's a good idea to use BBS to find out what programs are causing problems on your phone. You may have other apps causing lot bigger problems than Maps. And it certainly may be the case that a program that acts up on one phone can be fine on another phone due to differences in the way the user configures the application settings and the phone settings (along with other possible differences in application version, ROM used, etc etc).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your detail explanation. My main question was how can close the app without restarting? i feel my major battery drain is from dolphin browser, befor dolphin i used opera, even that has the same problem. Most of the time, if I dont open dolphin, my phone battery is good, but once I open it, it drains battery. So i am looking for soemthing simple which does, without rebooting the device.
Any way thanks for your help.
Hey guys, just wanted to throw out what I have found re: reasonable battery life.
As most of you know, you can tell when the phone is not getting what I consider reasonable battery life.
Here are the things that I found worth doing:
1: Greenify apps if you can. Unfortunately, Facebook is one of the worst violators of battery and if you greenify it, you will go a long way towards having decent battery life. Of course, then you don't get your Facebook notifications, but for me, this is a plus.
2: Battery Doctor. You can set it to kill apps when the screen is off. There is a whitelist as well so you can keep certain apps running instead being killed.
3: Adjust the auto brightness curve. This seems to work well. Keep the screen reasonably bright but no more than necessary. I think this might work better than just a fixed brightness level because if the area gets really bright, at least the screen will react and become brighter so you can still see the screen. To me, the screen is a battery killer.
4: If you have a super AMOLED display supposedly you can black out the screen with a dark UI. Not sure how much this helps.
5: Custom Kernel. I have only tried IceCode and insanity. Both were giving reasonable battery life. I tried the lower voltage tables in IceCode but didn't notice much difference.
For me, even though I tried several different ROMs, if I did the above, I got reasonable standby/sleep times. It was usually 1 to 1.5 percent per hour in sleep. When the screen was on, battery life was totally dependent on screen brightness. For me, reasonable is with decent use - check/reply to mail a few times an hour, browse web, text, talk abut an hour a day, etc... from 7a-3p and still have around 70% left. For me, the phone still needs charging every day though. Any other tips???
For Facebook, I use the Tinfoil For Facebook app, which is pretty much just a wrapper of the mobile browser version. Beside the battery drain the official app causes, the privacy concerns with the addition of them listening in on your mic makes this worth it.
Hi all. Can anyone please suggest which Rom & kernel combination gives best battery life for Ville c2 . Main use is web browsing on mobile data & some casual gaming.
I recently got this device and am new to this (c2) forum.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
I use the "Snapdragon BatteryGuru" application.
A feature I love is that I can set what apps have to be updated ever, when I use them or basing on my use. For example I installed Facebook, Twitter, a mail client and Skype on my phone. I can choose that the mail client has to be updated ever, Facebook and Twitter basing on my use, and Skype when I use it.
BatteryGuru can enable some features like the Wi-Fi or the Mobile data basing on my use. For example, I surf the internet between 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM. The Snapdragon's application registers this activity and it will automatically enable internet connection between 8:00 AM and 3:00 PM.
Another feature I like is that I can enable a low power mode when the battery reaches a choosen level and disable, for example, the mobile data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, apps update, etc.
Awesome app!
I saw that app. Will need to check it out. Sounds like useful features.
Thanks! I'll try Greenify with Facebook.
I'm quite satisfied with the AOSPA 4+ ROM (stock kernel). I unplug the phone at 9am and around 10pm - 56% battery remaining (with Greenify + Auto brightness + Dark UI theme) with normal usage like browsing/checking emails/phone calls every now and then.
A smartphone is a necessity in today’s world.
Doesn’t the battery life of today’s smartphones bother you? I’m sure it does.
What could be a possible solution to prevent the loss of battery?
From the times of Nokia’s 2100s when a single charge would last days to contemporary times where an expensive handset won’t stay charged for even one full day, smartphone batteries have in fact seen a downward trend in their graphs of performance.
What You Should (and Shouldn’t) Do to Extend Your Phone’s Battery Life
We do understand with smartphones, the consumption of power has only increased way too much. A solution like increasing the milliamperes of a battery is a like running away from a feasible solution. Until we find a solution to either replace the milliamperes of a battery, let us cover some ways in which we can help our battery last longer than usual. In this article we elucidate you about ways that are a sure to help you save those milliamperes for the last mile of that game or that important call you wish, you could have done.
What Drains the battery?
To cure a disease, it is important to figure out the pathogens before going for the resolution. Likewise when it comes to smartphones, we need to figure out the the exact cause behind heavy drainage of our battery. Turns out a mobile’s internet connection and your screen are the biggest battery drainer. A lot of activities require the screen to remain active ; things like playing a game or watching a movie. It is something we can’t avoid obviously or what’s the point of making a portable device
What sucks the battery
When we watch a video or play a graphics intensive game, a lot of things are happening in the background. Like when you fire a video or play a game, every sense organ of that device is in action, the speaker, the screen, the processor and even the internet connection. With time, games are getting even more intense which is further an issue for smartphones.
