Let's be honest - many mobile phone batteries simply aren't fit for purpose. Even Google's Larry Page says you should be grateful if your Android battery lasts a day.
In fact, in order to keep your smartphone alive for a full "working" day you're often forced to deactivate the very features that make the phone "smart" to begin with, as you switch off option after option to nurse your rapidly-dying new mobile through a day of worthwhile use.
So what can be done, practically speaking, to make your Android phone's battery last longer? And can any of the power-management apps actually help?
Here we'll look at the more obvious Android battery-saving solutions, as well as the more obscure tips and tricks that could make a genuine difference - and add hours to your potential operational 'up time'.
1. Use Android Power Control widget
Put simply, you've got to take control. The best way of maintaining battery life is indeed to dumb-down your all-powerful new phone by switching off features - but do it in a stylish way. Don't just leave everything turned off all the time, or you may as well still be using a Nokia 6610.
Home screen widgets that flip Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and other power-hungry options on and off with a single press take the pain out of switching features off, while Android 1.6 added Google's own power icon strip - set it up by long-pressing and installing the Android Power Control widget on your Home screen.
2. Calm down on the status updates
No one's saying you can't use your Android phone's features, but do you really need to be pinged every two minutes about a new Tweet or email? Lower the notification frequency in any apps that constantly update you on the minutiae of everything everyone does, ever, and you'll maybe still have a bit of battery left by bed time. So you can tweet that it's your bed time. Then tweet 'night night'.
3. Switch off auto-sync
If you're not a power-user of the Google life-management apps, turn them off. If you can live without Google Calendar and Gmail, it's possible to do away with auto-sync altogether - just remember to manually sync your Contacts every once in a while, in case you drop your phone in a toilet.
The app MySettings will give you numerous little toggle switches and let you turn auto-sync on and off easily, if you like the idea of having a whole screen full of power-saving icons.
MYSETTINGS: Empower yourself. Take back several minutes of battery life
4. Disable 3G connectivity
Good old 2G is perfect for calls and texts, so kill 3G unless you're planning a bit of emergency web browsing on your phone. You'll also benefit from the general feeling of increased calmness that follows naturally once you've stopped staring at the 3G icon every two minutes and fretting about what your mobile network connection state is.
5. Lower the screen brightness
As impressive as it might be to have your stunning OLED screen blazing out so much light that the current inhabitants of the International Space Station have to squint and lower the sun visors when you wake it up, it's completely unnecessary. If you're inside, Android's default 0% brightness setting ought to do. Again, install a brightness widget on your desktop, for easy access when you do need a visibility boost.
DIM IT: Squint more, save battery. This handy widget's called Brightness Level
6. Turn off GPS
GPS is a monster power-drainer, and it's barely of any use most of the time. Is it? Really? Even famed mobile-sensitive app Foursquare can do a good enough job of tracking you down via approximations based on which mobile masts you're connected to, so unless you're actually doing a bit of serious satnav action, switch it off. You'll be able to hear your battery sigh with relief. Seriously. Try holding your phone to your ear as you uncheck the box.
7. Monitor everything
Android 1.6 introduced a menu that lets users see precisely where their battery life is going, with the OS giving you a percentage breakdown of what sucked away all your phone's power in the final few minutes before you actually wanted to use it. Like a mobile black box recorder.
The 'Battery Use' tab under Settings/About Phone will give you a detailed breakdown of what's absorbing the most power, letting you take manual control - and delete any power-hungry apps. Try replacing them with alternatives and see if there's a difference. One rogue app that sucks power on your particular phone could be the problem.
8. Set a Wi-Fi timeout
There's a semi-hidden 'Advanced' Wi-Fi management screen in Android, accessed by navigating to your phone's 'Wi-fi Settings' tab and then pressing the Menu button. From here, you're able to manually select a timeout option for the Wi-Fi connection - one of the biggest power drains on idle phones.
