Related
I keep reading on here about how either someones battery life is either awesome or great or this or that. It seems that many folks on here with great battery life are old pros at milking their phones for the best battery life possible, while others may not know the best methods for getting the optimal battery life they want.
So here are some tips for getting the battery life you want:
1) Calibrate your battery by letting if completely discharge and then charge it using the wall charger it came with. Do this at least three times so the phone has a chance to get real statistics.
Update: It is recommended that you do not do this very often as some say it could damage the battery in the long term. You should do this early on in the life of the phone as the damage if any would be minimal. This needs to be done regardless. It is the only way for the phone to get an accurate full/zero reading.
Update 2: I have found that after doing a factory reset, you need to do this step again. After a factory reset on 4.1.83 (most recent update), my battery life dropped considerably. After letting it discharge fully and then charging it with the phone off again, I was back to normal battery use.
2) Set wifi to sleep when the phone is not in use. Unless you are streaming data such as pandora or other data intensive programs with the screen off, you do not need it on (I will talk about background data in a moment for those who are going to mention that the phone still does data while it is sleeping). You can change the setting by going to Settings > Wireless networks > wifi settings > menu button > advanced > wifi sleep policy
ofek said:
You should write that after settings it you need to click on menu button->save.
If you will not do this step, every reboot it will restored to "Never" option.
Sent from my Motorola Atrix 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3) Disable motoblur's account settings sync over cell data. This setting causes all of your account information to sync over your data connection when wifi is not available. This should be disabled as it will constantly sync and drain your battery even when the screen is off. Really do you need you facebook contacts that are synced to your contacts to be updated every five minutes? Settings > Data manager > Data Delivery > social apps > sync over wifi.
Update: Only disable the Social Apps that sync over background, do not disable the Background data. Disabling background data will cause certain things to not work properly, like for instance the gmail app.
Update 2: If you are using the Twitter/facebook/whatever apps (real apps) you should go ahead and remove the associated accounts from Motoblur. You do not need them to sync twice as motoblur will sync them with it's account and then the apps will sync. The downside to this though is that any contact pictures you have synced from those accounts will no longer show up in contacts forcing you to manually add pictures to your contacts.
4) remove widgets. Widgets drain batteries when they are active. Most of them are useless and really serve no purpose other than to try and make you feel important about yourself. I mean really, how useful is a facebook widget that only shows one or two peoples updates? Trash the ones you can live without. If you are using a launcher other than motoblur, go and load motoblur and make certain there are none running on that launcher as those are still active even if you use another launcher.
5) live wallpapers suck battery like crazy. While they are nice eye candy to view, they are not worth the drain they cause. Even when you are in a app, just like the widgets, they are draining your battery.
Update: Some live wallpapers are better on battery drain than others, but they still drain battery either way. I will not use a live wallpaper as it serves no purpose other than eye candy, and eye candy on a phone I can live without.
6) Task killers. Yeah not going to touch this one as everyone who reads these forums should know better by now.
7) check individual programs as you install them and make certain they do not autoupdate content. Pulse news reader is a good example of a program that pulls data in the background even when you haven't used it in weeks. Really is it going to kill you to hit refresh when you load it?
Update: If you are using the AT&T program "Mark the Spot", it constantly is checking device performance and is constantly checking your location for it to "work". Be sure to watch this app as it drains a lot of battery through out the day.
8) turn off bluetooth, gps, and wifi when you are not actively using them. Wifi when on is always scanning the area for networks, bluetooth is always actively broadcasting (on some phones) and who needs gps when you aren't on the move.
Update: If you are experiencing a switch from H+ to Edge frequently such as in your home where you have wifi running and do not have a AT&T cell device, then turn off your data connection. Your phone is constantly trying to connect to the H+ network when it isn't already connected and draining power. If you are on WiFi, then your data connection is not needed.
I have heard Tasker is great for setting up an automatic script on your phone to do it for you so you don't have to think about it, but remember that all extra programs including tasker eat away at your battery and without real world testing, I can not promise you will see an improvement or a loss in battery.
You can also use APNDroid to do it manually if you would rather have full controll of your data connection.
9) Quit watching porn on your phone. Use your computer for that. Ok maybe I am the only one who does this but I doubt it. Alot if the free poem sites use flash videos and the more you use flash the faster your battery drains.
Update: Yes I know this is hard (no pun intended) for some of you to do, but the idea is sound. Using flash videos (the bulk (again no pun intended) of porn videos use flash).
These are not the only ways to have a great battery and this information may not be useful to you, but I can go nearly 20 hours of moderate to heavy phone use and still have anywhere from 40 to 60 percent battery left at the end of the day.
If anyone has any other advice that they feel should be listed here, please let me know and I will gladly add it to the mix.
Good luck folks.
Addition (5/12/11)
10) For those of you with the .83 update, please keep in mind that the update now forces you onto the EDGE (2G) Network if it can receive a better signal/stable connection. If you notice you are on EDGE more often than the H+ network, then disable your data connection. What is happening is that even though you have a solid connection to the EDGE network, your phone is constantly seeking the H+/3G networks thus using much more battery life than before. If you are at home or somewhere where your phone can connect to a wifi network, consider turning off the Data network. You should also disable your data connection whenever you are in a No Signal area. Again the same problem happens when you have no signal.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
Advice from other Members:
From Deggy
I would like to add to the OP's list of things to do to improve battery life:
Turn off date when not in use for a long period of time like work or school. Settings -> Date manager -> Date delivery -> uncheck Backround data and Data enabled. Don't worry, you'll still get your texts and phone calls.
The Market is a big drainer. Market -> hit menu -> settings -> change notify me -> do not notify me.
Those two are the big ones to worry about IMO.
The other tips are either cliche stuff or other people said already. Wifi off, GPS off, brightness down to 0-20%, ect. Auto sync is killer.
I unplug my phone at 9AM and come home from work at 9PM and my phone says 75% with moderate use (Circle battery widget uses 1% increments). 3-4 phone calls. A LOT of texting (wifey likes text me). Internet during 30 minute lunch. Play Words with Friends a good amount.
I don't use live wallpaper but I do use a darker colored static one. Only got 4-5 widgets on my screen. 3 home screens. Using Launcher Pro.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
pookeyster said:
In some of the other battery threads, ppl have been commenting on how they've had success in extending the battery life after a hard factory reset. What that basically does is it deletes and regenerates the batterystats.bin file in /data/system and if the battery was essentially mis-calibrated prior to the reset, the reset fixes it thus giving better measurements. ie. perhaps after 10hrs of usage the phone might say u have 5% left, but in reality you could have 40% left.. the regeneratin of batterystats.bin would recalculate that correctly
if you want the benefits of having that reset process but rather not go through having to restore all ur apps/back them up.. u could always manually go and delete the batterystats.bin file (only if you're rooted). i would recommend deleting the file after fully charging the phone overnight then unplug it so that it generates the file again. if you'd prefer an app to do this for you automatically you could always go to the marketplace and get 'battery calibration' app for free and it does the same thing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
cybal said:
My want to include details about corp email sync. Using "push data" can really chew up the battery and is probably not better then retrieving email every 15 or 30 mins for most people. There may also be a problem with setting a long history time such as 1 month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The following was posted on the MotoAtrix forums on Motorola's website. https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/51776
I've seen a lot of posts in a lot of threads about how to save battery life on the Atrix. So, I figured I'd start a consolidated thread on the matter. These are the tips 'n tricks I've used, and I can get 2 days of battery life on the Atrix now.
1. When I first got the Atrix, before turning it on, I charged it for 4 hours. After turning it on, I let it run until it died, then re-charged for 8 hours. I did that for a full week. They say that this isn't needed with the new-fangled batteries, but I have always done this, and have always gotten great results.
2. Live wallpapers are not your friend, especially in two circumstances: 1. you use your phone a lot, and 2. you use the stock unlock screen where everytime the phone wakes the live wallpaper is playing. Granted, they don't eat up much battery, but if you're looking to get every ounce/percentage out of your phone, it's a luxury you can leave at home.
3. Did you install a new launcher? If so, did you clear out BLUR? I had my BLUR interface up and running with widgets and shortcuts, etc, etc. When I switched to ADW I noticed an increase in battery drain. I re-loaded BLUR and deleted all apps, widgets, etc so BLUR is blank. I now have great battery life with ADW running.
