The Energon Pub

I'll probably get told off by the Admins that there already exists a similar thread about this! but here goes.....

Y'know how you get an Android phone & after you've had it a while the battery starts to die pretty quick....& unless you get a new phone after that happens....you try & find ways by looking for applications on Google Play Store that may help extend battery life....so for arguments sake....let's say that you find & download one of those....at first it looks as if it's making an improvement.....but in the end it doesn't

Why?

Because apart from the app being crap & not working!(which is 9 times out of 10 in most cases where Google Play Store is concerned) the application ITSELF drains the battery! thus contradictory of one of that applications many functions, so have many of you other than myself experienced such a thing? apart from having to get a new cellphone.....is there any true applications that actually work & that don't also quickly drain the battery themselves?

One weird thing

With the likes of the Armed Services & Emergency Services, Police Forces ect....how are they able to sustain battery life on their cellphones? One theory is.....that they have access to some privileged applications/operating systems that DO extend battery life! coz let's face it....they don't want to be caught in a life & death situation & suddenly their cellphone battery dies on them! OR having to be recharging their cellphone at the time!

now if this did happen to be the case.....it looks like we the public....are getting the bum deal when it comes to cellphone batterylife lastability! granted some cellphones on the market just now are getting slightly better with batterylife! but it's still a million miles away from what those aforementioned services have already had for quite some time now.

So what do YOU think? Is there a battery saving application that truly works & doesn't severely drain the battery itself? or do you believe that the armed services, emergency services, police forces ect have access to special applications & operating systems that extends their cellphone battery life far beyond anything available in the public sector? & do you believe that we're getting ripped off because such special applications /operating systems may exist but not introduced into the public sector?

Stuartmaximus wrote:I'll probably get told off by the Admins that there already exists a similar thread about this! but here goes.....

:roll:

I don't believe that an App would exist that extends the life of your battery. Last week for some reason my phone drained over 50% in the space of two hours. Even though I checked there were no active apps draining the battery I simply rebooted the phone. Problem solved.

There are times when even though Android may not show an active app, it will still be running deep in the background, in which case, a reboot will do the trick.

This is more of a hardware issue.

The military or other services must have requisitioned heavy duty type lithium cells over the regular ones for civilian use.

You can also extend your batt life if you deactivate the auto updates.

Another issue that will cause drainage is old age of the hardware. AS it ages, power efficiency diminishes due to wear and tear.

First recommendation: Get rid of the apps, they're entirely useless.
Anything they shut down can be done by human interaction, too. On top of that, some of the apps and services they shut down actually force the phone to work harder, not less, because Android will reactivate them on it's own or use resources picking up the slack created by killing the apps in the first place.

Second recommendation: Stop using apps and services that aren't needed at the moment.
For example: Kill the GPS and NFC (all phones have GPS, only a few have NFC, so don't panic if you can't find it to disable it. If it doesn't show up, you don't have it.) They're pointless energy wasters if you're not actually using them and 9 times out of 10, you're not.

Also recommended, turn off wifi when using data and data when using wifi. Regardless of what Android tells you (location services and all that jazz) they aren't necessary at all times and certainly not at the same time. Besides, using wifi saves on your phone bill.

Heck, even the gyroscope/rotation can be a battery drain, but most definitely the auto sync. Unless you're on a wired power source or an external portable battery and on a constant wifi connection, this is a feature that's not needed.

Speaking of batteries...

Third recommendation: Buy an external backup battery. Amazon has them dirt cheap, you can pick 'em up for $5.00 or less at Five Below, $10.00 or less at Walgreens, even. They'll recharge using a micro usb cable, just like your phone will and they come with one so you can either charge your phone with the cell, or to recharge the cell for later use. I have several of them and they all get heavily used, you'd be amazed how handy they become.

Bottom line:
When at home, use it for fun and keep it tethered to a wall outlet so there's constant power and use wifi to save on data. When out and about, keep a portable battery pack on hand, shut off needless system features (the ones mentioned above) and use it mainly as a phone, you'll notice you'll get quite a run out of each charge.

Oh, and this should go without saying, but remember to turn your brightness down when on battery. That can eat 75% of the battery, alone! Check out the battery stats in the settings sometime, you'd be amazed at how much life the screen can drain.

Other thoughts:
If your phone has Miracast capability (stream audio/video/pictures to the TV) or has MHL/Micro HDMI, go ahead and connect it to the TV, it'll let the TV take the heavy burden of broadcasting the image and shuts off the phone's screen so you can still use it and save some power. Some phones will not charge when in MHL mode, others will, so be careful about this as well.

Just basically keep the phone charged, that's all you really can do. Believe me, I've been through the ringer with these things.

I've owned an iPhone 3G, Samsung Droid Charge, HTC DNA/Butterfly J, Motorola Droid and currently a HTC One m8 and all of them have been battery hogs, you learn pretty quickly that you'll end up being tied to some form of power to keep things going. lol

Oh, final addendum.... turn off bluetooth when not in use. If it detects anything bluetooth nearby, it can kick on it's scan feature hoping to connect to that device, which is not only a battery drain (worse than data or wifi) but is also a security risk. Only have bluetooth onwhen you're actually using it with another device.

Autobot032 wrote:First recommendation: Get rid of the apps, they're entirely useless.

Not all apps are useless.....depending on the situation

Autobot032 wrote:Bottom line:
When at home, use it for fun and keep it tethered to a wall outlet so there's constant power

this can mess up battery calibration!