1. Turn off wireless services when you're not using them (i.e. Bluetooth, GPS, 4G Wifi*)
This should go without saying but these services do not come free (in terms of battery life). Leaving these on when not using them is a waste of battery...as is using them when you don't have too. It's your phone of course, but if it's dying in 2 hours, you may not have to update your foursquare at EVERY location.
*Wifi is an exception which I'll cover at the end
2. Turn off auto brightness
Auto brightness is a great feature, but sometimes it gives you more brightness than you actually need. By manually controlling your brightness, you can make sure your phone display isn't beaming when you're indoors (though it looks great). This is probably one of the most effective tips.
3. Turn off auto sync or background data, or data altogether
This is another biggie! When you have auto sync off, the apps listed under your accounts won't sync 24/7. When you turn background data off, all your apps will not sync unless you want them too. This means you wont get twitter, facebook etc... notifications but you save a lot of battery. You can also turn off data (3G/2G) altogether if you're not going to be using it. This helps as well. If you are in a low signal area, turn off background data or data in general! It drains battery to try and pull from data that isn't there.
4. Reduce the number of widgets you use
Widgets are awesome but each widget requires a little bit of the Android OS to run. Reducing these decreases the load and improves battery life
5. Consider not using live wallpapers
This kind of goes without saying. I personally use one but I know my battery life would improve if I didn't. These also fall under your Android OS category and reduce battery life. If you can get through a day with it on then don't worry about it but if not, consider removing it.
6. Use a dark/black wallpaper (AMOLED phones only)
OLED is a screen technology that turns off pixels when displaying a dark image. LCD screens dim the pixel severely but they are still on. So if you have a phone with a OLED type display (For example Super Amoled +) Dark backgrounds help battery life.
7. DON'T Use Task Killers
Task Killers not only kill troublesome apps, but they kill apps that often just restart on your phone regardless. All of these apps restarting consumes battery, so in a sense you're shooting your self in the foot while trying to kill an ant on your shoe. Instead you can use apps to monitor which programs are taking up your CPU. I personally use GSAM Battery Monitor https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5nc2FtbGFicy5iYm0iXQ.. and watchdog lite ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zomut.watchdoglite&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS56b211dC53YXRjaGRvZ2xpdGUiXQ.. ) *Warning, the notifications can get annoying*) If you find troublesome apps in this program, kill those .
8. Power Save and Power Save Apps
Power save and power save apps usually do numbers 1, 2, and 3 for you, but it doesn't hurt to use these functions
9. Use Airplane Mode
When in an area with no signal or no wifi, you might as well put your phone on airplane mode instead of letting it search for a signal that will never come, or try and pull data that isn't there.
10. Bump Charge Your Phone
When you're charging your phone and it hits the 100% mark, in order to keep from overheating your phone, it'll stop charging for a bit, and then recharge a little bit to get back to 100%. This is why sometimes when you take your phone off the charger, it jumps straight to 99 or 98%. Other times it may charge to the bare minimum of 100%. When you bump charge, you let your phone get to 100%, unplug it, and plug it back in and let it charge some more. After bump charging 2-3 times, you'll be starting from, or as close as you could get, to a true 100% charge.
11. Check what processes are using your battery
Go to settings > About Phone > Battery Usage and see what apps and functions are consuming the most power. Screen should be the biggest battery drain unless you haven't used your phone much, then Android OS would be around the top.
12. Disable/Enable Wifi
This was the exception I was talking about earlier as there has been a debate over this. Wifi does require battery to use, but there are times where using 3G would drain more than wifi would, and vice versa. So here are some separate rules for wifi based on my findings
Conditions:
1. If you are in a low signal area and have access to wifi, use wifi.
2. If there is no wifi around, turn off wifi. Do not let it search for wifi all day.
3. If your 3G speeds are good enough to work with, turn off wifi.
4. If condition 1 is met and background data is on go to Settings >Wifi > Hit the
menu button > Advanced > Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep - Always
5. If background data is off and wifi is available go to Settings >Wifi > Hit the menu button
> Advanced > Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep - Never
13. Turn off auto-update for apps in the play store. Your phone will constantly search for updates for apps while active.
*Rooted Phones Only*
(What's Root? We'll cover that in the future)
1. Calibrate your battery
Download the app Battery Calibration from the market. Bump charge your phone to 100% and then calibrate. You'll notice a drastic improvement.
2. Underclock your processor
This tones down the processing speed of your processor and improves battery life. Apps like SetCPU (not free) and CPU Tuner (free) and Rom Toolbox (free) allow you to underclock your processor and the first 2 allow you to create custom profiles (i.e. underclock when screen is off, overclock when on charger).
3. Undervolt your battery
Same effect as 14. except it reduces how much power your battery uses instead of how fast your processor moves.
4. Install a different Modem
Modems affect how well the radios in our phones work. Some modems are better than others. Efficient modems pick up solid signals so there is less searching (battery consumption) involved
5. Choose your ROMS and Kernels carefully
Some ROM/Kernel combinations are horrible for battery life and some ROMS alone just aren't that good on battery life. Do your research on it before flashing even though results vary from phone to phone.
That's it for battery life tips! Hope you found something useful! I've managed to pull 50 hours off one charge before. I also know someone with an Lg Optimus M who managed to pull a Day with 30% battery to spare. Use your battery wisely and you will see life that not only rivals, but surpasses the life of some of those..other...phones. Don't forget to vote up top, and leave a comment below. Thanks for reading! Have a great day!
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