It may make your phone take longer to connect to Wi-Fi when you wake it up, and therefore feel a little less 'smart', but at least it'll still be significantly smarter than a lump of useless plastic with a dead battery.
WI-FI TIMEOUT: Hidden advanced menu screens - another reason Android is BEST
9. Go Gothic
Modern popular thinking has it that phone screens, particularly OLED versions, use more energy when displaying brighter, whiter colours. So go Gothic. Ditch that vibrant wallpaper and select a nice, dark Home screen background, then enjoy not having to reach for the charger for at least an extra minute every day.
10. Install a time-sensitive power manager
There are plenty of time and location sensitive apps on the Android Market which automatically handle your phone's power and communications settings. For example, there's no point leaving your phone connected to the mobile network while you're asleep - so a simple app like Airplane Autoswitch, which kills all radio communications, will save loads of power and also help you sleep uninterrupted by notification pings.
Set it to activate Airplane mode at your usual bedtime, then get it to fire itself up again when you wake up. Simple, and your battery will make it through the night with only a minuscule drain.
AIRPLANE AUTOSWITCH: The unglamorous, plain text world of hardcore power management
11. Put your phone somewhere there's a good reception
Your phone uses more power when it's seeking a mobile mast connection, so, believe it or not, your battery will last much longer if you leave your phone in a place where it gets a good reception. Put it on the other side of your desk, or on the windowsill. It will make a difference.
An app like Antennas will give you a ridiculously detailed summary of your phone's current network connectivity state and all the masts in the area, if you fancy locating the optimum low-power placement within a three-mile radius of your home.
ANTENNAS: Only for the Category-A obsessed power-saver
12. Don't drain the battery
The old advice to completely drain your battery to ensure proper operation doesn't stand any more, thanks to modern lithium-ion batteries. They don't have the charge memory issues that affected previous generation cells, and in fact perform better if you regularly charge them and keep them topped up.
13. Buy an in-car charger
And leave it in the car. Buy a spare one and leave it in a friend's car. Also leave USB cables everywhere. And get a spare battery. And a spare spare battery. There's no guaranteed way to beat the system. It will be flat the one time you fall down a cliff and need help.
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Your comments (18) Click to add a new comment
albie
March 4th 2011
18. One of the most powerful battery manager app in the Android market is JuiceDefender. This is not a task killer, it's rather a tool that allows a much more energy-efficient usage of your handset.
Simply put, what JuiceDefender does is it automatically manages some of the most battery-draining components (GPS, WiFi, etc.), powering them only when they are actually needed ...rather than leaving them on all the time. And it does much more than that, it's literally full packed with features for battery consumption optimization (connectivity scheduling, location-aware controls, battery threshold controls, etc.). It's quite amazing what it can do.
JuiceDefender is free, fully customizable and fully automatic, meaning that it only needs to be set up once, and then it runs by itself improving battery life from behind the scene - you won't need to touch it again!
You can find some video reviews on JuiceDefender’s Facebook page and more info on its website.
Hope that helps!
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quatermass
December 12th 2010
17. Get yourself a emergency phone charger for a couple of quid.
I got one from Maplin for £3, it take 1 AA battery (I use a 2500mAH rechargeable in it but you can use a normal alkaline AA in it too) and it powers my HTC Desire HD for hours in the afternoon via the MicroUSB connector.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=222899
No fuss - no bother.