4. Widgets - ugh. They're pretty, they're big, they're animated, and they eat battery like bees eat pollen. Be mindful of them, and be willing to accept the consequences of the "cool factor".
5. Screen timeout. Yes, it's annoying to unlock your phone every 5 minutes, but you do save battery life with a 1-minute or less timeout option set.
6. Close your apps! Many apps, games especially, are fantastic at running in the background on Android, but they're sucking battery. They all restore to your previous position quite well, so if you're done for a few hours, exit it instead of just going back to your launcher screen.
7. "back" vs. "home" - the back button (the reverse arrow) does a much better job of closing down programs than the home button which just brings up your home screen, leaving whatever you were doing to hungrily consume battery like zombies on a corpse.
8. "manage apps" is your friend - go to your app tray, hit the menu button, and select "manage apps" - you can see all the running apps and kill them selectively. Some, like Facebook, Skype, and others, will stay there as long as the phone is on once you use it, unless you kill it. Be forwarned though, you'll stop getting notifications if you do this - another informed tradeoff. I do this once every few days, or if the Atrix seems sluggish.
9. Screen brightness - the "auto" setting doesn't work all that well, but I highly recommend leaving it there, and/or using a screen brightness toggle widget on your home screen to manage this carefully. Screen brightness on maximum will yield the best viewing experience but it does drain battery the fastest of all.
10. Choose your BLUR accounts wisely - like widgets, if you have LinkedIn and Facebook connected through BLUR, it will run ALL THE TIME. Using the native apps from the market will definitely decrease your overall drain and give you better control over when and how your battery is consumed by those services.
11. Auto-kill or be killed - A good rule of thumb for me is to only auto-end a task if you know exactly what it is, and it didn't come with the phone. Chances are if you don't recognize it, even if it looks like something you don't need running, leave it be. If it's something you installed from the Market, and you want it to auto-end, have a field day. If you put something on the auto-end list that the Atrix needs, it will just keep re-starting it. This draws processor time and battery and isn't worth it.
12. (credit: Itsallgood) Check your profile - "settings -> battery" and look at the bottom half of the screen. The Atrix supports multiple battery saving profiles that allows you to control "night time" and whether to actively sync data all the time, never, or only during certain hours. Push mail and active data sync consumes battery at a steady pace. In addition, 3rd party apps (like Settings Profiles) can be downloaded to further tweak and customize everything from vibrate mode, screen, data sync, and more. The more customized your experience to fit your needs only when you need specific services, the better your battery life will be.
Anyway - that's some to get started, feel free to add more!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
wow nice ill try it i have my atrix for a couple of days and i have been like dissapointed i dont wanna do a factory reset or anything like it ill try ur guide and let u kno
Personally, I don't see the point of disabling everything that makes an Android fun and unique.... but, ill see how the battery is stock vs this once it arrives.
Thx
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Mr.Kakarot said:
Personally, I don't see the point of disabling everything that makes an Android fun and unique.... but, ill see how the battery is stock vs this once it arrives.
Thx
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have to disable everything, but the things above such as the background data syncs serve no purpose other than to drain a battery. The sync will complete during the next wifi connection and by time you access your contacts it will be done. Besides it'd not like all your contacts change every 30 minutes.
The idea is not so much to limit the experience of android, but to remove the unused features that do nothing for.you. I mean who really needs a youtube widget when the shortcut gets you to youtube just as easily and doesn't drain your battery.
It's the same idea as startup programs on your computer. They serve no purpose other than to slow your system down. Sure quicktime or itunes might load a few seconds faster, but how often do you really load those programs.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
#9 = cant do
u know how they monitor work computer ?
Great Post
The only propblem now following your advice is that my gmail email does not upgrade (sync) on its own
keithr1475 said:
The only propblem now following your advice is that my gmail email does not upgrade (sync) on its own
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you using the gmail app or the default app? Mine works just fine.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I'm using the Gmail APP
the gmail app doesnt sync on its own because you turn off auto sync
i recommend you use the power control widget and adjust those accordingly
Definitely a good list of things, but felt like commenting on the live wallpapers thing. From what I've experienced, it seems like it depends a lot on the wallpaper used. I initially thought the live wallpaper was one of the main reasons for the short battery life when I first got the phone so I switched to a normal wallpaper. I had that for about a week and generally saw a lot of improvements in battery life as a result of better management and the calibration cycles. After that week, I came across a live wallpaper I liked and decided to enjoy that feature for a bit more. If anything, it seemed like my battery life got a bit better. I've tested it a little, and there's no doubt that some of my live wallpapers drain battery more than others. I've tried switching between a standard wallpaper and my live wallpaper (galaxy live) and I really don't see much of a difference, if any, between the 2.
Question: Does freezing the blur home screen (via titanium backup) disable the widgets on it? I'm assuming it does, since it essentially makes that home screen non-existent as far as the phone is concerned.
Darrell, There are some really good suggestions. They also apply to other android phones too probably. I had a myTouch4G for a week until I decided that T-Mob just wasn't as good a value to me as AT&T. So I went back. I'll get an Atrix soon, or maybe some Tegra that comes out in a month or 2.
How do you switch to Motoblur from Launcher Pro and back again? Will I lose the customization that I've done?
Edit: Home Launcher
DarrellRaines said:
1) Calibrate your battery by letting if completely discharge and then charge it using the wall charger it came with. Do this at least three times so the phone has a chance to get real statistics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read somewhere in this forum that you shouldnt let the battery run all the way down in the initial calibration week. Anybody know about this?
psymont said:
I read somewhere in this forum that you shouldnt let the battery run all the way down in the initial calibration week. Anybody know about this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Modern lithium batteries actually die faster if you fully drain them then recharge to full. I'm not saying you can't do it every so often for calibration purposes but it isn't recommended as a every day thing.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
We aren't running them down for the batteries health, but more so that the phone will understand what full and what dead actually is.
Do not do this often as there is no point. As for damaging the battery, one website says it is bad while others say it is good. Do so at your own risk. I do not have a degree in science, so I can not say either way, however the steps above done once the phone is calibrated will help.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
After 12 hours of moderate to heavy use today, I still have 50% battery remaining.
For the guy who's email stopped working, do not turn off all background data. That will stop the push settings I believe.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
wait....quit looking at porn on my phone?!??!!?
impossible!
no matter, im not having battery life issues.
Darrel this works i just did the wallpaper step and wow my battery stood up all day from 7am now is at%15 10pm
send from my unrooted atrix using xda app
gambit_pr said:
Darrel this works i just did the wallpaper step and wow my battery stood up all day from 7am now is at%15 10pm
send from my unrooted atrix using xda app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I could help.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I really wonder why there is none of such thread here!
Gingerbread unfortunately brought only bad things to my Nexus. I already forgot why I was so crazy about installing it.
What feature did it introduce again?
Okay the response is much better and everything seems faster...but with lots of bugs?
That screen off animation? Seriously?
Things that I hate now:
- Battery Time: this is bad, can't even run half a day with lot of usage, b
efore I could listen to mp3's one day, ie. more than 4 hours without any problems...now
- Camera: either Cam or Video, the application crashes after I take a photo or video and then I can not connect to it anymore
- Gallery: often crashes, especially if you have an online photo account connected
- unlock screen: I use a pattern, often there is no overlay of what pattern I drag, still the screen can be unlocked
- Market: even if automatic updates activated, it only updates if you open the market and go to the "my apps" tab
- 3G and Wifi: if you are connected to wifi more than 15 minutes and then disconnect from it you do not get any 3G, you have to go to airplane mode and back, this bug appeared ages ago and was fixed, now back again...tells you a lot about their merging control, ie. sucks
- notification led: you know...
- apps: there are a lot of apps running even though I never used them since restart (see it in a task killer app)
- gps: on a random bases it tries to lock even though no app that uses gps is running
- phone reboot: it even rebooted without any notice two times since I installed it
(- Contacts: I still can't enter a simple thing like a birthday on an expensive phone like this)
MOD EDIT: Borderline trolling removed. If you switch OSes, that's your own choice. No one here is stopping you.
