TIPS
1) Widgets: Widgets draw a lot of battery as they need to be constantly refreshed to provide the constant updates. And yes, they do look good. Remove widgets that you do not use. Even better if you could uninstall the widget if you do not use it. This is required because, in the case of lot of widgets, even if you do not use the widget on your home screen, it runs in the background drawing power.
Solution: Try to use widgets sparingly.
2) Brightness: Reduce Brightness. Settings > Display > Brightness. Saves a lot of battery.
Automatic Brightness: One of the quickest battery drainers. Since the device uses sensors to discover the amount of light to display, switching this off, helps in reducing the sensor usage and decreases load on the CPU. Thereby decreasing battery drain.
Solution: Use ‘Power Widget’. Check if this is available on your widget list or download this from the Android Market. It allows you to manually change the brightness of your screen as and when required. Helpful, because you do not need to get to settings every time you want to change the brightness.
3) Wireless Connections:
1. Switch off 3G/2G Data, Wifi and Bluetooth when not in use. Power Widget can be configured to help you manage it by giving options for each.
2. You can also automatically disable wifi if you are not using it by using the sleep policy. Go to: Home > Menu > Settings > Wireless & network settings > Wi-Fi settings > Menu > Advanced > Wi-Fi sleep policy > Choose from options – When Screen turned off, Never when plugged in, never.
3. 2G uses less battery than 3G. If you do not require high speeds at all times: Settings > Wireless controls > Mobile networks > Use only 2G networks
4) Haptic Feedback or Vibration: To vibrate your device, a considerable amount of battery is required. But it is essential to know when a call or SMS is received, especially if you carry your device in your pants pocket in a noisy environment. Also, Haptic feedback is the vibration that occurs when you press buttons on your phone, for example, when using the keyboard.
Solution: Reduce vibration for most activities and only use for essentials, like phone call or message.
You can remove most vibrations from apps which have notifications. If the notifications are not important, use the menu in the app and remove vibrate from settings. Also, you can remove vibrate for call waiting or when you receive an sms while on call. Since you can hear the beep, most people do not require the extra vibrations. Plus, it is distracting.
5) Automatic Updates: To understand why this is important. Let’s first understand what it actually does. To keep you updated the device or app needs to sends a message to its respective server if there are any new updates. Then wait for the server to respond back and understand the response and provide a feedback on your screen. This entails the use of internet as well as CPU and memory usage. Now imagine this has been set to check every 5 minutes in a day. It will keep on doing so, thereby reducing battery, even when you are not using your device.
Solution: From the Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync Settings > Disable Auto-sync (can be accessed directly using Power Widget). You can reactivate it as and when required and remember to switch it off once sync is complete.
1. At the bottom of the same screen, check Manage accounts. You will see various accounts like Google – named as per your email address, Facebook (if you use it), etc. Here you will see apps that you can update manually by opening the app when required and refreshing it. Such apps can be removed from the auto sync list by clicking on the account to be removed and clicking on remove account. Also, you can add new accounts if required. Click on Add Accounts to see which accounts you can add.
2. In Manage accounts, each account can be changed as per your preferences. For example: if you click on the google account, you will see options like – Sync Contacts, Sync Gmail, Sync Calender, Sync Google+ (if you use it) etc. Untick any that is not useful to you. The same can be done for the other accounts.
3. Common Error: Users install multiple third party apps for the same account. A very common example is Facebook and Friendcaster. Both are used for Facebook, so it’s not important for both to be a part of the Manage accounts. Notifications still work without it.
Apps Solution: With so many apps updating in the background, it is no surprise that battery doesn’t last a day. If all your apps like mail, news, twitter, facebook, gmail, etc. check for updates every 10 minutes, that will be 144 times in a day for each app. A big battery drain.
Since most good apps allow you to go into their settings. Look for update interval or polling frequency or something similar. Reduce it to 1 hr or more depending on how critical it is for you. The more you can reduce this the better it is, of course. This is a need v/s capacity, so to each his own.
6) Background Data: Another Option found in Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Accounts & Sync Settings. Background data is not required for all apps to work. Some like Android Market, Backups apps to Gmail etc. do require it. However, a normal user doesn’t use it all the time.
Most manufacturers provide an option to disable the background data through widgets. If you cannot find this option, you can download a small app called “Sync Settings” which provides direct access to the Accounts and Sync settings page. From here you can disable or enable the background data. The plus point for this app is the size plus it installs a shortcut on your home screen and not a battery draining widget.
7) Sounds: Audible touch tones or screen lock sounds: The new smart phones provide a lot of bells and whistles that we are charmed by. Although, they may sound good, but as for every other feature, it needs power.
Solution:
1. Reduce Volume for Ringtone
2. Speaker phone use more power than the earpiece so use it only when required.
3. Disable: Audible touch tones, Audible selection, Screen lock sounds, Haptic feedback etc.
8) GPS or Location: GPS switched on means that the receiver is on constantly looking for a satellite and trying to connect. There are many times when you do not need the accuracy of GPS satellites and can instead use wireless networks like your mobile data connection or Wifi to provide the location.
Solution:
1. Switch off GPS when not required (Power widget can provide direct access to the settings). Else: Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Location and Security > Untick “Use GPS satellites”.
2. Use Wireless networks: Tick it. The benefit of this is that it will only search when required by the device and that too when you choose to connect to the internet.
9) Installed Applications: As more and more applications are installed, the device has to read the data. The more data read is equal to more battery usage. Also, many applications run in the background even when you are not using it. This increases the usage of the resources like CPU and RAM making your device slower and also the battery.
Solution:
1. Check your battery usage: Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Application settings > Battery use. This will tell you which processes are draining the battery the most, helping you make an informed decision on which apps to remove.
2. Uninstall applications that are not required. You can always reinstall when required from the Android Market. To do so: Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Application settings > Manage applications > select the application > Uninstall
3. For the apps that you use, always check if it has an exit or quit option. This closes the app completely releasing resources.
For example: Games generally ask you if you want to quit. Do so. Opera Mobile is another good example. However, the option to exit is not there by default. To do so, open Opera Mobile > Menu > Settings > Advanced > Enable ‘Exit button’. Always use this option to exit as this is a big app and uses a lot of memory.
10) Reduce the number of home screens: Most devices use multiple home screens. Good Launchers provide up to 7 screens. But rarely are all the screens used by the user.
In most cases, users have 5 - 7 home screens but use only 3 – 4. Suggest decreasing the number of home screens to the ones used. A general good figure is not more than 4. Lesser the better.
11) Reduce Animations / Transitions: Don’t we love the sliding, rolling, tilting etc when we go from one screen to another. They all use resources. Try and reduce animations or transitions either from the launcher (home screen) or individual apps. If you see apps showing animations, there sure will be a way to reduce or disable the animations. Look for them in the settings.
12) Disable Live Wallpaper: Live Wallpapers are a constant drain on the battery. Use sparingly.
13) Background Wallpaper: Use Darker background wallpaper. Brighter ones use more battery.
14) Screen Time out: Enable screen time out. This will not only help the battery but also keep roving eyes away. Home screen > Menu > Settings > Display > Screen timeout. The shorter the period, the less power your display will use.
15) Strong Network connection: Devices use more battery when searching for a network connection. If your mobile network fluctuates a lot, you will lose more power. Try keeping it a area which has a good reception. Download Antennas if you need to know where you are receiving a good connection.
