Just thought I’d put a short guide together on what I think are some things to do to get the most out of your spanking new Samsung S6 when you get it or you already have it. Most of you guys might already know most of this or might not. Just thought it might help some people. This ain’t rocket science but every little bit helps!
Battery:
This is the hardest thing to do because like a fingerprint everyone has a different set up with apps and how they use their phone (wifi vs 3g vs 4g etc) that screen on time will always vary. Also you don’t want to turn everything off and cripple your brand new smartphone just for your battery. There’s a balance.
However here are some general things to do that do help:
1. Install Greenify from the Playstore. I have found this is the number one way to stop drainage. This app will hibernate apps when not in use. It doesn’t stop their functionality at all but hibernates them.
2. Don’t use Google Now. I think it’s a gimmick and does bugger all for me however if you use it it will drain your battery big time. Of course if you love it then use it!
3. Don’t use location services. Another big drainer. Just use it when you need it. However if you have apps that need it then of course leave it on!
4. Use ‘auto’ on screen brightness.
4. Don't use the Facebook app. It's a massive drain of battery. And Facebook is awful.
5. If you continue to get big drainage then download Gsam battery from the Playstore and look at the ‘wakelocks’ – this way you will be able to see what’s draining your battery. As a general rule your phone should go into deep sleep for at least 80% of the time.
This way you should get 5+ plus hours of Screen on Time.
Performance:
Here are a few things only that really do help with speed and performance - even though this phone really doesn't need it it still helps!:
1. Go to Dev Options and change the transition animation scale, the animator duration scale and the window animation scale to 0.5. This little thing speeds up your phone like nothing else.
2. Root* your phone with Cf auto root. And then start debloating. Get rid of whatever you want by downloading Titanium Backup and going into each app and freezing whatever you want. Freezing is safer than uninstalling but does the same thing. Debloating is a must!
*And yes I know the Knox arguments for not rooting but I've rooted every Samsung phone I've ever owned and sold every Samsung phone I've ever owned.
*And yes I know that you won't be able to use Samsung Pay but it ain't coming out for months and there's too much freedom you get from rooting to not do it because of this.
Just an FYI... Google Now does not drain your battery!!
JoeFCaputo113 said:
Just an FYI... Google Now does not drain your battery!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en-AU&ie=UTF-8&source=boatbrowser&q=Google+now+drains+battery
poczynek said:
Just thought I’d put a short guide together on what I think are some things to do to get the most out of your spanking new Samsung S6 when you get it or you already have it. Most of you guys might already know most of this or might not. Just thought it might help some people. This ain’t rocket science but every little bit helps!
Battery:
This is the hardest thing to do because like a fingerprint everyone has a different set up with apps and how they use their phone (wifi vs 3g vs 4g etc) that screen on time will always vary. Also you don’t want to turn everything off and cripple your brand new smartphone just for your battery. There’s a balance.
However here are some general things to do that do help:
1. Install Greenify from the Playstore. I have found this is the number one way to stop drainage. This app will hibernate apps when not in use. It doesn’t stop their functionality at all but hibernates them.
2. Don’t use Google Now. I think it’s a gimmick and does bugger all for me however if you use it it will drain your battery big time. Of course if you love it then use it!
3. Don’t use location services. Another big drainer. Just use it when you need it. However if you have apps that need it then of course leave it on!
4. Use ‘auto’ on screen brightness.
4. Don't use the Facebook app. It's a massive drain of battery. And Facebook is awful.
5. If you continue to get big drainage then download Gsam battery from the Playstore and look at the ‘wakelocks’ – this way you will be able to see what’s draining your battery. As a general rule your phone should go into deep sleep for at least 80% of the time.
This way you should get 5+ plus hours of Screen on Time.
Performance:
Here are a few things only that really do help with speed and performance - even though this phone really doesn't need it it still helps!:
1. Go to Dev Options and change the transition animation scale, the animator duration scale and the window animation scale to 0.5. This little thing speeds up your phone like nothing else.
2. Root* your phone with Cf auto root. And then start debloating. Get rid of whatever you want by downloading Titanium Backup and going into each app and freezing whatever you want. Freezing is safer than uninstalling but does the same thing. Debloating is a must!
*And yes I know the Knox arguments for not rooting but I've rooted every Samsung phone I've ever owned and sold every Samsung phone I've ever owned.
*And yes I know that you won't be able to use Samsung Pay but it ain't coming out for months and there's too much freedom you get from rooting to not do it because of this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do you have any battery life screenshots of your s6 with these steps done?
This is not untrue advice but it is also not new to this device at all. This is the same advice on android years ago and it's basically saying turn off everything that drains the battery then you get 5 hours of screen on time. Well most people want to use google now, facebook, and location services so that defeats the purpose of the phone. Really there needs to be some serious improvements in battery tech but so far we as consumers are allowing companies to get away with putting sub par battery performance in their flagship phones and we keep buying them anyway. I am guilty of it too but it does not give companies any real incentive to focus on battery life.
poczynek said:
https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en-AU&ie=UTF-8&source=boatbrowser&q=Google+now+drains+battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every link is like 6+ months old. It will not drain your battery if you keep location off...
JoeFCaputo113 said:
Every link is like 6+ months old. It will not drain your battery if you keep location off...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course if you turn location off but that's the point - it's made to be used with location on which will drain battery.
poczynek said:
Of course if you turn location off but that's the point - it's made to be used with location on which will drain battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a Tasker profile set to automatically turn on GPS whenever I go into Google Now, then as an exit task it automatically turns off GPS. So no battery drain for me :good:
JoeFCaputo113 said:
I have a Tasker profile set to automatically turn on GPS whenever I go into Google Now, then as an exit task it automatically turns off GPS. So no battery drain for me :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does this help you get the benefit of google now such as parking reminders, etc?
km8j said:
How does this help you get the benefit of google now such as parking reminders, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Parking reminders?? I don't need that as I live in upstate NY (Dutchess County)... pretty hard to forget where you park your car lol.
@poczynek
I have a GS4, and I'm looking to get a GS6 soon.
I have read your post and I am not sure if what you claim will bring any evident increase in battery life at all.
1. Greenify - What does it do? Why should I greenify an app? What apps/services did you greenify to give you an increase in battery life?
I can't say for sure but if I ran my GS4 without disabling apps vs disabled apps I bet the battery life/screen on time would be similar.
However I did disable a whole bunch of Samsung and other bloatware apps that came on my phone because I don't want their bugs or services to be running unnecessarily.
I have a looked at Greenify to some detail and thought to myself why bother? All of the services and apps that are running are fine...why would I need another app "Greenify" to manage something that is native in Android which is to simply disable bloatware apps.
Please provide a real example of what you would Greenify, as opposed to simply disable and what/how it benefits you?
I think I have over 70 apps disabled on my GS4 because they are things that I don't use.
2. Google Now - well this depends on if you use Google Now Everywhere, with it's ability to talk to the phone by saying "OK Google". In addition, Google Now has that card system which will send you news and other related cards based on what "you" the user configures. I'm not sure if you do setup all of these cards results in a great amount of battery drain either. I personally don't use Google Now voice activation or the cards, but I have not disabled the app.
I can agree with you that Google Now's voice system will drain the battery, but that's expected because it is always listening (if you enable that).