Got any troubles? Tell here.
DarsVaeda said:
1. Battery Time
2. Market: even if automatic updates activated, it only updates if you open the market and go to the "my apps" tab
3. notification led: you know...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4. Blank keyboard- fixed by switching to another keyboard and back again, or a reset
5. Blank Launcher- fixed with reset
6. In the stock SMS app a long press>delete conversation doesn't always delete the selected conversation; sometimes you have to do it twice.
As far as battery goes, my display is still the thing that takes up the most battery (which is normal) but I had been experiencing severe declines in battery life. Does the switch to 32-bit color require more processing power and therefore battery?
I *#*#4636#*#*>phone information and saw it was set to WCDMA preferred. I remember playing with the option when froyo came out but didn't remember what it was set to (Maybe Gingerbread reset the option...?). I changed it to GSM PRL (Auto), and have experienced increases in battery life, as my phone isn't hunting for 3G all the time- it uses a service provided list of tower locations.
The LED REALLY bugs me.
Hate about Gingerbread
No trackball wake
Juice Defender Doesn't work (but Green Power does - works well but with less flexibility than JD)
Short battery life
Useless keyboard selection gimmicks
- Market: even if automatic updates activated, it only updates if you open the market and go to the "my apps" tab
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, glad to know mine isn't the only one that does this!!
On Froyo I would wake up in the morning to freshly updated apps that had updated automatically over night.
I have not had this happen a single time on Gingerbread, and nearly every time I go in to the market there are updates waiting.
What is the point of the automatic update feature when it doesn't work???
NexusDro said:
To be fair, the OP did mention about switching to Apple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GldRush98 said:
Well, glad to know mine isn't the only one that does this!!
On Froyo I would wake up in the morning to freshly updated apps that had updated automatically over night.
I have not had this happen a single time on Gingerbread, and nearly every time I go in to the market there are updates waiting.
What is the point of the automatic update feature when it doesn't work???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
auto update never worked for me, even in froyo.
-Battery with CM7 roms
-Trackball wake blocked in non-CM7 roms
-More difficult to mod themes like statusbar (before we just had to change a png and now we have to edit a bunch of files)
So in summary GB roms are still not stable and complete, they have either TB wake missing or poor battery life too
My annoying issues?
- 2 second mic mute after I answer a call
- stock launcher choking after a while
Less annoying ones:
- Market does not automatically update apps
- gps activations without an apparent reason
My annoyances
In no particular order:
The cursor select triangle not lining up with the cursor
Launcher unresponsive/vanishing
Lockscreen pattern not showing (as in the OP)
Phone randomly stays awake at night
GPS turns itself off
Not able to view an apps wakelock any more
USB mount screen shows 'turn off' even when it isn't mounted (UK issue)
USB debugging icon doesn't appear, or doesn't turn off depending on how you enabled it
Exchange push is just crap now, I swear it's getting worse by the day
DarsVaeda said:
- Battery Time: this is bad, can't even run half a day with lot of usage, b
efore I could listen to mp3's one day, ie. more than 4 hours without any problems...now
- Camera: either Cam or Video, the application crashes after I take a photo or video and then I can not connect to it anymore
- Gallery: often crashes, especially if you have an online photo account connected
- unlock screen: I use a pattern, often there is no overlay of what pattern I drag, still the screen can be unlocked
- Market: even if automatic updates activated, it only updates if you open the market and go to the "my apps" tab
- 3G and Wifi: if you are connected to wifi more than 15 minutes and then disconnect from it you do not get any 3G, you have to go to airplane mode and back, this bug appeared ages ago and was fixed, now back again...tells you a lot about their merging control, ie. sucks
- notification led: you know...
- apps: there are a lot of apps running even though I never used them since restart (see it in a task killer app)
- gps: on a random bases it tries to lock even though no app that uses gps is running
- phone reboot: it even rebooted without any notice two times since I installed it
(- Contacts: I still can't enter a simple thing like a birthday on an expensive phone like this)
I think there is more if I think about it.
Seriously thinking about switching back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I'm not a big Gingerbread lover at all, here are answers to some of the points:
Battery time is fine, at least in freshly installed ROMs it far exceeds what Froyo mastered.
Camera is your own problem - you didn't update radio, or your update went bad.
Gallery never crashed - again, your own problem (you get the feeling now, right?).
3G and WiFi - again, your own problem. No bug.
Apps - and why do you care? Isn't the "DO NOT USE TASK KILLER" thread clear enough? 150-200MB free RAM aren't self-explanatory?
Due to your comments, you might really consider switching to Apple. It would be beneficial both for you and for this forum.
Or you could back up user data, wipe, install new radio and bootloader, load fresh Gingerbread ROM (NOT CM7 or CM7-based), and have most of your points addressed.
Now, having said that, if you want a much better overall feel - install Froyo-based Desire port, or if you don't have any use for Hotspot - DesireHD port. I hate using barebone Android after some experience with it.
have you guys heard about Cyanogenmod ROM? I am using CM7 RC4 and I have no problems that anyone mentioned in this thread....
Maybe you haven't heard that your experience not necessarily represents anything.
For me (and another 2 guys that asked me to reinstall other ROM on their Nexus Ones), CM7 was a huge, awful pile of bugs. Starting with the ill-famous "wonk".
Plus, again, after having some SenseUI I don't really want to go back to plain Android, and wouldn't suggest it to anyone looking for a good overall experience.
I have an occasional problem with the application tray where it stutters, flashes and doesn't scroll properly. It seems to happen only after exiting certain apps, and needs the launcher to be force closed to fix.
xxlikquidxx said:
have you guys heard about Cyanogenmod ROM? I am using CM7 RC4 and I have no problems that anyone mentioned in this thread....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly my experience too. Absolutely brilliant ROM.
Jack_R1 said:
..after having some SenseUI I don't really want to go back to plain Android, and wouldn't suggest it to anyone looking for a good overall experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just lost all credibility in my book...
I would suggest the OP decides what features he/she wants in a ROM and then try a few different ones out. There are plenty to cater to all tastes and i'm sure they'll be able to find one that works well for them.
1. exchange sync stops syncing without any reason. can't start a manual sync. only reboot of the phone helps for a short period of time. needs a fix very urgently.
2. TINY TINY notification icons...the worst idea google had for the GB update. i cannot see the difference between the gmail and exchange mail icon on normal usage in example.
There are some more points which i also mentioned in my blog about gingerbread for nexus one:
http://smartphoneblogging.com/2011/03/review-android-2-3-3-gingerbread-for-nexus-one/
Thread Cleaned
Let's play nicely in here and keep this on-topic. This is not the place to discuss other operating systems. This is about issues pertaining to the OTA Gingerbread updates.
Thanks,
Your loving moderator.
One bug and one annoying change:
- The instability of the launchers. I hope they address this.
- The inaccessible GPS toggle. Tasker can't access it and neither can the toggle widgets. Why did they change this?
my mms sometimes does not send if i configure 2 APNs (one for mobile data and one for mms), while i disable the one for mobile data...
it's working fine on Froyo and CM6 before
benjatt said:
- The inaccessible GPS toggle. Tasker can't access it and neither can the toggle widgets. Why did they change this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
QFT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Auto brightness adjustment no longer fades, now it just jump straight to the target brightness which is quite abrupt visually.
And of course... trackball wake is gone.
I concur with these points:
- Battery Time: this is bad, can't even run half a day
- Gallery: often crashes, especially if you have an online photo account connected
- Market: even if automatic updates activated, it only updates if you open the market and go to the "my apps" tab
- GPS: on a random bases it tries to lock even though no app that uses gps is running
- Creating shortcuts on desktop: sometimes you can't drag/drop icons to the desktop or to a different spot on the desktop.
- The cursor select triangle not lining up with the cursor
- Auto brightness adjustment no longer fades, now it just jump straight to full bright or full dim.
As for the people suggesting we update the radio and try different roms, while that is primarily what this board is about, it doesn't "solve" anything. This is a stock Nexus One with official everything. If it doesn't work then it doesn't work.