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the1observant
December 1st 2010
16. Well... the title does say 13 "ways", so those are options. But if you want to purposely keep your smartphone on the grid like it was designed to do (probably the reason why you have one), then get an extended battery. Some phones manufacturers offer an extended battery pack with a larger capacity and a thicker back plate to cover the battery. Yes, you loose the cute thin profile, but it's not that bad. - Another option is to get a rechargeable power pack that plugs into the mini usb port on the phone. Yes, it makes the phone look ridiculously longer and a little heavier, but it's still better than staring at a blank screen, isn't it? - Also a note about way # 12. don't drain the battery... true, there is no "memory effect" issue on Lithium-Ion's, BUT there is still an issue with the protection circuit on some models. Some of the so called "smart circuitry" built into the battery is not really all that smart. Sometimes they shutdown prematurely. Sometimes they stop the charge prematurely too. Usually it doesn't start happening until the battery capacity becomes weakened, but there's always that odd duck out there in battery land. So, an occasional calibration drain after every 10th charge usually levels it out. But don't worry about doing that unless you have a suspicion the battery is killing itself too early. If a calibration drain doesn't correct it on the second try, then it's time to start shopping for another battery. It also helps to have a digital multimeter handy to test the new battery at a full charge, use it for a couple of weeks, then test it again and compare the difference. If there's not much deviation, then you've found a good one. You can check your calibration results with a multimeter too and note the improvement difference. Again, it's not a memory effect, it's a calibrated protection circuit error.
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bgoog
October 16th 2010
15. Great post... Another sweet tip to get more life out of your battery is to use Black Google Mobile at http://bGoog.com!
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mcrobbj
August 31st 2010
14. Why don't android just implement the underclocking when idle that you can buy off the store for those that are rooted! I asked HTC but they just said ask Android with no contact details. This should be a no brainer why have your Ferrari running at 10,000 revs whilst at the traffic lights?
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batterycompanycomau
August 9th 2010
13. RIM devices use push for all mail, and all traffic goes through their servers, so they have a uniqe ability to control network traffic through their devices, so it makes sense that their battery life is so great. I used to own a BB Pearl, and remember the battery lasting for quite awhile.
WinMo has a pretty robust notification framework, including a mechanism to hook SMS messages, and keep them from being displayed as normal text messages. I have the program "remotetracker" cooked into both mine and my wife's ROM. It is activated by an SMS message which starts with a specific string. T-Mobile also uses SMS as the notification framework for their Visual voicemail and I think their "MyAccount" app uses it too.
Android is the odd man out here. I had a feeling there was no mechanism to hook SMS messages in Android as evidenced by all of the Anti-Theft programs for Android that are activated by SMS not being able to hide the "trigger" SMS messages. The quote you posted confirms my suspicion. IMO, there is really no excuse for Google omitting that functionality.
http://www.battery-company.com.au
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spurred120
July 3rd 2010
12. Listen people.This is total BS.We are forking oiver large sums of money for these smart phones ,and we're being told the only way to operate them and get a battery life that lkasts longer than a nhanosecond is to turn features off,many of which are things that made us want to buy the phone in the first place.This isn't good enough.It's like buying a Ferrari or Porsche and being told that if you want to get the best out of it,don't go over 50 and try not to use any of the many fantastic extras that come with it.This is mad.
Until people start getting on the backs of these manufacturers to build a better battery,it will make no diffference if your phone can make you tea in the morning and simulate love making with you in the evening,if the battery isn't up to coping wioth what the phone can do ,then it;'s pointless getting the phone...FULL STOP.
They seem to be able to build a better phone with no problem.Build a better battery for god sake.
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tom.a.wrobel
June 28th 2010
11. I need my alarm in the morning... but yes, potentially!
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prophit
June 26th 2010
10. Is it just me, or instead of the auto airport mode when you're going to sleep wouldn't you be better off just switching the phone off
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tom.a.wrobel
June 24th 2010
9. HTC Legend. I can easily get 3 days battery. And if I'm not constantly using it 4-5 days.
It would be interesting to see how much difference JuiceDefender makes, if you find it isn't helping then maybe the constant switch on/off is using battery. I agree it can be annoying taking 2 secs to get 3G back.
Does anyone know more about this?
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bradavon
June 22nd 2010
8. Airplane Autoswitch is good but it kills all connections, including voice/sms/mms.
Instead I've installed 'Data on Demand'. Which allows you to schedule when to switch on/off/auto (only off when in standby) data connections.