3. Location Services - by this you mean the GPS/Cell/WiFi location capabilities? I can tell you that I leave my GPS on GPS Only mode. I don't want my phone to use cell towers or WiFi to help improve upon the location of me. I have had no issues with doing this. I do believe if I use cell towers and WiFi to improve my location then the battery drain will be higher, but wouldn't that be dependent on if an app uses the location in the first place?
I mean, if I have my location set to highest accuracy and I leave my phone on over night, there should be no apps that would utilize the location services. Unless an app, for example Google Now decided to check where I am, I don't see the problem of leaving your location services set to high accuracy.
I personally use GPS only and I can confirm that no app triggers the location services during the day or night unless I open an app that requires it, for example Google Maps or a Weather app that I may be using the GPS to gather my location information. PS: I use AccuWeather and I have disabled use GPS for location and rather it uses my actual location based on my city and state.
4. Auto Brightness - although Samsung has one of the best auto brightness sensors for Android, there is much controversy (google it) that Android drains a lot of battery when using Auto brightness because it has to constantly use the light sensor to determine your screen's brightness.
When I got my GS4 I immediately disabled auto brightness and I manually control it, simply have 3 settings. I have 10% brightness for day time use, 100% for outdoor/car use, and 10% with screen filter set to 20% for bed use (late night and early morning). I will be doing the same with the GS6.
I can't speak entirely for auto brightness and whether it saves or consumes battery life, but from my research, people should just manually control it as opposed to using auto brightness, the exceptions are iPhones and Samsung phones.
Furthermore, during my testing, I ran a Geekbench 3 battery life test on my phone with the following conditions.
WiFi, GPS = On
Screen Brightness 10%
Bluetooth, Mobile Data, NFC = Off
Result = 2 hours and 55 minutes (screen on time)
Same test with screen brightness 100%, result = 2 hours and 45 minutes (screen on time).
This shows that in continuous use the real world difference in battery life between 10% and 100% brightness is only 10 minutes. Remember this is for the GS4. I am not sure how the GS6 will handle both extremes in terms of battery life for the screen brightness. My guess is that there will be little difference between using 10% and 100% in real world numbers like shown above.
5. Facebook and FB Messenger - you state don't use it but don't pose an alternative, let's be realistic a ton of people use it, by simply stating don't use it and not providing an alternative is somewhat pointless. My GS4 is rooted and I have been using BetterBatteryStats (BBS) for 2 years now and I can say for certain that FB does not drain the battery. However I can see that FB and Messenger do create a lot of Alarms, about 10 - 30 per hour. But when I look for Kernal or Partial wakelocks I see no correlation to battery drain.
I have even removed both apps from my phone and used my phone during a regular work week and I have found no real world difference in battery life.
However it is possible that FB and Messenger could have had a bug that caused battery drain, I have physically seen this issue with Viber and cross checked with BBS to confirm. But that was an old version of Viber, and since then Viber has been working fine.
I personally helped Jango Radio fix their battery drain issues. For example you open the app press the home key, then you will see that your phone will be awake for as long as the app is sitting in the background. I told the dev team to fix it and they did. I used BBS and watch the Partial wakelocks to confirm the issue.
Your final statement of using Gsam is fine, I've used it too, no battery life monitor is perfect, but at least they can help determine if there is a rogue app.
In terms of performance, I agree with doing 0.5x for all transitions, it does make a big difference. Less waiting for apps to close/minimize or open.
In terms of rooting and debloating with Titanium backup, that is something that rooted users can do.
I agree uninstalling system apps/pre-loaded apps will give you some space back.
Freezing an app versus disabling an app...well disabling should be good enough for people especially since you don't need root.
If you freeze/greenify apps versus simply disabling apps you don't need/use I'm sure the performance improvements would be identical, however I don't think there is much of an improvement regarding either methods.
A simple way to test this is to take a stock S6, run a benchmark, like Geekbench, and then root the S6 and freeze everything that is not needed and run Geekbench again. If there is no real numerical change in the benchmark, then I really doubt you will feel a real world difference in performance.
Let me know what you think.
MysticGolem said:
@poczynek
5. Facebook and FB Messenger - you state don't use it but don't pose an alternative, let's be realistic a ton of people use it, by simply stating don't use it and not providing an alternative is somewhat pointless. My GS4 is rooted and I have been using BetterBatteryStats (BBS) for 2 years now and I can say for certain that FB does not drain the battery. However I can see that FB and Messenger do create a lot of Alarms, about 10 - 30 per hour. But when I look for Kernal or Partial wakelocks I see no correlation to battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Browse to Facebook on your phone using Chrome then go to chrome settings and press "add to home screen". Problem solved [emoji6]
I do this and get much better standby battery life. I can't part with messenger though, but you can access your messages from the mobile site too if you don't care about getting notifications.
Let's use the most powerful Android smartphone currently on the market as a dumb phone is basically the gist of the advice given!
Thanks for your tips. Useful for me
Just scored 29hours runtime i thought impossible in first few days. With just lux app and tasker auto sync only. No root.
Edit: with greenify too but i find it useless without root
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Jesus, you've basically disabled your phone, why not just return it and go with a pre-paid flip phone? Listen I understand there's definitely a battery issue with the S6 but come on guys, just have a charger with you until this is addressed via an OTA update or something.
Using GSAM, how do I see Wakelocks and how do I see Deep Sleep?
TL24 said:
Jesus, you've basically disabled your phone, why not just return it and go with a pre-paid flip phone? Listen I understand there's definitely a battery issue with the S6 but come on guys, just have a charger with you until this is addressed via an OTA update or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck with that [emoji1]
There is mucho more things i would like to disable of course. And they are useless to me too. I just shared my settings no need for calling flip phone unless it is samsung i9230 [emoji16]
JoeFCaputo113 said:
I have a Tasker profile set to automatically turn on GPS whenever I go into Google Now, then as an exit task it automatically turns off GPS. So no battery drain for me :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know this is old, but can you lay out how you set up this tasker profile? I'm rooted, with secure settings installed, but gps is still inaccessible through tasker. tia
fachadick said:
I know this is old, but can you lay out how you set up this tasker profile? I'm rooted, with secure settings installed, but gps is still inaccessible through tasker. tia
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Go to profiles
2. Click the "+" in the bottom right
3. Click application
4. Select maps and any other app you want to automatically turn on GPS
5. Add task... Secure settings GPS on
Related
Over the months I have been an Evo user, I have collected some valuable information that all users should probably know in regards to maximizing battery life. Besides the stuff about 4G and a few specific options, these steps apply to pretty much any other android phone running 2.2, and a lot of them apply to versions below Froyo.
General Lithium Ion Battery Information
^^This link includes stuff about charging, including trickle charging aka SBC (Why NOT to use it, or at your own peril)
My tips for good battery life:
Tips for Non-Rooted users:
1. Turn off all radios when not in use.
(gps, Bluetooth, wifi, data, 4g) Use a widget like the default HTC power widget or Switchpro from the market. The radios of the phone draw power if on even if the user isn't actually utilizing the radio's functions.
To manually turn off radios without a toggle, go to menu>settings>wireless & networks.
Wifi uses less battery than 3G, so use wifi when you can.
**IMPORTANT DISCOVERY**When you turn on your 4G radio, then turn it off, it will keep scanning and turning off all by itself.