Hello everybody! The purpose of this guide is to show you some free ways to greatly increase your battery life on the Droid X. First this guide assumes you have the Gingerbread kernel, root access, and are comfortable with ClockworkMod Recovery. If you have not installed a few roms, SBF’ed, or backed up your phone, learn how to and practice it a few times. I am not responsible if you fubar and have to SBF your phone. This guide is specifically written for the Droid X, but since the Droid 2 uses the same innards, you can probably use this guide interchangeably with that phone. Not all the steps in this guide only apply to the Droid X so I will say something on the steps that can be used on other Android devices.
First I'm going to start with basic things you do not want to do if you plan on saving battery. (All Devices)
Battery Saver Apps: Battery saving apps like Juice Defender are bad ideas. As I will explain later, many apps expect an always on data connection and prevent your processor from going into deep sleep when they are waiting for that data connection to come back on. Not to mention a battery saver is just another app and service that is running in the background potentially using battery.
Wipe Battery Stats: A Google developer has confirmed that the batterystats.bin does not hold battery calibration information. It holds information to compute battery usage information. The same information you see under “Battery Usage” in settings. Wiping this file just wastes your time.
Hungry Apps: Apps that use excessive notifications keep the processor from going into deep sleep. Facebook is the number 1 culprit here. Go into the app settings and turn of notifications. Use your back button to exit apps when you are done.
Automatic Backlight: On the Droid X, the Automatic Brightness setting is useless. Minimum brightness is too high by default. Either turn it off and set brightness manually or take the step I did that comes up later in this guide.
Wifi: Wifi when you are in range of a router uses less power than your 3G connection and is faster anyways. Wifi when you are not in the range of a router is a battery killer and should be avoided. Use your notification toggles if you have them. Get a widget if you don’t.
GPS: GPS should be turned off at all times unless you are actively using it. Nobody cares where you were when you posted on Facebook.
App killers: App Killers are good for hunting down and killing an app once in a while but are usually pointless. Android automatically loads apps into free memory for quicker starts. Why have your app killer wake up the phone from its idle, kill all of your apps to free up memory, and then have Android automatically reload most of those apps back into memory?
Bluetooth: Bluetooth headsets are best left in the car where you have your phone on a charger. If you need to use one off the charger, don’t forget to turn off your Bluetooth when you are done.
Charging: Charge as often as possible. Follow the same battery saving strategies you usually do when your phone is off the charger. It makes your phone charge faster. Keep in mind the mA rating on the charger. The stock one is 850mA. Do not exceed this rating. USB is ~500mA depending on other devices attached to the computer. The higher the rating, the faster the charge. Do not let the battery get very hot. Do not let your battery level drop below 10 very often. Low charge levels on Li-Ion batteries can damage them. Alternately, do not reputedly plug and unplug your phone once your battery shows 100. Android charges to 100 and lets it use up battery for a few percentages before it starts charging again. This is to prevent overcharging and damaging your battery. If you plug and unplug it repeatedly, it tricks Android into charging it more and more. Keep in mind that li-ion batteries lose capacity over time whether you use them or not. Replace them when they are no longer keeping you happy.
Step 1. Selecting a Rom
Liberty 3 forum topic: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1368049
Really for the purpose of this guide the only rom worth picking is Liberty 3. This rom is based on Motorola code which is known for good battery life and has init.d support baked in. It also has the power toggles in the notification bar and has pretty good customization. The 2nd-init roms that have init.d will work too but have issues with battery life. From this point forward I am going to assume you are going to be using Liberty 3 but the steps should work the same for other roms as long as there is init.d support.
Step 2. Installing the Rom
Use CWM to install the rom like you normally would. Start up and follow the usual setup wizard. Once you are able to get to settings, click on Liberty Settings, then Performance, then Start-up Tweaks, then uncheck everything except "Enable start-up tweaks." These settings interfere with the next step and are going to be duplicated by the next step.
Step 3. Install jakebitesmod
Jakebitesmod forum topic: http://rootzwiki.com/topic/3435-mods-jakebitesmods-v18-for-d2-ota-gb-kernel-all-roms-mods/ (Please consider donating to this developer as this script helps a lot of people.)
Jakebitesmod has some good scripts to optimize many things in Android. Pretty much anything that speeds up Android can have a small improvement on your battery life. We are specifically going to use his script to under volt the processor and set the governor at boot without using an app. Copy the linked file to your SD card and boot into CWM again to flash this. Restart your phone like normal.
Step 4. Configure jakebitesmod
Open Terminal Emulator and type “su”. This should prompt Superuser for root permission. Allow the permissions and move on. Type “modcentral”. This should bring up a little text menu of things to do. The menu option we are gonna be looking for is “1”. Read the safety issues and if you want to move forward press “Y”. From here we are going to select “1”. This option will leave you with the stock processor speeds but change the voltages on the processor to lower settings. This is generally safe because lower voltages should only cause problems with freezing and crashing, but should not physically be harmful to the processor. Voltage also makes much more of a difference on power than clock speed so this should save us a good chunk of battery. Push “Y” to continue and set the voltages and speeds at boot. Press enter a couple times and it should tell you it succeeded. Yay. From here we want to go to menu option “3”. Governors control when the processor jumps up or down in speed based on some magic formula that takes into account how much work your processor is expected to be doing. Personally I agree with jakebites and I chose interactiveX. It jumps up in speed fast enough not to appear like the phone is laggy and drops back down fast enough to save battery. It also automatically drops down to the lowest speed while the screen is off. After you have made your choice push “Y” and enter a few more times. Once we are back to a menu we can just hit the back button and exit the Terminal Emulator.
Step 4. Adjusting the Backlighting (All Devices)
The Droid X’s backlight settings is a real pain. The lowest brightness setting it will dip down to is 20. This is way too bright for darkness. You know what I mean if you have browsed at night in bed. Luckily there is an app for that. Download “Custom Auto Brightness” from the Market and install it. It ends up being called LogGraph in the app drawer for some odd reason. Open this and hit you menu key and then select “Preferences”. Select calibrate sensor and follow the directions on the screen. Then go to check brightness range and follow the directions on the screen. Then back out to the main screen and make sure “Demonstrate….” is checked. Push the left “Select sensor reading” and observe the line on the graph move. These are the levels of light the ambient light sensor are going to report at. So say you have the sensor reading slider set to 10. You move the bottom slider to a value of 2. This means that your backlight will be at its lowest level when your sensor says the light in the room is at a level of 10. You can adjust these to what you prefer, but for the best battery savings turn your readings at 1 and 10 to a value of 2. This will keep your backlight nice and low while you are in a dark room but still let your backlight jump up while you are outside. Once these are set head back into the preferences and make sure that all of the checks are enabled except “Foreground mode” and “Bypass hysteresis”. Once that is done hit the back button until you close the app and then turn your screen off and on. If you brightness is way lower than it was before you are golden. If not double check the guide.
Step 5. Install Your Normal Apps (All Devices)
The next steps require your normal apps to be installed and signed into those apps like normal.
Step 6. Set Your Sync Times (All Devices)
Install the app “AutoSync Account Activator” from the Market. Open and accept the agreement. Now you should see some apps listed. I get “Google” and “Facebook” but yours may vary depending on what you have installed. The process should be similar for each app. First off, click on “Google”. The first page called “Connections” lists you connections. Click on connections you would like your account to be able to sync on. Cellular is an obvious one but really you should have your wifi on and have it activated in this while you are home. The next screen, “Periodic Sync”, controls how often your apps sync. Unless you use your Google Calendar often, set that to “1 day”. Contacts should also be “1 day”. Gmail should be set accordingly to how often you care about your email. Others may show up. Set them to according to your judgment. Just keep in mind the more often you sync, the more battery you will use. If you do not use the service at all you can select “No period”. If you have one set to no period you should also set it in the next page to “Always off”. All of the rest should be set to auto.
Step 7. Observing What You Apps Are Doing and What to Do About It (All Devices)
This step is subdivided for the benefit of your eyes.
XDA Edition BetterBatteryStats forum topic: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809 (The link is at very bottom of 2nd post. Please purchase from the developer on Market if you use this more than a few times.)
