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.
Hey guys, i have been used S5 since 5 months with this problem (from the start) i am not sure, i cant think it as it's malfunctioning (by internal) so i am sure it's something else. So far, i used firstly STOCK ROM (4.4.2 + upgraded officially to 5.0) On Both Update, i had Root, SuperSU.
Used official 5.0 update for months, and still had this problem about device getting alot of awaken wakelocks, like, every 3 - 5 min it gets awaken for short period, sometimes (like 1/20 of total awaken period) it is awaken for more then minutes, i couldn't find the issue, so i used it so. On WiFi, it's totally silent! nothing suspicious on stats, device lasts even long on stand by, but on mobile data (when screen is off) it just drops! like, 1-2%/hour (dunno really, may be wrong).
What i did is, get CM12 Latest nightly (5.0.2), furthermore i installed SuperSU as primary root, Tit backup, 7-8 xposed modules, now i installed amplify (Xposed module, helps find and kill wakelocks).
I have found many wakelocks, services, alarms. I reseted the stat, opened mobile data, let it be so for minutes like 10-20minute, and opened to see wakelocks, what i find is alot of wakelocks on different stuffs, mostly Google Play Services. I made it so they cant trigger the phone's wakelock more then once every 9999 second (to make sure i can find out the issue of the problem), now i killed so many that i even killed clock timer, ticker, GSM Broadcast things etc, so i get almost no notification, no any clock is even showing accurate cause if the wakelocks i limited. I did it, nope, it's still same, not less or more, i still couldnt find the issue, i killed or limited so many wakelocks, services and alarms yet i couldnt find it, i dont know what to do, i did install many, many, many times fully fresh ROM through odin several times, fully new installation few times, yet same problem occurs.
My question is, what can i do to find it? Amplify is greater than those Wakelock monitor things, cuz Amplify app finds them, and lets you set up how many times they can wake up the device every (x) seconds, guys i need help please could someone put their few minutes on this and troubleshoot it? i did everything i could (no, no any xposed modules are affecting it, on stock s5 rom 5.0 it isn't compatible with xposed, so xposed is not the cause).
Neither is FB Messenger app (if so, everyone should experience it) neither is Viber, nor any other apps (counting these cuz i dont have any apps that runs in background, from what i know...)
Also, last analyze. I set up Data connection monitor, and let it monitor total mobile data connection for +8 hours of being idle on charge, and found it downloaded 2.2mb of data in total, as of upload i dunno, it was however alot less than downloaded, i dont think it is really using my data, or? even so, it should even trigger during WiFi, why it only happens on Mobile data then?
THANK YOU ALOT for reading it!
I have an I9505 running lollipop and struggling to address intermittent lag.
Broadly speaking the phone starts off working well, snappy.. but after a while can start to lag. By this I mean a press on the home button may result in a 20s+ delay for the task manager to come up. Switching a task may be slow, the keyboard may take 10-20s to appear, the screen may be mostly blank for a while. It doesn't crash, and does "come back" but it's nearly unusable. Usually once switched to a task and settled down scrolling is ok. then it may work just fine, snappy for a while
I don't see oddly high figures in the various stats I can see - cpu time isn't excessive. memory is harder to interpret and at times I do see kswapd busy just after a wakeup.. so my suspicion is it's a memory leak but one I can't prove
I've tried alternative kernels - hulk, imperium, and they don't appear to help matters at all.
The lollipop build was clean & Current firmware is I9505XXUHOD7, BTU
I am rooted and have progressively disabled various packages I don't use in an effort to lighten the environment
I've disabled animations (a cause of memory leaks in 5.0.1, though supposedly not affecting samsung touchwiz)
I am a software engineer and very familar with better battery stats, gsam, even a quick peruse through dumps via adb yet still haven't got to the bottom of my issue. I'm also very aware there's little in the way of solid facts to help debug a problem in this posting......
The next step is going to be a strip back - clean install, slow addition of apps. In the meantime can anyone identify any issues they've seen with any particular apps?
planetf1 said:
I have an I9505 running lollipop and struggling to address intermittent lag.
Broadly speaking the phone starts off working well, snappy.. but after a while can start to lag. By this I mean a press on the home button may result in a 20s+ delay for the task manager to come up. Switching a task may be slow, the keyboard may take 10-20s to appear, the screen may be mostly blank for a while. It doesn't crash, and does "come back" but it's nearly unusable. Usually once switched to a task and settled down scrolling is ok. then it may work just fine, snappy for a while
I don't see oddly high figures in the various stats I can see - cpu time isn't excessive. memory is harder to interpret and at times I do see kswapd busy just after a wakeup.. so my suspicion is it's a memory leak but one I can't prove
I've tried alternative kernels - hulk, imperium, and they don't appear to help matters at all.
The lollipop build was clean & Current firmware is I9505XXUHOD7, BTU
I am rooted and have progressively disabled various packages I don't use in an effort to lighten the environment
I've disabled animations (a cause of memory leaks in 5.0.1, though supposedly not affecting samsung touchwiz)
I am a software engineer and very familar with better battery stats, gsam, even a quick peruse through dumps via adb yet still haven't got to the bottom of my issue. I'm also very aware there's little in the way of solid facts to help debug a problem in this posting......
The next step is going to be a strip back - clean install, slow addition of apps. In the meantime can anyone identify any issues they've seen with any particular apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should add that I did previously use CM12 and that left a little laggy too, though not tried CM12.1 . The two factors holding me back - a) better/reliable camera in TW b) Beep'n'go - love the app. works everywhere unlike every other loyalty card app I've tried (uses proximity sensor pulsing, Samsung TW specific)
planetf1 said:
I should add that I did previously use CM12 and that left a little laggy too, though not tried CM12.1 . The two factors holding me back - a) better/reliable camera in TW b) Beep'n'go - love the app. works everywhere unlike every other loyalty card app I've tried (uses proximity sensor pulsing, Samsung TW specific)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
try to disable swap devices, if there is any. If I know well, stock Lollipop ROM uses compressed swap devices in memory, like in stock KitKat ROM (zram).
In a terminal/shell:
- List currently used swap devices:
Code:
cat /proc/swaps
- Switch to root:
Code:
su
- Disable swap devices:
Code:
swapoff /dev/swapdevice
or if you have Busybox installed:
Code:
busybox swapoff /dev/swapdevice
Where /dev/swapdevice is the swap device/partition, which you want to disable.
It's the best to do this in some kind of init.d scripts before the system starts.
I am on still KitKat+rooted, but this should work on Lollipop, too.
Good luck!
planetf1 said:
The next step is going to be a strip back - clean install, slow addition of apps. In the meantime can anyone identify any issues they've seen with any particular apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is the best thing to do. I suffered a weird wifi issue that no else had. A fresh/clean install of the same lollipop ROM and kernel fixed it. Haven't noticed any apps causing lag on lollipop.
[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!
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