The problem is apparently exacerbated by a 4G toggle widget, which causes the phone to automatically turn on 4G at boot. This repeating of scanning and disconnecting severely drains battery life, and sadly, no matter what ROM or kernel you use, there is only one way to fix it:
-If you don’t use the toggle widget, then you have to reboot your phone after turning off 4G
-If you do use a toggle widget, then you have to remove the widget from your homescreens, then turn off 4G via settings, then reboot.
**To check to see if this is happening, download alogcat off of the market. Look for the lines saying: I/Wimax ( xxx): <DC> Try to establish a connection to DC server.
E/Wimax ( xxx): <DC CONNECT> IO error: msg=’/xxx.x.x.x:xxxx –
Connection refused’
Over and over again.
2. Juice Defender is one of my favorite apps. Basically it controls your data for you to maximize life.
More explanations are on their page, search it on the market for free, or upgrade for more features.
Here are my settings for it: Click me
Note that for me at least, juice defender likes to deny apps data privileges whether you allow them or not, so screen on = data on works best for me.
3. I love live wallpapers, and I’ve always been a fan of pixel zombies, but they are really only good for showing off due to their battery drain.
4. Go to menu<settings<wireless & networks<mobile networks<disable always on mobile data.
Product F(RED) said:
To clarify, "Always On Mobile Data", when turned off, lets the 3G modem go to sleep after the screen has been off for 5 minutes. It doesn't interfere with anything like email or any other application that requires an internet connection at that moment because it turns on on-demand rather than being on all the time and wasting battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5. Set your screen timeout to something that fits you
This will prevent your phone from staying on when you don’t manually turn off the screen. Also with this, manually turn off your screen when you’re done with your phone.
6. Everyone has that issue where the first ten percent go the fastest.
This is due to two things. One is that these types of batteries stop charging once they get to 100% to prevent damage, and begin charging again at 90%. This means that you could potentially unplug your seemingly fully charged phone at 90% actual charge. The second is number 6.5.
6.5. Use the trick described in this thread, it works.
My idea behind how often you should do it is once a month, if you flash a new ROM, or if you stop noticing the benefits.
This is the calibration technique recommended by HTC themselves. Check it out!
7. Task killers used to be the shiz, but no longer.
Here is the ultimate, in depth, graphically assisted, explanation by the famous Fresh ROM's chef, Flipz. Shortly, in light of recent testing, really don’t do anything but force apps that the android OS needed to be open, and thus didn’t close, to re-open. So try not using them, unless for stuff like trying to figure out why your phone isn’t sleeping with system panel. You really won’t notice a performance difference, and the adverse effects you aren’t seeing will stop
+=+ A good alternative is the application SystemPanel Pro. It has a free version, but I highly reccomend purchasing the paid app. It basically monitors everything going on with your phone's usage both in real time an in terms of usage history. If your battery is draiging fast, it tells you what app was doing it, how much it was doing it, and allows you to stop it.
8. People posting screenshots of the Battery screen as proof of long lasting battery are giving statistically irrelevant information.
See HERE That screen shows time since last REBOOT, not last charge. This isn't always the case, but a lot of people will post a lot of things about battery life, but look for definitive screenshots and testing results before you break down and cry due to the poster's life and yours.
9. I'm sure you have all heard around that your phone isn't "sleeping".
This is referring to the phone's "awake" time, hence the name. When you go to menu>settings>about phone>battery, you can compare the two numbers, "up time" vs. "awake time." Generally, up time refers to the amount of time since the last reboot. The "awake time" is how long the screen has been active. The problem is, a lot of the time, due to the endless possibilities of inconsistencies between apps/ROMs/kernels/phones, the phone will not go to "sleep", drawing power proportionate to the screen being in use when it reality the phone is sitting idle.
If you compare these numbers, and they are the same, or if you note the difference, turn off the screen for a minute, then re-check and they are the same, then your phone is not sleeping.
One solution is to reboot.
Usually, SystemPanel will show an app that has gone "rouge" and is keeping your phone awake.
Uninstall applications/reinstalling them slowly, checking after every install to see what is causing it is one tedious but surefire solution.
Lastly,
Follow these steps that I have discovered almost always work.
1. Reboot phone.
2. Instantly upon reboot, as soon as you gain control, open up some type of monitor/taskkiller
3. "kill all" tasks on startup; about 5 times in quick succession should do the trick.
4. Turn off the screen and leave it for about five minutes.
5. Check the up time v. awake time and see if they are the same.
6. If they are, repeat steps 1-5. If they are different, you are good.
Tips for Rooted users:
1. Try out custom kernels.
By going to the EVO 4G Android Development section of the forums, you can see all of the different kernels being developed. These allow for all kinds of modifications like underclocking the CPU and undervolting, both of which save battery. To see how to use them, read the FAQ's in each thread's OPs.
Here is a great guide to custom kernel's by mroneeyedboh.
2. Use SetCPU in compliance with whatever your custom kernel allows.
This site will explain the basics of SetCPU: http://www.pokedev.com/setcpu/
-Profiles from SetCPU should usually involve these for battery life optimization:
-Screen off at the minimum clock speed for both, with the max raised on level if sluggishness is apparent
-A temperature greater than “X”
-General power related profiles that lower cpu speed at lower battery levels
-Here are my SetCPU profiles: 1 , 2 , 3
-My profiles change a lot as time goes by, because different kernel creators recommend different settings. I suggest reading up on whatever kernel you are using to gather settings.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTES:
*Some apps or processes begin to run at startup and keep the phone awake. These apps are not detected by things like spare parts or system panel, unless sometimes represented in the "system" process, in which case its usage will be unusually high.
This shouldn't take more than three repeats, and if it does, you need to factory reset, and slowly add apps back to see what's causing the problem.
___--- When it comes to actually "calibrating" one's battery, there are a couple of methods floating around. The method I first learned is to charge the phone all the way, boot into recovery immediately, and "wipe battery stats". Then reboot quickly, and run your phone all the way to death without charging it, then charge it all the way without interrupting it, and you should be good to go. Do this when changing ROMs/kernels for best results.
----When it comes to people claiming 20 plus hours of moderate/heavy use out of their current setup or other ridiculous absurdities, consider my position: No matter what you do, the Evo battery is the Evo battery. You can tweak it and customize it with kernels, ROMs, and settings, but none of that will turn it into a car battery. The main problem (besides a false sense of pride) that leads to these reports is the misunderstanding of what the usage levels are, so here’s my best summary:
* *Light usage – Phone screen actually on for maybe 4 hours. Things like a few texts, some emails, 20 minutes web browsing, etc.
* *Moderate usage – You watched a few youtube videos or similar apps, sustained web browsing, hundreds of texts, some games. Hours range from about 5-10 of screen on
* *Heavy usage – LOTS of video watching and games, or some high def gaming/movie watching for at least an hour to an hour and a half in total, with lots of emails and texts, browsing, and other app shenanigans
*I’m sure everyone doesn’t agree with all these numbers, but this is most likely a good average of what powerusers think. All specific hourage may vary due to differences in phones, batteries, ROMs, and kernels… Which also means that most battery comparisons are pointless; it’s only what you can improve on that counts!
I’ll update this whenever I see good stuff, people remind me, or I remember/come across things I do.
Hope it helps everybody!
Hit the "THANKS" button if I help you!