A. This final step will ultimately probably figure out why you were getting bad battery. Android’s power management relies on what are called “wake locks”. Wake locks are things apps can create to tell Android’s power management to prevent the phone from going into deep sleep. Deep sleep is a state your processer goes into to basically shut itself off. A good example of a wake lock is when you are playing an mp3 and your screen is off. Normally when your screen is off your device wants to get into deep sleep asap. The audio service creates a wake lock to prevent your processor from entering deep sleep, because this would stop the mp3 playback. Most of the naughty apps out there use wake locks to keep data connections alive and use them to keep updating and keep notifications going. They tend not to give up that wake lock when they should and keep your phone from going to sleep. Apps that shut off your data connection, like Juice Defender, will cause even good behaving apps to freak out and keep their wake locks active while they wait for the data connection.
B. To look for these wake lock hogs we have a couple apps to get. The first one is from the link. It’s the XDA Edition of BetterBatteryStats. The second is CPU Spy from the Market. To use BetterBatteryStats just dump it on your sd card, use a file explorer to open it, enable Unknown Sources, and install it. Then open it, plug in your phone, unplug your phone, and use it like normal for a few hours. When you are ready, open the app, click on the first drop down, and select “Partial Wakelock”. Make sure the second drop down says “Since Unplugged”. Whatever apps are listed at the top are the apps that are keeping your phone from sleeping. My top 3 are DownloadManager (I was using Market and turned off my screen.), PowerAMP scan, and the PowerAMP service, but only the DownloadManager used any significant time. CPU Spy can be used to see how often your processor is going into deep sleep. Once you find your bad apps, you can look around in them and see if there are any settings in there to either turn off notifications, increase the time between updates, or anything else you may think is keeping the app busy.
C. If there is nothing there you can change, you can consider preventing it from starting. If you do not have ROM Toolbox Lite, download it. Open it and click on “Auto Start Manager”. Then scroll the screen sideways to get to the menu that says “Applications”. Click on apps and you will see two actions that we will be looking at. They are “boot completed” and “connectivity changed”. Apps like games, media players, internet radios, Facebook, etc, do not need to be started at boot and do not need to be started when connectivity has changed. Unselecting these will keep apps like Facebook from starting when you turn your phone on and when you switch from 3G to wifi.
D. If you ultimately can’t figure out why an app is keeping its wake lock for so long you may have to consider if the app is worth the lost battery life. Unfortunately there are just those apps out there that are poorly written. Consider sending an email to the developer explaining your problem and ask what you can do to fix it. If they don’t replay politely give them some poor feedback with a good explanation in the Market. They may look into the problem and correct it.
In Closing...
Thanks to everyone for reading, or at least skimming, my guide. I really hope this helps and saves time for a lot of people. If there are any issues anybody runs into I’ll try to help and explain the best I can. I apologize for any mistakes, errors, or bad sentence structure. If anybody has anything to add I will definitely consider adding it as long as it is free, easy to do, and produces results. If I broke any forum rules please notify me before deleting this topic. I’ll be happy to fix the issue.
About wake locks: http://forum.xda-developers.com/wiki/Wakelocks
Li-Ion batteries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery#Battery_charging_procedure
Batterystats.bin information: http://www.androidcentral.com/wiping-battery-stats-doesnt-improve-battery-life-says-google-engineer
(Edit 1: Added instructions to delete default init.d scripts installed with Liberty. They seem to conflict with jakebitesmod's voltage settings. They didn't want to stick through reboots. All of the script's functions are duplicated by jakebitesmod anyways.)
(Edit 2: Turns out that deleting the init.d scripts isn't needed. Instructions updated.)
Really great advice. I don't even have a Droid X. I have a One X but this is still very relevant.
Thank you
Great guide. You should include CPU Governor such as BoostedASSv2. It helped me get good battery life (as so others).
Hello all,
Following XDA for years, but wasn't posting that much. My apologize for that, trying to give my contributions now
So, to start, hereunder, a sum up of my recent tests over last German ICS rom, Stock XXLRG.
======================
This is the second version of this post, taking in account various comments so far.
Firtsly, this is aimed to share my feelings about my own experience. Hope this could help anyone in anything. Nothing more
Accordingly to Roy_W, I provide which I will call my "test phase" description at the end of post, as simple infos for you to better make your opinion according to your own use. It is not about precise calculations & results, but about comparing the same things.
Hope this helps.
======================
Tests
1. Stock LRG + Stock Kernel, No root
2. Stock LRG + Stock Kernel + Root + remove some samsung apps.
3. Stock LRG + Speedmod 3-7 + remove some samsung apps
4. Stock LRG + CF-Root LRG + remove some samsung apps.
Impressions
1. In my opinion, do not use this setup. Rom feels very laggy, many little freeze here and there but the must annoying is the battery drain and heat while wifi download.
I think this is due to screen ON + heavy download (1GB+, games like Max Payne or Nova)
Pen is not well reponsive also.
Note : Except in test 3, there should be no difference with pen responsiveness between 1,2 and 3. but that was the case to me. Dunno why ^^
2. Starting to feel better, due to the removal of some Samsung apps (Rooting should not have this kind of effect .
Complete list of removed applications at the end of this post.
The phone is more responsive, lesser lags, but other things from test 1 (battery drain, pen responsiveness) remains the same.
3. Very good setup.
Lags are mostly gone, and Pen responsiveness is far better.
Don't know if Speedmod have done some special work for that, or is just due to his overall tweaks. I think it is also related to Samsung S-Suite updates. (look at test 4)
Good battery, feels like it could be better but mostly due to Samsung Roms than kernel. With normal use (sms, few calls, internet, XDA app , new review, some always active sync like Weather, Gmail, Talk, ...), you can easily achieve 2 days (48h) before running out of juice.
Also lesser memory consumption in idle (maybe related to samsung apps that were removed)
But, bluetooth was not working and since it is a must have for me, I needed to go to test 4.
4. Currently in test. Don't have my bluetooth headset with me, so this test will be updated tonight or tomorrow for feedback about battery, bluetooth and other.
So far, overall responsiveness of the phone is ok, but not as good as with Speedmod.
Maybe a placebo ( ), but I always felt that Chainfire's kernel is behaving a little better than stock one even if the only difference is root rights.
Also lesser memory consumption in idle (maybe related to samsung apps that were removed)
Samsung Removed Apps
Always doing this since my GS. It always make the system smoother to me. Can't tell about battery save.
- All Hubs (Reader, Music, ...)
- All apps related to hubs. (Zinio, Press reader, kobo...are examples of ones eating too much storage space).
- the big one : Samsung social Hub (2 apks)
- All stock live wallpaper (storage space eater)
I did not removed the Kies apps, since there were never launched, do not bother me and was having some weird warnings about missing apks while trying.
I advised to keep All Share (which is functionnal and useful for cross hardware connection) and Samsung Apps (but deactivate sync from app settings)
Go also for setting, and deactivate Wifi sync for system updates (About Phone -> System updates).
I did not test NOTECore kernel which has good feedback (3.1 version) because of the bluetooth not working.
Test Phase
Mostly due to my work, I have quitely the same daily use.
- Kernel were flashed the morning, at full charge, with cache/dalvik cache wipe.
- Only 3G, no Wifi/GPS/Blutooth. Auto Brightness, no added/removed apps (except for tests cases above).
- Betterbattery stats, stock battery monitor and Go power master for battery monitoring
- Facebook sync off (for battery save)
- Gmail sync on
- Google+ sync & Instant Upload off (for battery save)
- Weather sync every 4 hours
- Samsung apps sync off (for battery save)
- 1h call
- Gtalk & Whatsapp always connected
- No Flash installed (feels like I should mention this)
- No kills or memory clean
- Fixed wallpaper (for battery save) & lesser lags for screens transitions and opened drawer using NOVA.
What I take into account while making my opinion about battery :
- screen on time versus battery lost for the same period of time. Having used different 720p androphones, I have my own appreciation of that.
For 2000mah full charged batteries in my use with full stock, 2-3h screen on time is really bad, 3-5h should be considered as a good average, 6h+ is a dream.
GNote has a 2500 maH battery, so I have my expectation and maybe that's why I feel bad battery bahaviour when it won't hurt you at all.
- if apps were differently used by me according to their respective impact on battery
- if the basic services of Android are stable towards battery (custom kernels often reduce that )
- any wake locks
- if battery seems not affected by side-effects like mentionned above, then wait for one week of use before stating.