Another issue can also be the over usage of GPS or navigation. A navigation requires you to turn the location services ON and when that happens few things drain the battery very quickly. First and foremost, your screen will alway be ON. Also when you go by the navigation, the app forces the GPS circuitry to refresh the app more than the normal rate. There is also heavy involvement of wifi or cellular data which is where a fair amount of battery drainage happens. So the next time you are making use of GPS, do make sure that your device is connected to a power source so that there is no sudden drop in the battery of your device.
Easy Solutions
A smartphone is a necessity in today’s world and battery is an integral part of it. However as a user, you can always make sure of a few things which can help your battery last longer. All the suggestions made below require very little technical knowledge.
1. Use the screen less—or at least turn brightness down
Use the screen less—or at least turn brightness down
If we could draw a graph using the things that consume the maximum battery then your phone’s screen would top the bars. Today there are tons of things that consume battery.
A random video on facebook or normal browsing even for a small time can affect your battery.Apps like snapchat and even games like Pokemon Go drain tons of battery juice due to continuous usage of screen and the heavy reliability on the GPS.
A good way is to try and limit your usage of screen intensive tasks.
Another recommendation is to reduce down the time that takes your phone to lock off automatically. It might seem unimportant, but in the long run, you will realize the impact it has on your battery. Almost every smartphone has this feature where you can alter the lock time time to a few minutes or even seconds.
In android phones,
Click on “settings”,
Head towards “General settings”, click on auto lock which shall show the different timings that you can set.
Select the least time that you can set.
If you own an iOS device then go to settings and click on display and fix the sleep button. A wise way is to manually click the lock button the moment you’re done with your wok.
There is another tweak that one can do where you can necessarily set the brightness of your phone to auto. There are many who set the brightness of their phone’s screen to a limit that they are most comfortable with. Since you won’t always be under the same lighting conditions the whole day, it is highly recommended that you enable the auto brightness ON. It will set the light automatically and also help you save battery in the long run.
2. Use an ad blocker
When we talk about ads that appear in your browser. They are usually sources that are mediums of earning for people who have it on their sites. The problems arise when you browse such sites ; the ads pushes your browser to use a little too much battery. You might have been bombarded by flashy ads with gifs and videos while browsing the net. It is those ads that drain a lot of your battery juice.
A proper solution to this problem can be to use a browser such that it will block all the ads that pop-up. You can even install an ad blocker.
3. Switch from push to fetch Email if you have many accounts or get lots of Email
Switch from push to fetch Email if you have many accounts or get lots of Email
Push notification is a popular option in today’s smartphones where the user is notified of any incoming email. The user will be notified as soon as there is a message that hits from the central server. Push notification is a wonderful thing that helps you stay connected but for that it has to be always connected to the central server and so the internet. Net is always required for syncs and message delivery which drains energy.
4. Store music locally
With times, everything is being stored in cloud More and more people usually love to carry things that they can easily sync with their other devices.
There are many music streaming services such as Pandora, Apple music, Google play music and Spotify. Whenever you use a service that requires you to be always connected with the internet then it is sure to eat away your battery.
Any service where wifi or cellular data is mandatory will require you to be connected to the internet always.
But there are ways in which you can tweak them. You can opt for offline downloading so that whenever you wish to enjoy music, you can simply tap once and play your songs after having saved them over WiFi or by using your internet pack for a short time. It will free the phone from needing to always be connected to the internet. Also storage has become extremely accessible these days so you can easily download a and carry all your music with you. It will not require any internet and more importantly no more battery drains.
5. Avoid extreme temperatures
A smartphone battery is like an engine that produces heat with continuous usage but if the outside temperature is not suitable then it can have some impact on the overall quality of your battery. Even Apple once stated that the device battery shall last longer if the temperature outside lies in between 62 degrees to 72 degrees. Even when the conditions outside are very cold, battery life is shortened. The exact same happens when the phone gets heated up because of outside condition. These two conditions are sure to shorten your battery life so it is always recommended to keep your phone in optimum conditions.
6. Use airplane mode or low-power mode (if you must)
In both the platforms whether it is iOS or an android phone, there is an option called airplane mode. It was made so that when you travel on board a plane, your mobile network should not interfere with the communications happening inside the airplane. There are many good things that happen as part of initializing airplane mode.
One you end up saving a good amount of your battery life. In fact, you should enable the airplane mode at any place where you will be having poor range since there is no point in letting the phone use all of its power in finding range for a network. Your phone works even harder when it knows it isn’t getting the required range to gather any network for basic communications. When you use a phone in airplane mode, the battery drainage is very less.
There is also a feature that we have recently started to see in the latest android version Android oreo in which you can enable your phone to low power mode where in the phone automatically shuts down the tasks that are always sucking the battery out of your phone.
It is also often called as battery saver mode. In both the phones, you get the option where the phone automatically enters airplane mode once it knows that the battery has drained below a certain level. In such a case, the phone shuts applications and services which run in the background that are generally running when your phone has a healthy battery.
Read the full article at 2kreviews
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thanks ... but we all know this from here https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/forum/is-you-can-boost-your-phones-battery-life-0181301/
unfortunately copy / pasta texts form other websites or blogs doesn`t look nice , more like self promotion
We`re looking forward to more original contributions.
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