*All this is available in the link in my signature
I just use the power widget for data instead of juice. Don't mind clicking it once before and after I turn the screen on. Also don't always use data when its on..
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
martyzidek said:
I just use the power widget for data instead of juice. Don't mind clicking it once before and after I turn the screen on. Also don't always use data when its on..
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do that also, but the fact that juice only lets your stuff sync at a certain lengthy interval is what really makes it awesome. If you just disable the data period, your stuff won't sync correctly
I only have mail to sync and with that if I go into my mail it syncs. I go on Facebook on the browser so I don't use the app and deleted off my phone. Also I don't use Google mail or friendstream which is all deleted fully off my phone. So I don't have to worry. And most stuff that syncs on here to a set time will have a sync button or sync when you use or go into it anyways. So why not have it just sync when you actually check it? My 2 cents.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Great guide; good job!
I just turn off the background data, we have more than enough RAM to even need a task manager, I agree it sucks cpu usage and its tedious to close apps constantly and its only needed for low RAM phones these days anyway. Getting +6-8 hours use from a smart phone from moderste use is great Imo. I get great battery life already without much tweaking. I dont get what's the point of underclocking since the 1 ghz is one of the main selling points. I enjoy the obscene speed of the phone. Keep the screen dim and stay off the live wallpapers. Good write up!
Thanks for the tips and the profiles.
martyzidek said:
I only have mail to sync and with that if I go into my mail it syncs. I go on Facebook on the browser so I don't use the app and deleted off my phone. Also I don't use Google mail or friendstream which is all deleted fully off my phone. So I don't have to worry. And most stuff that syncs on here to a set time will have a sync button or sync when you use or go into it anyways. So why not have it just sync when you actually check it? My 2 cents.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate your thoughts, but it's just as you said: "I only have.." etc. Other people do it differently, so these tips should help THEM. Glad you know what works for you though
phatmanxxl said:
I just turn off the background data, we have more than enough RAM to even need a task manager, I agree it sucks cpu usage and its tedious to close apps constantly and its only needed for low RAM phones these days anyway. Getting +6-8 hours use from a smart phone from moderste use is great Imo. I get great battery life already without much tweaking. I dont get what's the point of underclocking since the 1 ghz is one of the main selling points. I enjoy the obscene speed of the phone. Keep the screen dim and stay off the live wallpapers. Good write up!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bigmoogle said:
Thanks for the tips and the profiles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bludragon742 said:
Great guide; good job!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks y'all! Please vote on the poll and rate so more people can see this for longer
Glad it's helping
abkrieger said:
I appreciate your thoughts, but it's just as you said: "I only have.." etc. Other people do it differently, so these tips should help THEM. Glad you know what works for you though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything that syncs has an option somewhere on the widget or app. All you do is hit the refresh button and updates. Same with mail. I go into my mail and it then syncs. So if its that important for friendstream or Facebook to update and sync to a certain setting then by all means juice is for you. Just a waste of battery.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
martyzidek said:
Anything that syncs has an option somewhere on the widget or app. All you do is hit the refresh button and updates. Same with mail. I go into my mail and it then syncs. So if its that important for friendstream or Facebook to update and sync to a certain setting then by all means juice is for you. Just a waste of battery.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Say for example I have:
Weather widget on homescreen, fb widget, friendstream, news widget, two mail apps in background, google voice for vm...
-To name a few. If you use all of these, then you wouldn't also want to:
Refresh weather widget by clicking on it, which pulls up the menu, then clicking refresh - then clicking on your fb widget, which brings up the menu, and hitting refresh - going to friendstream, clicking on it, menu, refresh - same for news widget - same for mail apps - google voice...
The mail and google voice update in the background, and unless you want them always checking, or going in when you remember and telling it to refresh, the best option is to limit when it has access based on YOUR schedule.
The point of widgets is one-look convenience. Two clicks to sync a widget, taking you off the homescreen, defeats the purpose. Maybe not for you, but most people.
Now, adding all those up, that would be about 15 taps on the screen, taking all over the place, just to have your apps/widgets do what they are supposed to do. No thanks. I would rather click zero times, and have EVERYTHING sync at one time, in intervals of my choosing.
To each his own I guess
You use setcpu with kingxkernal?
phatmanxxl said:
I just turn off the background data,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly what is the background data?
what data gets synced in the backgrounds? and if u turn that off, when does it actually sync that data?
SayWhat10 said:
exactly what is the background data?
what data gets synced in the backgrounds? and if u turn that off, when does it actually sync that data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would manually have to sync data.
c_l021 said:
You use setcpu with kingxkernal?
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Click to collapse
No I've stopped using it with the kingkernels as per his request.
EDIT: It's supposedly HAVS kernels in general.
JUST BUMPIN THE THREAD.
To clarify, "Always On Mobile Data", when turned off, lets the 3G modem go to sleep after the screen has been off for 5 minutes. It doesn't interfere with anything like email or any other application that requires an internet connection at that moment because it turns on on-demand rather than being on all the time and wasting battery.
Great thread... I have found a good tsk killer called "system panel" it cost a cpl bucks in the market but its worth it... Old task killer apps stored working when froyo was released... System panel still works, plus it gives you a lot more control over your phone by telling you what is using what from your battery... In conjunction with juice defender... Too have the best offense to defend your charges!
Sent from the MATRIX... while plugged into my EVO... using the XDA app... from a galaxy far-far away.......
JayStation3 said:
Great thread... I have found a good tsk killer called "system panel" it cost a cpl bucks in the market but its worth it... Old task killer apps stored working when froyo was released... System panel still works, plus it gives you a lot more control over your phone by telling you what is using what from your battery... In conjunction with juice defender... Too have the best offense to defend your charges!
Sent from the MATRIX... while plugged into my EVO... using the XDA app... from a galaxy far-far away.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had system panel pro since the day I bought my phone
Product F(RED) said:
To clarify, "Always On Mobile Data", when turned off, lets the 3G modem go to sleep after the screen has been off for 5 minutes. It doesn't interfere with anything like email or any other application that requires an internet connection at that moment because it turns on on-demand rather than being on all the time and wasting battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll add this to the OP, thanks for the clear description!
Biofall said:
Over the months I have been an Evo user, I have collected some valuable information that all users should probably know in regards to maximizing battery life. Here they are
My tips for good battery life:
1. Turn off all radios when not in use (gps, Bluetooth, wifi, data, 4g) using a widget like the default HTC power widget or Switchpro from the market.
To manually turn off radios without a toggle, go to menu>settings>wireless & networks
^^^^**** IMPORTANT DISCOVERY****^^^^
When you turn on your 4G radio, then turn it off, it will keep scanning and turning off all by itself.
The problem is apparently exacerbated by a 4G toggle widget, which causes the phone to automatically turn on 4G at boot. This repeating of scanning and disconnecting severely drains battery life, and sadly, no matter what ROM or kernel you use, there is only one way to fix it:
-If you don’t use the toggle widget, then you have to reboot your phone after turning off 4G
-If you do use a toggle widget, then you have to remove the widget from your homescreens, then turn off 4G via settings, then reboot.
**To check to see if this is happening, download alogcat off of the market. Look for the lines saying: I/Wimax ( xxx): <DC> Try to establish a connection to DC server.