What I take into account while making my opinion about smoothness:
It is about shutters between screens transition, apps transition, feeling about time for the usual apps to be launched, multitasking...nothing more that a simple user feelings
Bests
thanks for the tests... but we prefer the wiping tests... just kidding...
thanks for the info,
which method do you use to remove these apps please ?
Haha..only wipe caches & dalvik from speedmod and CF kernel. I won't take any rosk from stock kernel
For system apps removal, jusy need root and titanium backup
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
CF-root and stock kernels are identical. No tweaks. Nada. Just root and Clockworkmod recovery.
So, how can the phone lag with stock kernel and be OK with CF-root ???
Placebo ?
Maybe related to the init scripts. For sure the main thing is the root with this kernel but wihin these tests and also for all samsung devices I had with Cf, it were always behaving better.
As I also said, should be related to samsung apps removal, especially the hubs.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Phenryth said:
Hello all,
Following XDA for years, but wasn't posting that much. My apologize for that, trying to give my contributions now
So, to start, hereunder, a sum up of my recent tests over last German ICS rom, Stock XXLRG.
Hope this helps some of you.
Tests
1. Stock LRG + Stock Kernel, No root
2. Stock LRG + Stock Kernel + Root + remove some samsung apps.
3. Stock LRG + Speedmod 3-7 + remove some samsung apps
4. Stock LRG + CF-Root LRG + remove some samsung apps.
Impressions
1. In my opinion, do not use this setup. Rom feels very laggy, many little freeze here and there but the must annoying is the battery drain and heat while wifi download.
I think this is due to screen ON + heavy download (1GB+, gamers like Max Payne or Nova)
Pen is not well reponsive also.
2. Starting to feel better, due to the removal of some Samsung apps.
Complete list of removed applications at the end of this post.
The phone is more responsive, lesser lags, but other things from test 1 (battery drain, pen responsiveness) remains the same.
3. Very good setup.
Lags are mostly gone, and Pen responsiveness is far better.
Don't know if Speedmod have done some special work for that, or is just due to his overall tweaks. I think it is also related to Samsung S-Suite updates. (look at test 4)
Good battery, feels like it could be better but mostly due to Samsung Roms than kernel. With normal use (sms, few calls, internet, XDA app , new review, some always active sync like FB, Weather, Gmail, Talk, ...), you can easily achieve 2 days (48h) before running out of juice.
Also lesser memory consumption in idle (also related to samsung apps that were removed)
But, bluetooth was not working and since it is a must have for me, I needed to go to test 4.
4. Currently in test. Don't have my bluetooth headset with me, so this test will be updated tonight or tomorrow for feedback about battery, bluetooth and other.
So far, overall responsiveness of the phone is ok, but not as good as with Speedmod.
Should be related to various tweaks, and ChainFire always aimed to provide his kernels, with Root and few tweaks.
I had GS, GS2, and CF kernels were always really nice for those looking to a Rom not too far from Stock, but with some performance tweaks and root.
Also lesser memory consumption in idle (also related to samsung apps that were removed)
BUT, having some troubles with NOVA with this setup. Several freezes, and needs to restart the launcher.
I think it is related to root access which needs to be set again coming from Speedmod to CF. Will keep you informed.
Samsung Removed Apps
Always doing this since my GS. It always make the system fly
- All Hubs (Reader, Music, ...)
- All apps related to hubs. (Zinio, Press reader, kobo...are examples of ones eating too much storage space).
- the big one : Samsung social Hub (2 apks)
- All stock live wallpaper (storage space eater)
I did not removed the Kies apps, since there were never launched, do not bother me and was having some weird warnings about missing apks while trying.
I advised to keep All Share (which is functionnal and useful for cross hardware connection) and Samsung Apps (but deactivate sync from app settings)
Go also for setting, and deactivate Wifi sync for system updates (About Phone -> System updates).
I did not test NOTECore kernel which has good feedback (3.1 version) because of the bluetooth not working.
Hope this helps.
Bests
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got to be honest I disagree with a lot thats written here.
Point 1 :- Why shouldn´t we use this set up??You might have or had problems but a lot of other users don`t,me being one of them.I have had NO laggs,my battery doesn´t heat up that much with WiFi,nothing freezes and the battery life is 100% top,all what you did in Point 3 with usage I get in Point 1 plus a few hours more.
Point 2 :- Once again I disagree,I´ve had no problems what so ever,only rooted for a few extra apps and removed NONE of the Samsung apps,still fast and smooth.Battery life still top,even upto 3 day usage depending on what I´m doing.
Point 3 and 4.....can´t say anything about these points because I won´t go this far,why should I ,everything is super fast,no laggs,a lot less battery drain:good: no need for any mods.(bluetooth also works )
Maybe I´m one of the lucky ones with a good Note :laugh:but this report won`t help me,maybe a few with problems.
Hi I think you don't agree wih my report cause of different perceptions between you and I.
Battery perf is linked to what is acceptable or not for both of us and also from various comparison through many flashes since GB.
And for sure, Linked to the type of use we both have.
It is the same for smoothness. I must say I am very sensible to lags and freezes even milliseconds one For instance, I am so maniac with it that I can detect a lag in a movie while no one noticed around me.
Plus, you can tell about many things to explain mobile OS perf and I will not accept this since I can not accept that a phone running a spec near to a PC ones, suffers such perf issues.
The best example is the smoothness experienced with my nexus with Jellybean against ICS. It is day and night.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
Thanks OP for the comparison :victory:
Good initiative from OP for the comparison. Each person use the Note in a different way and will have different results surely from OP. But the main point of this thread was to give us a basic idea on the different setups OP has used. Thanks!
Thanx for making thread with detail study, thogh i can not be agree with many of statements.
Here something i like to say
- There is nothing much difference between test 1 & 2 except you have Root and removed some applications.
So does it mean
*Rooting can improve performance - I dont think so
*Removing application just making space on system ROM, so does making room on system ROM, can increase performance? I dont think so
many application you have removed may not be activated on start, naturally that doesn't have any relation with performance, b'coz it just occupy space not RAM
Now some application which may have enabled on boot, even that gives you temporary extra RAM, As android itself have LMK(low memory killer) which auto kills background applications which is not in used - LRU(least recently used), and when there is enough RAM available, even you exit from applications it remains in background for quike reopening, that is basic android mechanism. So if your aim to remove some application to make available more RAM, it won't be fulfilled, b'coz that application will be replaced by recently used application by users till android system dont sense as RAM is full. (you ca test it - when you have many applications removed, sure you will have much free RAM on boot, but if you look again after 15 min of play with device, it will be again full, same as who dont have remove blotwares, so wat benefits we got by removing those?)
Yes atleast i can say applications which was running in background for some time can consume little juice, but if you believe me, my experience is it can save maximum 3-4%(of full cycle) nothing more than that. But performance? I dont have any logic to believe it.
-I can't comment on test 3, as i have never used any custom kernel, and leaving your opinion untouched.
-Again between 2 and 4
yes you have also not tested much, but somewat if your opinion goes in favor of 4 (as you said in 1&2 responce is not good but in test 4 you saying it is OK) then if i am not wrong chainfire himself said, his kernel is complete stock (minus mmc_erase_cap command +root+su binary+CWM)
so in that case your opinion may not be placebo?
Anyway dear don't feel bad. appreciate your workout, but some points which i said dont favor me to agree completely.
Regards
I think my note must have been XXLRG when I got it but after trying to do some rooting things and bricking it, then finally loading XXLR1 (ICS) It is working great with no lag or freezing what so ever. Also have scored up to 4050 on Quadrant!
Da mOnKeY said:
Got to be honest I disagree with a lot thats written here.
Point 1 :- Why shouldn´t we use this set up??You might have or had problems but a lot of other users don`t,me being one of them.I have had NO laggs,my battery doesn´t heat up that much with WiFi,nothing freezes and the battery life is 100% top,all what you did in Point 3 with usage I get in Point 1 plus a few hours more.
Point 2 :- Once again I disagree,I´ve had no problems what so ever,only rooted for a few extra apps and removed NONE of the Samsung apps,still fast and smooth.Battery life still top,even upto 3 day usage depending on what I´m doing.