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bradavon
June 21st 2010
7. I forgot to add, as well as Auto-Sync you definitely want to reduce how often Apps/Processes Auto-Sync. The HTC Desire by default sync with Facebook every hour. That's overkill for me. I've altered it to 4Hrs. E-mail is now every 1Hr. Annoyingly Gmail Auto-Sync is either On (Push Mail) or Off, you cannot choose how often it syncs. For this reason (and I hate the Gmail UI) I've stopped using it and use the HTC Mail App with Gmail (using IMAP). This has a better UI and allows me to sell it to sync every hour.
"The best tips I've found to get 3-4 (even 5) days battery are: Screen brightness down."
What phone are you using? That sure isn't my experience. I don't believe Android is 'currently' capable of that long battery life. Not without a custom ROM maybe anyway.
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bradavon
June 21st 2010
6. How do you disable 3G (without disabling 2G) on the HTC Desire? I can turn the entire data connection off but I lose GPRS then too (which as far as I know, uses very little power). Unless that's what you mean? I'd prefer not to turn off the data connection "entirely" because it's whole point we have these phones.
Thanks for the info about Airplane Autoswitch. I've just installed it. I gave the free Juice Defender ago and whilst it's very comprehensive, I just found it a nuisance. When I turned my phone back on I had to wait for the data connection to re-connect and I only found a negligible difference in battery life anyway. Probably because constantly turning on/off the data connection drains the battery too. Turning off the data connection at night is a good idea though.
The simple solution for Wifi is to leave it Off unless you actually need it. Why leave it on 24/7?
If you're happy without Auto-Sync that one sure does make a difference (probably the biggest difference in my experiance). Personally I like it and what's the point in these smartphone, if you cannot Auto-Sync? I tend to just turn it off when I'm going away for the w/e etc... but otherwise leave it on.
I've already reduced my HTC Desire's brightness. I've not noticed much difference in battery life between the low setting I've left it on and the Auto brightness tick box though. I also leave GPS off, unless I actually need it (which isn't often).
I also agree about a Task Manager but pick the right one. I use Advanced Task Killer and it works very well indeed. The key is to just kill User Apps (like Faceboook) instead of System Apps/Processes (which will cause your phone to do weird things).
Many Apps needlessly talk to the web. I am btw fully aware of how Android works but it doesn't mean I want every App I use to be constantly running.
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dyonas
June 21st 2010
5. Just a few points to note on the article which is pretty good overall.
1. Even Google's Larry Page says you should be grateful if your Android battery lasts a day.
He actually said if you're not getting a days worth of battery something is wrong. Quite different from what is suggested in the article.
2. Screen brightness via Power Control widget has three settings with one tap. Off, Medium, Full. Very handy and saves downloading other things to do it.
The last thing is related, but not directly, to the article. I read the Google post about why you don't need a task manager and it makes a lot of sense. It's a legacy idea that feels right because of how Windows Task Manager lets you kill apps using memory. It's worth a read if you can find it.
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tom.a.wrobel
June 21st 2010
4. Don't install a task killer - they are a complete waste of time. Only people who don't really know how the OS works install them and then are constantly frustrated when apps/widgets don't function correctly. Android manages tasks so much better than the Windows OS's we're used to; it pushes processes into the background/off when not needed rather than killing them mid-process.
The best tips I've found to get 3-4 (even 5) days battery are: Screen brightness down.
Apps like Juicedefender (free version is good enough), which switch off data/Wifi/GPS when screen is off are good. They still allowing occasional 'on-time' every 15mins to check emails etc... perfect.
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psyfur
June 21st 2010
3. Defiantly going to try the GPS trick
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bobbyk68
June 21st 2010
2. If you leave it on 2G then be careful as any data actions stops you receiving calls!
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randomdog
June 21st 2010
1. 14. Install a task killer and kill apps you're not using anymore. This will give you about 8 hours more battery life. Also remember to use it every time you reboot your phone as most Android apps have the tendency to autostart.
Don't need to worry about killing apps like gmail and messaging - if you get an email or a text the app will start up again automatically, so you might as well kill them.
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