E/Wimax ( xxx): <DC CONNECT> IO error: msg=’/xxx.x.x.x:xxxx –
Connection refused’
Over and over again.
5. Go to menu<settings<wireless & networks<mobile networks<disable always on mobile data
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, this is awesome man. #1 is a huge discovery for sure. we just got 4g here recently and I started having this huge battery drain problem. I have been monitoring my phone with system panel and found "suspend" to running my cpu full bore 100% of the time.
if your search for suspend you can find a few threads here and over at androidforums. no one had seemed to find the issue of why suspend is always running. but it is for me definitely being caused by 4g as you describe.
I didn't think it was 4g because I found a wimax process at 0%
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but after playing with 4g and your ideas here I can make this suspend start and stop at will now.
some screen shots of system panel with the suspend issue on.
here are some screen shots after finding this thread last night around midnight and killing 4g and rebooting.
thanks, this saved me from loading up an older nandroid that I didn't have this issue. but now I know its not rom or app related.
here is what I did to stop suspend/4g from running. I keep mobile data always on unchecked. and I use a 4g toggle from switch pro (well not anymore)
I turned off 4g through my toggle. reboot phone, suspend is still running and the phone will not sleep. I then go into settings - wireless & networks - mobile networks, I then check mobile data always on and then uncheck it. suspend will now stop and phone will sleep. data always on check and uncheck only works after a reboot.
anyways I think this find is awesome! and maybe we should mention that this 4g problem and this suspend process are one in the same. as it seems people have been having this suspend process problem for months on end with no solution.
I really didn't think it could be 4g as I saw wimax process at 0% and a simple reboot didn't end it. I thought it had to be an app.
thanks bro
Like I honestly don't understand it. They are obviously doing something wrong. I am running NAND with the SD card for applications (Stock 16GB) with gauner1986's HD-FI 0.3 with 2.15.50.14 and I have only 2-5ma battery drain on standby. But here's what I noticed:
Certain applications from Market increases battery drainage. If you install an app, begin to experience high battery drain, uninstall it.
It's a 3G phone for godsakes. Why disable the speed of it by going 2G?
Disable WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS when not needed.
Don't disable AutoSync or Background Sync. I've noticed no increase with both of them except when it pushes email, updates
Keep the brightness UP to 100 percent. I saw no difference upon lowering it.
Don't disable APN either. This isn't your dumbphone, it's meant to have internet. Internet won't drain your battery life if it isn't active.
SetCPU is pointless. I don't even touch it as the risk to damage your phone using it is great. There has been no solid evidence this helps your battery life other then to SLOW down your phone.
Don't use a TaskKiller - Common sense, it eats battery. Android is programmed to kill apps.
On standby, it can last for freaking days even under light/medium usage. Constant heavy usage will make you last at-least a day.
Seriously. If you get drain, you have the wrong radio or application. I even tried uninstalling stock applications like Calender and removing widgets and they had no effect on my system. If you have to disable MAIN smartphone features, you might as well go back to:
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"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
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I agree with most of what you say here but not this
Keep the brightness UP to 100 percent. I saw no difference upon lowering it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally i think your better off keeping the brightness as low as possible as i did experience battery drain when i had it up to 100%.
I have a taskkiller and I don't notice any difference at all. Having the brightness to 100 does drain your battery that's just common sense.
have no probs with batt drain, i dont use appkillers, brightness on about 45%, play music most of the day, internet on all day with updates, txt and call daily, still on 75% now, not a problem
FirefighterDown said:
[*]Certain applications from Market increases battery drainage. If you install an app, begin to experience high battery drain, uninstall it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True.
[*]It's a 3G phone for godsakes. Why disable the speed of it by going 2G?
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Click to collapse
Because it really is a battery consumer. Actually, surfing on 3G is more power consuming than on WiFi, and Edge is fast enough for a fair amount of uses. Having a 2G/3G toggle widget is probably best, indeed no need to dumb down your phone too much.
[*]Disable WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS when not needed.
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Click to collapse
WiFi & BT are obviously true, GPS is bullocks. As long as there's no GPS app running (i.e. there's no GPS icon in the status bar), your GPS is not active and is drawing zero current. It's just a setting.
[*]Don't disable AutoSync or Background Sync. I've noticed no increase with both of them except when it pushes email, updates
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For some people, with certain apps behaving in a certain way (for example business people getting emails every minute), this can really be a serious battery hug. Again no need to dumb down your phone too much, but it if you really need to squeeze out those extra hours of juice this is a valid option.
[*]Keep the brightness UP to 100 percent. I saw no difference upon lowering it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's plain rubbish. More brightness = more emitted light = more emitted energy. Read a physics book someday, this really makes no sense. Display is one of the biggest battery hogs, especially when actively using your phone. Leaving it on a low brightness level sure helps heaps.
[*]Don't disable APN either. This isn't your dumbphone, it's meant to have internet. Internet won't drain your battery life if it isn't active.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First part is true, enjoy the features your phone has. It does drain your battery though, even when inactive. There's no such thing as a free meal. Disabling mobile data won't double your battery life, but is a very valid option when you really need your phone to last just that little bit longer.
[*]SetCPU is pointless. I don't even touch it as the risk to damage your phone using it is great. There has been no solid evidence this helps your battery life other then to SLOW down your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bullocks again. First of all, underclocking cannot damage your phone in any way. Obviously no scientist has done research (actually, someone probably has but I don't feel like googling any right now) to provide solid evidence on the matter of cpu clocking affecting battery life, but any tech-guy with some experience will disagree with you. No need to clock down your CPU to 245Mhz obviously, but a 900Mhz clock speed will still more than suffice for most users. Again this won't significantly boost battery performance, but all the small bits help.
[*]Don't use a TaskKiller - Common sense, it eats battery. Android is programmed to kill apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably the most valuable information in this thread - spot on!
Constant heavy usage will make you last at-least a day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Define heavy usage. How about playing Angry Birds at 100% brightness, while listening to Pandora with your Bluetooth headset/headphones, through a 3G connection obviously. Not a very far-fetched setup eh!
I'll buy you a cookie if you last more than, say, 6 hours. You probably won't last 4 hours either but I really don't feel like buying you a cookie.
FirefighterDown said:
Constant heavy usage (without playing games or watching movies) will make you last at-least a day.
[/IMG]
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fixed
ten char
FirefighterDown said:
[*]Keep the brightness UP to 100 percent. I saw no difference upon lowering it]
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Click to collapse
As other posters have said that is nonsense mate. You can easily see with current widget that the consumption is higher with higher brightness.
Bluetooth battery drain is the only issue
Coming from Windows 6.5 -as we all do- we all discuss the battery drainage.
All reasons for battery drainage given in this thread are true (bright screen sucks battery, 3G does etc etc.).
BUT WHY DOES THIS HD2 on ANDROID SUCK MORE BATTERY THAN THE SAME HD2 ON WINMO?
The bluetooth drivers obviously are not the right ones. On Winmo there was no significantly higher battery drainage with bluetooth on than with bluetooth off.
In all Android Roms that I have tried (and I tried them all), bluetooth empties the battery with about 60mA.
