With the increasing availability of quad-core processors as is the case with the Samsung Galaxy S III, trying to keep Android battery charged is an even more apparent concern. Today we will take a look at the top 5 ways to get the most of the Android’s battery life.
Android Battery Tip #1 – Find Out What Is Using The Juice
To know what actions to take to fix your battery problems, first you must know why your battery is being depleted in the first place. In Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, you can find this information under: Setting >Device >Battery. In Gingerbread this same screen can be pulled up through Settings > About Phone > Status https://tipandroid.com/.
This screen will show your current discharge rate and also how long it has been since your battery was fully charged. Below that you will see, by percentage, exactly what sources are using up your battery. In the example that I have shown here. The screen is taking approximately 64% of the battery life from my phone. This will most likely be your highest user of battery as well. But as you can see with mine, Twitter is taking a significant amount of battery. For me this is normal, but if you happen to see an application that that is incredibly high this will be your first sign of what should be done next in order to improve your battery life.
Android Battery Tip #2 – Screen Brightness
Though apps can use a chew through a great amount of battery, the most likely culprit to be #1 on the list is your display. This is pretty universal through all phones, and limiting the power your display takes will ultimately yield the best results in saving battery.
The trickiest part of this is; there is no “best setting” when it comes to screen brightness. The best setting for one phone for one person, may render the screen absolutely unreadable to another. Also, automatic brightness setting work differently on different phones, some phones regulate the screen brightness very well while others are marginal at best. What I suggest is to get a widget for your phones, like this one, and adjust the brightness to what suits your needs the best.
Android Battery Tip #3 – Control Your Refresh Intervals
Social networking has continue to find a place into our everyday lives. And apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are used by millions on a daily basis. These apps push notification to a users phones and allows them to see updates real-time from other users within the given app. The biggest problem with the apps, is that order to achieve these real-time data, your mobile device is constantly checking the internet to see if anything new has been added.
When you take into account that the average user may have 2 or 3 of these apps on their phone, you can see what type of power can be generated to make sure these apps are up-to-date. Looking within the apps settings and changing the refresh interval will certainly have an effect on your batter over the course of a day.
Android Battery Tip #4 – End Apps You’re Not Using
Within the newer version of the Android OS you will find a task manager. This application can show you which programs are active on your mobile device and how many resources each of those are using. By taking ending applications that you are no longer, those resources will go into an idle state that will allow you to save more of your battery for when you really need it.
Note: Under the task manager, you will see a tab that is named RAM. There is an ongoing debate as to whether clearing the RAM on a regular basis will help your device’s battery life. The truth is, that no matter how many times you clear the RAM, it will just get used up again. It is a inherit trait of how Linux system run and will have a very minimal effect on your battery life. So save your time.
Android Battery Tip #5 – Take Things Into Your Own Hands
The last tip is about as simple as they come, take charge yourself. Many features have been added to the newer Android Operating Systems to allow the user to have a greater control over their battery life. ICS for one, has a battery saving setting that allows you Things such as switching Wi-Fi on and off, or going into airplane mode when you don’t need the signal will have a profound affect on your battery.
Also don’t take for granted the ignoring your device method. Each time you flip your screen on to check to see if there is anything new, your display uses a large amount of energy to turn on. Constantly doing this is much worse than having proper notifications set on your phone to make you aware of new content.
Android Battery – Conclusion
As you can see there are many ways for a user to take more control over the battery life their device consumes. Though some may have more benefits than others, all of these tips will help you create most out of the life of your device.