Point 3 and 4.....can´t say anything about these points because I won´t go this far,why should I ,everything is super fast,no laggs,a lot less battery drain:good: no need for any mods.(bluetooth also works )
Maybe I´m one of the lucky ones with a good Note :laugh:but this report won`t help me,maybe a few with problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree with this post. I didn't recognize any of the problems stated in the 1st option. I am currently running stock everything after having tried several different combinations of ROMS/Kernels.
There is also a lot of missing information in relation to what exact tests were performed and how they were measured : Whats apps were running at the time, were Wifi / GPS / Power Saving active, what was the state of the battery, how was "lag" measured, what brightness setting was used, Was a good 3g station nearby or was the telephone continually searching for a stronger signal, etc etc etc , The list could go on eternally.
As for anything batttery related, I do not understand how tests can be performed that have not been run over a relatively long period.
There are far too many parameters and options possible, that it would appear that the tests are merely personal interpretation.
I appreciate that you have taken the time and effort to do the testing but I am not convinced that the results can be treated as anything other than one persons thoughts at a given time.
I think that you can only perform these kind of tests when they are performed "identically" on a device that is reset from scratch and that the tests performed are measurable with precise calculation rather than the human eye/sentiment.
It is an almost impossible achievement outside of a qualified environment with a very strict set of controls.
Can the results be reproduced, is there any possibility that the results could change, would a third party be able to reproduce the same results ?
Unless of course detailed results and calculations are actually available, in which case it would be very interesting to be able read them.
Hi Dr. Ketan. Again, thanks for your guide, test 1 & 2 was done following it
Do not worry, I won't feel bad about your feedback, as for the previous one.
For sure, I think you and Chainfire knows that type of things better than me (no needs to tell why ^^), just reporting here my feelings over my tests.
*Rooting can improve performance - I dont think so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Think the same.
*Removing application just making space on system ROM, so does making room on system ROM, can increase performance? I dont think so
many application you have removed may not be activated on start, naturally that doesn't have any relation with performance, b'coz it just occupy space not RAM
Now some application which may have enabled on boot, even that gives you temporary extra RAM, As android itself have LMK(low memory killer) which auto kills background applications which is not in used - LRU(least recently used), and when there is enough RAM available, even you exit from applications it remains in background for quike reopening, that is basic android mechanism. So if your aim to remove some application to make available more RAM, it won't be fulfilled, b'coz that application will be replaced by recently used application by users till android system dont sense as RAM is full.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removing samsung apps does not affect that much battery, but smoothness. I certainly wrongly express myself.
Maybe CF kernel has nothing to do with it since I was always flashing this and removing the hubs (especially the social one) together.
But fore sure, since my galaxy S, even on the S2, and now on the NOTE, doing this does increase system smoothness.
I do not know that much about Android memory system managment, but the first time I've done this was because I was sick about seeing these services running in background, even without ever launching them once and it does consume memory.
Yes atleast i can say applications which was running in background for some time can consume little juice, but if you believe me, my experience is it can save maximum 3-4%(of full cycle) nothing more than that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you without any problems
You know the deal, 1% here and there...at the end, it saves some battery.
I will update my post, but I can now say that Speedmod provides better battery than Stock/CF, looking at my battery stats for today.
Roy_W said:
I have to agree with this post. I didn't recognize any of the problems stated in the 1st option. I am currently running stock everything after having tried several different combinations of ROMS/Kernels.
There is also a lot of missing information in relation to what exact tests were performed and how they were measured : Whats apps were running at the time, were Wifi / GPS / Power Saving active, what was the state of the battery, how was "lag" measured, what brightness setting was used, Was a good 3g station nearby or was the telephone continually searching for a stronger signal, etc etc etc , The list could go on eternally.
As for anything batttery related, I do not understand how tests can be performed that have not been run over a relatively long period.
There are far too many parameters and options possible, that it would appear that the tests are merely personal interpretation.
I appreciate that you have taken the time and effort to do the testing but I am not convinced that the results can be treated as anything other than one persons thoughts at a given time.
I think that you can only perform these kind of tests when they are performed "identically" on a device that is reset from scratch and that the tests performed are measurable with precise calculation rather than the human eye/sentiment.
It is an almost impossible achievement outside of a qualified environment with a very strict set of controls.
Can the results be reproduced, is there any possibility that the results could change, would a third party be able to reproduce the same results ?
Unless of course detailed results and calculations are actually available, in which case it would be very interesting to be able read them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many good hints in your posts.
For sure, I've made my tests with some knwoledge about that, and trying to be in the same scenario each time.
I will update my post towards the parameters activated and other you stated.
Thanx
yes custom kernel may have improvement, b'coz that is made for that purpose, and we know developer adds some tweaks to improve performance. though i have not tested it, i can be agree on that point. but i have not make review just b'coz i have not used.
Regards.
Phenryth said:
Many good hints in your posts.
For sure, I've made my tests with some knwoledge about that, and trying to be in the same scenario each time.
I will update my post towards the parameters activated and other you stated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Phenryth,
I look forward to your results, the basic idea of what you are doing has the potential of becoming a very interesting article.
These are tests without any statistical significance.
So in the end your heart or gut decided.
Everyone has there own view on how their phone should perform. If you are happy with it then there is no need to change it. If not then this guide provides some tips on how to improve it.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium
To me for the first time ever since the ICS was introduced the 1- setup is absolutely the best I have tried, and I did try all four of them including removing Samsung bloatware.
The touch response is super sensitive, the pen works not just perfect but it also marks when in a diagonal position something never happened before, my one and only complain is the same one since seven months: the lag which comes when opening the Contacts application for the first time ,which is absolute outrageous other than that I am satisfied.
[HOW-TO][NEWBIE GUIDE] Optimize & proper set up your Galaxy S6 Edge (stock firmware)
As I've read across this forum and on several specific threads related to usage, battery life and so on, as well as discussing with some of my friends having a S6 or S6 Edge, I realized that most of the people don't really know how to properly set up their phones or how to use them efficiently.
OK, I get it, this is a fancy phone, not every owner is a developer or tech guy so it might be that many choose it based on the looks and don't really know how to optimize it...then they start complaining about different things like lag or battery drain not knowing that most of the problems are caused by miss-usage or improper setup. Of course there are bugs too, nothing is perfect. Of course there are many firmwares available and some are market or carrier dependent so some features or settings might be missing from some of them or even work differently.
What I will try here is to provide some guidelines and tips for setting up various things on the phone in order to maximize it's battery life and for a better usage. I will also make some recommendations based on my experience, tests and usage that might not apply to everyone. Use common sense and logic to apply similar settings in your particular case. Don't come screaming that you made that or that and now something is not working.
And YES, I know there are similar guides like this posted over the Internet and I'll probably make similar recommendations here too but I couldn't find such a guide here on XDA that is particular to this phone (if there is a better one than you might as well ignore mine).
All these things I'll describe below are applicable to any STOCK, NON-ROOTED 5.1.1 firmware and won't break warranty or your phone.
Now that was a long (and maybe unneeded introduction) but I thought to write this for everyone...let's start.
Model No.: SM-G925F
Android: 5.1.1 r2 (LMY47X)
Baseband: G925FXXU2QOI7
Kernel: 3.10.61-5672012
Build date: Fri Sept 4 2015
Carrier: Orange RO
DISPLAY
First I would like to say some words about the display. We have a great display, high resolution and it is most likely the biggest battery drain factor. There are two major things about it that you should keep in mind and will help you to get a better battery:
1. It's AMOLED...that means that the black pixels on it will consume no power because are not lit. Studies showed that even if not completely black, AMOLED displays use less energy if the displayed picture is darker compared to a lighter one.
2. The brightness level. Most people use it on "auto" or high level settings and this will be a major drain factor.
You can drastically lower the battery drain caused by your screen by selecting as much as possible dark (black) backgrounds and/or themes. There are some nice ones available in the Theme Store (my favorite is the Dalkomm Coffee Theme), that make most screens and menus dark/black. Also choosing a dark wallpaper for lockscreen/homescreens will help.