Who knows a rom that does not have this bluetooth problem?
jonny68 said:
I agree with most of what you say here but not this
Personally i think your better off keeping the brightness as low as possible as i did experience battery drain when i had it up to 100%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I work outside in direct sunlight, where low settings makes it not viewable. I have it to max and even at home at 40 percent, I see no changes. Probably because of my usage pattern.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
hello00 said:
I have a taskkiller and I don't notice any difference at all. Having the brightness to 100 does drain your battery that's just common sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Taskkillers have been proven to drain your battery. Google themselves have said it and admitted it in complex details. There's a thread on it that Ill pull up later at home. Like I said I see no differences in my battery report.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
StephanV said:
You probably won't last 4 hours either but I really don't feel like buying you a cookie.
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Sorry for this post.... but this made me laugh hard.....
StephanV said:
Probably the most valuable information in this thread - spot on!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So why when I run a task killer I get over a dozen apps running in list and when I close them my free RAM goes up, surley if they are using ram they are using energy?
Also surely the energy that these apps are using is MORE then the energy of the task killer itself?
There is ****loads of apps that just seem to run themselves in background and have no need to, I set my killer to kill every 30 mins or whenever screen is off aswell as manually when I choose to.
Can you provide any evidence that the task killer uses more energy then all the apps running in background combined as I seem to get much better battery with it then without it.
TheATHEiST said:
So why when I run a task killer I get over a dozen apps running in list and when I close them my free RAM goes up, surley if they are using ram they are using energy?
Also surely the energy that these apps are using is MORE then the energy of the task killer itself?
There is ****loads of apps that just seem to run themselves in background and have no need to, I set my killer to kill every 30 mins or whenever screen is off aswell as manually when I choose to.
Can you provide any evidence that the task killer uses more energy then all the apps running in background combined as I seem to get much better battery with it then without it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, just being in RAM memory does not (or maybe very little) use energy. When idle, they're just stored there. A lot of apps simply restart soon after you kill them, consuming a lot more power than just leaving them be, and on top of that you may experience bad app behaviour.
Well, if those apps do stuff they shouldn't be doing, they're badly developed and should be removed or updated, simple as that. Chances are though that those apps really need to be running (and their battery consumption doesn't necessarily have to be high), in which case killing them is even worse.
A lot of well known devs have very clearly pointed this out multiple times (Cyanogen for example is one of them), even Google twittered about it. Do some research, there's plenty of info on it.
It was good to know that info, i never knew that app killers could do more damage and use more power than none at all.
TheATHEiST said:
So why when I run a task killer I get over a dozen apps running in list and when I close them my free RAM goes up, surley if they are using ram they are using energy?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. Android kills applications to free up RAM usage when i needs them.
Also surely the energy that these apps are using is MORE then the energy of the task killer itself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also incorrect, most applications are killed upon exit/back key hit. Or put into a suspended mode that eats no battery (Android Browser, Facebook etc)
There is ****loads of apps that just seem to run themselves in background and have no need to, I set my killer to kill every 30 mins or whenever screen is off aswell as manually when I choose to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If only that was true. Killing applications will restart them which uses RAM to restart them which can also slow down your system. Applications don't run unless they are continuously fetching/streaming data or providing a service.
Can you provide any evidence that the task killer uses more energy then all the apps running in background combined as I seem to get much better battery with it then without it.
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Click to collapse
Ha, I don't believe you.
tl;dr version at the bottom.
Originally Posted by Google
By default, every application runs in its own Linux process. Android starts the process when any of the application's code needs to be executed, and shuts down the process when it's no longer needed and system resources are required by other applications. A content provider is active only while it's responding to a request from a ContentResolver. And a broadcast receiver is active only while it's responding to a broadcast message. So there's no need to explicitly shut down these components.
Activities, on the other hand, provide the user interface. They're in a long-running conversation with the user and may remain active, even when idle, as long as the conversation continues. Similarly, services may also remain running for a long time. So Android has methods to shut down activities and services in an orderly way:
- An activity can be shut down by calling its finish() method. One activity can shut down another activity (one it started with startActivityForResult()) by calling finishActivity().
- A service can be stopped by calling its stopSelf() method, or by calling Context.stopService().
- Components might also be shut down by the system when they are no longer being used or when Android must reclaim memory for more active components.
If the user leaves a task for a long time, the system clears the task of all activities except the root activity. When the user returns to the task again, it's as the user left it, except that only the initial activity is present. The idea is that, after a time, users will likely have abandoned what they were doing before and are returning to the task to begin something new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Originally Posted by Google
Activity lifecycle
An activity has essentially three states:
- It is active or running when it is in the foreground of the screen (at the top of the activity stack for the current task). This is the activity that is the focus for the user's actions.
- It is paused if it has lost focus but is still visible to the user. That is, another activity lies on top of it and that activity either is transparent or doesn't cover the full screen, so some of the paused activity can show through. A paused activity is completely alive (it maintains all state and member information and remains attached to the window manager), but can be killed by the system in extreme low memory situations.
- It is stopped if it is completely obscured by another activity. It still retains all state and member information. However, it is no longer visible to the user so its window is hidden and it will often be killed by the system when memory is needed elsewhere.
- If an activity is paused or stopped, the system can drop it from memory either by asking it to finish (calling its finish() method), or simply killing its process. When it is displayed again to the user, it must be completely restarted and restored to its previous state.
- The foreground lifetime of an activity happens between a call to onResume() until a corresponding call to onPause(). During this time, the activity is in front of all other activities on screen and is interacting with the user. An activity can frequently transition between the resumed and paused states - for example, onPause() is called when the device goes to sleep or when a new activity is started, onResume() is called when an activity result or a new intent is delivered. Therefore, the code in these two methods should be fairly lightweight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The following diagram illustrates these loops and the paths an activity may take between states. The colored ovals are major states the activity can be in. The square rectangles represent the callback methods you can implement to perform operations when the activity transitions between states.
tl;dr version
- Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when more memory is needed.
- Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when it's done doing what it needs to do.
- Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when you haven't returned to it in a long time.
- Most services (while possibly running in the background) use very little memory when not actively doing something.
- A content provider is only doing something when there is a notification for it to give. Otherwise it uses very little memory.
- Killing a process when it isn't ready only causes it to have to reload itself and start from scratch when it's needed again.
- Because a task is likely running in the background for a reason, killing it will only cause it to re-spawn as soon as the activity that was using it looks for it again. And it will just have to start over again.
- Killing certain processes can have undesirable side effects. Not receiving text messages, alarms not going off, and force closes just to name a few.
- The only true way to prevent something from running at all on your phone would be to uninstall the .apk.
- Most applications will exit themselves if you get out of it by hitting "back" until it closes rather than hitting the "home" button. But even with hitting home, Android will eventually kill it once it's been in the background for a while.
StephanV said:
For some people, with certain apps behaving in a certain way (for example business people getting emails every minute), this can really be a serious battery hug. Again no need to dumb down your phone too much, but it if you really need to squeeze out those extra hours of juice this is a valid option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously you don't have push email setup. Nobody buys the HD2 for that, they buy a Blackberry. Even syncing every hour isn't going to harm your battery other then a few moments versus turning it off altogether. No noticeable differences.
That's plain rubbish. More brightness = more emitted light = more emitted energy. Read a physics book someday, this really makes no sense. Display is one of the biggest battery hogs, especially when actively using your phone. Leaving it on a low brightness level sure helps heaps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I said above, has no affects on me. On a laptop, sure. Because those are 15 inch screens, not on a 4.3.
