A Guide to Making Your Android’s Battery Last a Little Longer

[Guest Simon O]

Theres a pretty good guide at androinica for optimizing your battery usage. Quite a few of the tips I've used on my phone.

http://androinica.com/2010/08/11/a-guide-t...-little-longer/

[Guest meinnit]

thanks for this...some good tips there! I find wireless network location and background data to be a big battery killer. i have also turned off always on data which does make a difference, connection starts up as and when needed.

[Guest Azurren]

Glad to see a guide that doesn't just say "turn everything off!!11@#$"

But i still believe that if your phone lasts you all day then its fine the way it is :D

[Guest D-D-]

That guide just reminded me...

If u turn on gps, but no app is using it at the moment, does it drain battery?

edit: And there is no icon in the notification area that is being used.

Tnx.

Edited August 11, 2010 by D-D-

[Guest Simon O]

That guide just reminded me...

If u turn on gps, but no app is using it at the moment, does it drain battery?

edit: And there is no icon in the notification area that is being used.

Tnx.

Normally no but if you turn GPS on then any application that uses location service, and even google search website, will use your GPS to find your location. I turn it off and use the cell tower location. It's accurate enough unless you need navigation.

[Guest D-D-]

Well most of them are turned off and the ones I need the GPS are using it only when I'm opening them.

So tnx for the info. :D

[Guest gusthy]

Well most of them are turned off and the ones I need the GPS are using it only when I'm opening them.

So tnx for the info. :D

One more tip:

there are different apps for the same functionality with different battery usages. it is practical to choose the ones that use less juice. typical apps of this type are:

-instant messaging apps

-automatic task killers

-memory/battery monitors

-etc.

also, setting cpu speed to reasonable values can lower power usage.

[Guest rikkiej]

Normally no but if you turn GPS on then any application that uses location service, and even google search website, will use your GPS to find your location. I turn it off and use the cell tower location. It's accurate enough unless you need navigation.

Doens't the cell tower location use more battery then the GPS? That's what I've read on androidscentrals battery guide

[Guest Pakatus]

whats the general feeling about "SetCPU" app?

Does it "help"?

I've felt like it did...however phone took a lot of time to wake up when it was on standby.

[Guest meinnit]

whats the general feeling about "SetCPU" app?

Does it "help"?

I've felt like it did...however phone took a lot of time to wake up when it was on standby.

I think the default minimum setting is 245MHz however SetCPU lets you lower this to 122MHz. Wake up lag seems to be a bit less this way. Before I used to set max sleep CPU to 245MHz but as you said wake up time is a bit longer.

I only set max lower when I'm low on battery and need to conserve power.

[Guest D-D-]

But SETCpu is what was eating my battery in the past. :S

The kernel should do the same job now... (the dynamic way of using the cpu)

[Guest Azurren]

Doens't the cell tower location use more battery then the GPS? That's what I've read on androidscentrals battery guide

Exactly.. It's arguments like this that makes it so confusing :D

Obviously the battery drain difference is sooooo small that no one really knows. I think I'll keep gps on just to find out. More useful than using wireless networks :D

[Guest meinnit]

But SETCpu is what was eating my battery in the past. :S

The kernel should do the same job now... (the dynamic way of using the cpu)

You don't need to leave SetCPU running in the background.

[Guest bbevan]

Thanks Fibble, until now I didn't know that Wifi menu existed..

Regardless of what is does to the battery, I no longer have to wait for the Wifi to connect when I wake my pulse. :D

[Guest Jankins]

Yeah, that's a pretty helpful article. Using a black background where ever possible can help save battery power too. http://bGoog.com is a cool new site for mobile phones that is just Google with a black background...

[Guest craigb244]

Yeah, that's a pretty helpful article. Using a black background where ever possible can help save battery power too. http://bGoog.com is a cool new site for mobile phones that is just Google with a black background...

wont save power on our phones im afraid. infact black will make it use more power since it has to power the LCD at full load to block the light from the backlight :D not much tho :D

[Guest Jankins]

wont save power on our phones im afraid. infact black will make it use more power since it has to power the LCD at full load to block the light from the backlight :D not much tho :D

AMOLED based phones do generally have bigger savings. Some LCD displays actually do have small savings but some are marginal on either side as you said. bGoog.com also saves bandwidth and power by delivering smaller pages which could be worth using even if you have an LCD display I would think...