Don't use screen brightness at maximum...never. You don't need that in 99% of the cases. Also you won't probably need the automatic setting either since most of the people are spending most of the time indoors (either at work or home). A low manual setting will be fine most of the time, I have it set up at about 20% and only need a brighter one when going out. At that time I just tap on "auto" and it'll increase based on ambient light level. So you don't even need to tweak it alot every time. Find a low manual setting that's fine for your eyes and just tap on "auto" when you go out in sunlight.
CONNECTIVITY
Another battery drain factor is your multiple connection/radios features. In most cases you use just several: Mobile Data, WiFi, GPS/location and BT (when applicable). That means you should turn off all the others you don't use...NFC or BT (when not connected to a headset or car-kit or not listening to music). I don't listen to music and don't have a BT headset so I mostly not using BT (just when I'm in my car) and almost never use NFC so I have both disabled and I enable them only when needed via the Quick Settings.
WiFi
WiFi should also be properly setup otherwise it'll have impact on battery. It was incorrectly assumed or considered that keeping WiFi on all the time will drain battery faster. That was proven in different tests that's not true and in fact keeping WiFi on all the time won't make a big difference and in some cases was even better than to turn it off/on. I think is something similar with the car engines that suck more fuel when started that when running at idle. The major power drain is not when WiFi is running while is not connected to any network, but when the WiFi radio is powered up. When is on and not connected, it's going into a lower power state so the battery consumption is negligible.
I had a case with one of my friends that had WiFi setup to turn off when display was off...wrong choice, he got about 30% battery drain overnight because instead of having it connected to his home WiFi, the phone was using his 4G/LTE connection to make all the background sync/updates. That was eating his battery and also his data plan. After setting WiFi to "always" his overnight drain lowered to as little as 2-3%.
In some regions/carriers there are 2 other settings that were proven to help battery life: WiFi calling and VoLTE. I don't have either of them but based on different articles and what people say, they surely help with that so don't forget to turn them off if you don't use these features.
You might also want to try turning off "Always allows scanning" and "Smart network switch". I have the second turned off but I keep on the first one. Basically the first option tell the Location service to use WiFi for locating the device even if WiFi is switched off (by the on/off switch) so that means the radio is active. Second option should make you switch faster from WiFi to mobile data in case the WiFi signal is not strong enough or fluctuating. In my country there are plenty of WiFi hot-spots and they have mostly good connections so I don't use this feature.
GPS
Well here the opinions are split but I am currently having it ON all the time and Location Service is set to "high accuracy". I personally haven't noticed such a major difference with or without it so I preferred to let it on as it is used by many apps or services. You can try to set Location to "wifi and cell only" but don't think that will bring you a major benefit.
RUNNING APPS/PROCESSES
Well this is an important one. I've initially started to turn off/disable/uninstall everything I don't need or use. This can be done mostly from the Settings - Applications - Application Manager or if you want to go further, you can install Package Disabler Pro from PlayStore, about which I'll detail later.
Now why we should do that? There are lots of apps, processes and background services running on our devices that take care about all the things we do on the device. The problem is that ALL are using resources: processor time, memory, space and so on. In the end these are translated for a user in LAG or battery drain. Of course we cannot kill everything and I learned long time ago that installing Task or memory managers on Android it's the worst thing you can do. Android it's smart enough to take care better about it's resources and processes (at least to a certain point) and keep killing a certain process won't give you more battery life but will eat more of it in the end,
What I wanted to say is you shouldn't start disabling, killing or blocking everything cause you might end up with an unstable or not properly working phone (case in which only a factory reset might help). First of all look at the ALL tab in Application Manager and try to identify what you don't need or use. For example I'm certainly not using some things like: music, books, news feeds, Samsung's keyboard (I use SwiftKey), the TouchWiz launcher (I use Nova), health services or whatever, S-Voice, S-Health, S-Finder, I don't have any smartwatches so I don't use any Gear processes, fancy device wake-up functions (like wave gestures) or animated wallpapers either.
So after all considerations above, you decided that you can safely disable some apps/processes. All good but you'll quickly learn that some of them cannot be disabled via Application Manager (the "disable" button is grayed out). Now what? Well here comes handy that Package Disabler Pro that I've told you about in the beginning. That app is able to disable ANY apps/processes on your phone, including those that are protected and cannot be disabled via the normal way (and yes it can do that without being rooted). The downside of it is that you must be careful what you choose to disable not to have something that is needed for the normal functionality or the apps you're currently using. The app has also a backup/restore function (via an xml file) for saving the list with apps you have disabled and easily import them back after a factory reset for ex. I've added to this thread my list of disabled apps as it is exported by the application (just unzip and copy the file on the root of your internal memory and it can then be imported in the Package Disabler app)
Another important thing is WHAT apps you're using. I know that socializing and social networking are some of today's most trendy things but keep in mind that some of the apps used for that are not so well made. An example could be the Facebook app/messenger which are reported to drain alot of battery. RSS feeds, news feeds, multiple weather apps or widgets, all contribute to battery drain and lag. Don't install several apps/widgets for the same purpose (like several calendar apps or weather apps). Each will take resources and won't have an added value. Want to use another weather app/widget than the one coming with the phone? Fine, install it...but don't forget to uninstall/disable the built in one or others that do the same thing. Same goes for keyboard for ex; I use SwiftKey for years and got used with it. For me it's better than any keyboard that Samsung might put on the device, therefore I've disabled the standard Samsung keyboard. I also don't like TouchWiz launcher and use Nova that offers me much more flexibility so...I've disabled both the "easy" and "regular" TouchWiz launchers. I went to the point that I've even disabled the different embedded font types, you have 5 of them and I doubt someone uses more than one at a time.
So as you all can see it's not only a matter of setup but also a matter of usage. When you have a device you have to use it properly otherwise it'll not perform as you expect. Imagine a car that has a manufacturer fuel consumption value of 5.5 liters/100 Km....that's under certain conditions not on ANY type of driving. Fly with 200+ km/hr on a highway and I'll guarantee you won't have 5.5 liters/100 km consumption. That doesn't mean the manufacturer has lied or mislead you. Same goes with a phone, if you don't know how to use it and optimize it, you'll have a bad experience.
I work in the IT industry for years and I mostly laugh when I hear someone advising somebody to reinstall the operating system to solve a problem. Same goes for "factory reset" for a phone. Yes, this method works some times but that won't solve the root cause of an issues if you're using it the same way. After several days it'll perform as bad as before and you'll just say that "factory reset" did nothing. Of course it didn't...YOU have to do something different, not the phone.
Now I apologize for the long post and I do hope that at least some will learn to better manage their devices and to understand what they're doing not just running certain commands or procedures blind. Both S6 and S6e are great devices but we should learn how to properly use them in order to benefit the most from them...otherwise we just come here asking for help or mumbling about what crap devices they are.
Thank you, I will check to see if I get an improvement on the standby battery drain.
Your part about not setting the screen to Auto is flawed. You mention that we are mostly indoors, and you don't need a brighter screen for that. Auto mode also knows that and sets the brightness lower. It already does automatically what you do manually.
Tnx. And yes....keeping screen at 20% brightness and just switching to auto when in outdoors works great for the battery life.
ArmedandDangerous said:
Your part about not setting the screen to Auto is flawed. You mention that we are mostly indoors, and you don't need a brighter screen for that. Auto mode also knows that and sets the brightness lower. It already does automatically what you do manually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not quite, I've tested it. If you're on "auto" and use a lower setting on the slidebar, in a dark room the screen is too dark, you'll have to turn off "auto" and the manual brighteness set on the same level will be much higher than on auto.
Now if you have such good eyes and you're able to use "auto" in all cases with the slider at 20% that's good for you...unfortunately I am not so that's why I use it as I've described. The point is that "auto" mode consumes MORE battery regardless of how it's set, than a lower 'manual' mode. So I preffer to have it like this than to use auto all the time.
Thanks for the awesome guide. I'll start disabling some useless processes and see how my battery life is working. Anyway without much editing the battery of S6Edge is pretty good. I can use it a whole day and still 19% remaining. As a comparison I wasn't able to do it with my S3 having to recharge it 2 or even 3 times at day.
Again, thanks for the guide!
Enviado desde mi SGS6e mediante Tapatalk