Bullocks again. First of all, underclocking cannot damage your phone in any way. Obviously no scientist has done research (actually, someone probably has but I don't feel like googling any right now) to provide solid evidence on the matter of cpu clocking affecting battery life, but any tech-guy with some experience will disagree with you. No need to clock down your CPU to 245Mhz obviously, but a 900Mhz clock speed will still more than suffice for most users. Again this won't significantly boost battery performance, but all the small bits help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you serious? Overclocking and under-clocking has already been proven to harm Intel and AMD processors on main computers in long term situations. Phones run processors just like your laptop/desktop PC does. There's been nothing to prove it helps save battery. I have never used SetCpu and think it's stupid and my phone still outlasts a buddy who runs SetCPU to underclock the CPU. Speed doesn't affect battery or you'd understand that slower CPU would take longer time to run applications, further reducing the battery.
Define heavy usage. How about playing Angry Birds at 100% brightness, while listening to Pandora with your Bluetooth headset/headphones, through a 3G connection obviously. Not a very far-fetched setup eh!is so
I'll buy you a cookie if you last more than, say, 6 hours. You probably won't last 4 hours either but I really don't feel like buying you a cookie.
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Click to collapse
Lets use some basic mathematical skills here. Indeed I just tested this for an hour straight and the drain was 150-200ma constantly. The HD2 battery is something like 1200, 1300ma whatever in total. Lets say its 1200 (too lazy to check) that divided by 200ma drain equals six. Six hours so your logic goes out the door.
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Click to collapse
FirefighterDown said:
Obviously you don't have push email setup. Nobody buys the HD2 for that, they buy a Blackberry. Even syncing every hour isn't going to harm your battery other then a few moments versus turning it off altogether. No noticeable differences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure I'm with you here. I do have push email enabled, and it's one of the things I like about Android. What does Blackberry have to do with this? Missing your point.
Well, in your case, it may not be a noticeable difference. It does for people who get a lot of emails. Exactly like I said in my previous posts. What is your point?
Like I said above, has no affects on me. On a laptop, sure. Because those are 15 inch screens, not on a 4.3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm 100% sure it affects you too. You can't just create energy out of nothing. Upping the intensity from lowest to highest easily adds in an extra 80mA, and that's just a rough and probably too low estimate.
Have you ever compared you HD2's battery with a laptop battery? Not quite in the same league of size now is it. Moar size = moar powers (well, kind of). Dumb laptop comparison, sorry to put it like this.
You can go ahead and try to reinvent battery usage all you want, but a 4,3" screen is and always will be one of the major battery hogs on a phone like this.
Are you serious? Overclocking and under-clocking has already been proven to harm Intel and AMD processors on main computers in long term situations. Phones run processors just like your laptop/desktop PC does. There's been nothing to prove it helps save battery. I have never used SetCpu and think it's stupid and my phone still outlasts a buddy who runs SetCPU to underclock the CPU. Speed doesn't affect battery or you'd understand that slower CPU would take longer time to run applications, further reducing the battery.
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Click to collapse
Are you? I haven't even used the word 'overclocking' in my entire post, of course that's bad for your hardware. Underclocking isn't gonna do **** though. I'll buy you another cookie if you find a valid source backing that statement up. But let me give you a hint: ain't gonna happen José. Just sayin'. (Disclaimer: I'm talking about realistic/plausible underclocking situations here, applicable to comparable hardware)
Uhm actually there has. Moar CPU = moar heat = moar power loss = moar battery loss. Again, conservation of energy, which could be found in the book I advised you earlier (well actually a thermodynamics book would be more appropriate).
Sounds like some very valid empirical proof you got right there. I'm sorry, but I could care less about your 1 comparison with that unknown phone of your unknown buddy, whom I have no clue about if he can even properly configure SetCPU or has a properly configured battery.
Lets use some basic mathematical skills here. Indeed I just tested this for an hour straight and the drain was 150-200ma constantly. The HD2 battery is something like 1200, 1300ma whatever in total. Lets say its 1200 (too lazy to check) that divided by 200ma drain equals six. Six hours so your logic goes out the door.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
150-200mA while playing Angry Birds @ 100% Brightness, while listening internet radio through 3G and BT headphones? Sorry, that's just physically not possible, hardware-wise. Not ever ever ever ever gonna happen, so you are either lying your ass off or have no clue how to check your current usage properly.
I think I'm sounding like a major douchebag here, but I don't really get it how you feel like you know all about this stuff when very clearly your technical knowledge on this matter is really limited. I'm very happy for you that you're happy with your battery life, but don't try and preach this like t3h l33t battery solution, because put simply: it's not.
[*]Keep the brightness UP to 100 percent. I saw no difference upon lowering it.
actually this is so funny dude ..
more light NEEDS more power .. this is so simple.. like 1+1=2
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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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!
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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
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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
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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.
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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?
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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
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Glad I could help.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App
I have seen all across the web posts about the disappointment in the battery life of the Nexus 6. I have to say why not, because with a 3300 MAH battery we expect more than 2 hours of on screen time. Which seems to be the normal accomplishment across the device. I have actually been able to achieve 4-5 hours of SOT on a regular basis! I haven't seen many guides on how to do so. I have only seen people bragging about it. So, I decided to post this information for those of you looking for some guidance. Hoping maybe for a sticky
1. First, you're going to want to be rooted.
If you do not know how to root or are not sure how to go about it you can use the Wug's Nexus Root Toolkit which is located here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-6/development/toolkit-wugs-nexus-root-toolkit-v1-9-8-t2947452
2. You're going to want to download Greenify. If you don't have it, it can be found here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en it is free. The pay version does have more to offer though.
Hibernate every service that typically runs in the background when not used (Example: Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Ebay, basically any notification based app). In addition, leave a widget on your home screen for hibernating the apps and going to the lockscreen. When you're done with your phone you can hit this. This will save battery when you're not using the phone.
3. Have Titanium backup installed (pro version) which consists of the free version + pro key. You can find them in the Google play store.. Free version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&hl=en Pay key: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackupPro&hl=en.
Freeze any applications which you do not use. (Ex: Cloud Print, DMService, Docs, Google Earth, Google Fit, Google books, music, Maps, etc...)
4. Have Disable Service installed. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cn.wq.disableservice&hl=en
This one is a KEY in getting better battery life. I was not able to get GREAT on screen time until disabling services with the Disable Service app. I have attached pictures of which services you want to disable in regards to "Google play services" which tend to be a HUGE battery drain on the device. Disabling these I notice no issue with the device everything works properly.
5. Keep WI-FI on whenever possible
6. Use battery saver mode whenever possible.
7. Get rid of Google launcher (freeze it in titanium backup) and use an alternate launcher such as Nova, Apex, etc... For some reason the Google launcher seems to be a huge battery drain.
8. Don't use unnecessary services like the Google hot word detection. I have to admit this one is hard because I love just saying "Ok Google" and then telling it what I want to search. But is it really that hard to just hit the microphone on the Google search?
9. If you are a Facebook user: Set the application to NEVER check for an update unless you open the application. Same with Facebook Messenger.
10. Use adaptive brightness or leave brightness at the lowest setting.
By doing this I was in fact able to achieve 5 hours on screen time. I hope this helps someone. Also, if you're a HUGE gamer on your phone. It is very important to realize you're never going to get that kind of on screen time.
Pictures of which services to disable within Disable Service are below: :good:
So basically turn off every function on the phone. So now it's a dumb phone with a big screen.
Sent from my Z3
Ulver said:
So basically turn off every function on the phone. So now it's a dumb phone with a big screen.
Sent from my Z3
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Click to collapse
Not really it's still a fully functional phone. Again this is if you want more battery life. Like any other device if you want full features, then you're going to jeopardize more battery. Pretty much common sense.
1) Rooting the device is complete overkill
2) Greenify has non-root functionality
3) Why not use Android's built in Disable feature. Most of those apps aren't going to just be running anyway. Freezing them is pointless
4) This is a can of worms that is going to have unforeseen consequences. Unless you know exactly what everyone of these services does and how they interact with each other and the OS, I wouldn't touch them
5) Good advice
6) The absolute best advice you've given. I'd suggest creating a Battery Saver settings shortcut on your homescreen and toggle on/off as necessary
7) Just install another launcher and set it as default
8) This is fine advice and is a matter of personal preference
9) Good advice
10) Adaptive brightness likely uses quite a bit of battery as it has to determine ambient lighting. Just set the lowest brightness level you can live with.
crachel said:
1) Rooting the device is complete overkill
2) Greenify has non-root functionality
3) Why not use Android's built in Disable feature. Most of those apps aren't going to just be running anyway. Freezing them is pointless
4) This is a can of worms that is going to have unforeseen consequences. Unless you know exactly what everyone of these services does and how they interact with each other and the OS, I wouldn't touch them
5) Good advice
6) The absolute best advice you've given. I'd suggest creating a Battery Saver settings shortcut on your homescreen and toggle on/off as necessary
7) Just install another launcher and set it as default
8) This is fine advice and is a matter of personal preference
9) Good advice
10) Adaptive brightness likely uses quite a bit of battery as it has to determine ambient lighting. Just set the lowest brightness level you can live with.
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Click to collapse
I personally don't like the devices build in disable features because I've seen them still hog battery even though they claim they are "disabled" I suggested root because of using titanium backup which needs root as well. Again it's just personal preference. Not sure why you saying freezing apps is pointless. It accomplishes the same thing as disabling them
Ulver said:
So basically turn off every function on the phone. So now it's a dumb phone with a big screen.
Sent from my Z3
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this. these threads amuse me whenever they pop up for each new device. turn off everything and like magic you have a phone that lasts days. this is stupid. i have every feature turned on my N6 at all times with auto brightness and can make it through the day just fine. on days when i use gmaps navigation i may have to quickcharge it for 20 min or so but that's pretty much it. just live your life and use your phone man. best advice i can give...
oh one more thing. facebook app is a notorious battery hog. here's some real advice: ditch it and just use the web portal. MUCH better...
funny, i keep most everything enabled and still get from 5.5-6.5 hours sot. nor do i ever turn on or use wifi. only lte here.
simms22 said:
funny, i keep most everything enabled and still get from 5.5-6.5 hours sot.
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There's no way you are dead stock and have everything enabled and get 5.5-6.5 hours on screen time unless you barely use your phone for anything. lol
drivel2787 said:
There's no way you are dead stock and have everything enabled and get 5.5-6.5 hours on screen time unless you barely use your phone for anything. lol
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who said anything about being stock? even though i had the same battery life when i was on stock. being stock or custom rom doesnt matter anyways. its about how i have my phone and cpu set up, what apps i install, and about my phone/data signal quality. and yes, im a heavy user, not at all a light user. but i do not game very much, mostly a browser user.
simms22 said:
who said anything about being stock? even though i had the same battery life when i was on stock. being stock or custom rom doesnt matter anyways. its about how i have my phone and cpu set up, what apps i install, and about my phone/data signal quality. and yes, im a heavy user, not at all a light user. but i do not game very much, mostly a browser user.
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What specific rom/kernel and settings are you using to achieve such battery life?
drivel2787 said:
What specific rom/kernel and settings are you using to achieve such battery life?
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i run rastapop or terminus(with either elementalx or franco kernel), at 3033mhz/300mhz(ondemand/deadline or conservative/deadline for franco) with all 4 cores on all the time(no hotplugging). mpdecision always disabled. i never use the default kernels settings, and always set up my cpu my way. but i live in nyc, with great tmobile coverage. battery life has much to do with the quality of coverage that you get btw.
Im stock and get 5.8hr SOT.
PunishedSnake said:
Im stock and get 5.8hr SOT.
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Screenshots or BS
crachel said:
1) Rooting the device is complete overkill
2) Greenify has non-root functionality
3) Why not use Android's built in Disable feature. Most of those apps aren't going to just be running anyway. Freezing them is pointless
4) This is a can of worms that is going to have unforeseen consequences. Unless you know exactly what everyone of these services does and how they interact with each other and the OS, I wouldn't touch them
5) Good advice
6) The absolute best advice you've given. I'd suggest creating a Battery Saver settings shortcut on your homescreen and toggle on/off as necessary
7) Just install another launcher and set it as default
8) This is fine advice and is a matter of personal preference
9) Good advice
10) Adaptive brightness likely uses quite a bit of battery as it has to determine ambient lighting. Just set the lowest brightness level you can live with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You skipped 8. Lol
erapmicks said:
Screenshots or BS
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since i never drain my battery completely, here is my battery at 50%(was an especially good night, usually its around 3.5h sot at 50%). no game playing here, mostly browser and hangouts..
simms22 said:
since i never drain my battery completely, here is my battery at 50%(was an especially good night, usually its around 3.5h sot at 50%). no game playing here, mostly browser and hangouts..
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Booya!!!!!!!!!
Same here I get some good days and great days. 5.8 is one of the good. one day of 7 was great lol.
PunishedSnake said:
Booya!!!!!!!!!
Same here I get some good days and great days. 5.8 is one of the good. one day of 7 was great lol.
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absolutely. it cant be the same every day, but 5.5-7h sot is where it averages. mostly around 6h sot is what i get. but i really rarely reach near 10% battery left.
PunishedSnake said:
Booya!!!!!!!!!
Same here I get some good days and great days. 5.8 is one of the good. one day of 7 was great lol.
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yea i dunno why people try to call 'bs' on these things. i float during the day between everything disabled or stream and hog data at will. it takes like 10 seconds to cycle between the 2 'modes' and i like to test this things limits. i have turned in a 10 hour SOT before and rubbed it in my buddys iPhace, but that was a bizarre one. 5+ is the cellar. 6 is common. 7 is great. 8 is a chore.
leank is mostly why uc/uv, pure 3.98 stripped some w nano gapps and ones i choose, dark theme
edit: i meant to add: there are differences in hardware that MAY result in differences as well
i feel that the huge difference is network quality, for some, no matter what they do, they cant go over 4h sot. i think this is where network quality comes in. also, screen brightness is very important. keep it as low as you can, lol.
One thing I'm noticing is how much the Turbo charger affects battery life. I have a Nokia Qi wireless charger built into my nightstand that I typically use for charging my Qi devices at night. I only recently started using QC2.0 chargers in the car and next to that same nightstand and have seen much better results already. My 6 is trending to hit about 5.5 hours of SoT today whereas 4 was the norm previously.
[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.
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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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