If you’re an Android smartphone user, you’ll want to make sure that the battery lasts as long as possible. Especially if you’re in a situation where a charger isn’t readily available. Here are some tips to improve battery life of an Android smartphone.
Note: I am using Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread on HTC Explorer, but the settings are similar on smartphones running other versions of Android.
Android Battery Usage Screen
Check which apps are draining battery juice. In the battery options, it shows you detailed statistics of what is using energy. Go to Settings and tap on About Phone.
Tap on Battery.
Tap on Battery Use.
It shows which applications are using your battery like your Dialer app, Android System, etc. Disable features you don’t need running in the background.
Turn Off Data Services
One of the most effective ways to improve Android phone battery life is to turn off 3G/4G data services when not using it. If you are using Android 2.2 (Froyo), we have a guide to help you Keep track of network connection to improve battery life. If you’re on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, here’s how to disable the data network connection.
Open Settings by tapping the Menu button on your Android home screen.
Select Wireless and Networks.
Scroll down and uncheck the Mobile Network option. This will disable 3G/4G network connections on your smartphone.
Turn off Location Services
Location service can drain a lot of battery power on any smartphone. These are not only used by GPS applications (e.g Google Maps) but many other applications use location services as well. Disable this feature if you’re not using it.
Under Settings, tap on Location settings.
Uncheck the option that says Use GPS Satellites. Additionally, it also helps disable Geolocation features from apps such as Twitter, Facebook or any other application that uses it.
Display Settings
High brightness and animation effects can also decrease battery life. So, its better to keep the brightness to a minimum (one which you are comfortable with) or auto brightness. I prefer keeping it to around 25-30% rather than auto brightness. To do so, open Settings and tap on Display.
Tap on Brightness and reduce it to something you are comfortable with.
You should also disable any background animation effects to maximize your Android battery life. Under Display settings, tap on Animations and select No Animations option.
Task Manager
Running too many applications in the background has a negative impact on your battery life. Using Task Manager apps like Advanced Task Manager helps you check which applications are running in the background. Many android smartphones come with default task managers; for example, HTC Explorer comes with a build in task manager which can be used to kill applications running in the background.
There you have it folks, some tips to help you improve your Android smartphone’s battery life. If you know about any other tip which can help android users maximize their battery life, let us know in the comments!
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Mat Lee
July 2, 2012 at 8:49 pm
So basically turn off everything that makes your smartphone smart, and the battery will last forever. You can also just kick on flight mode and save tons of battery life, assuming you only want to use it for an mp3 player, which some people do if they have extra phones. I get crazy battery life on my droid x only using it to play podcasts. Radios off!
Steve Krause
July 3, 2012 at 7:27 am
Hey — Turning off the device would probably give you even more juice! :)
Yeah, nuking the radio on my iPhone (WiFi), plus Data and Bluetooth also extends things a bit for me.
Ryan Glass
August 15, 2012 at 3:15 pm
You can also get apps that manage your wifi and data connection automatically like Battery Save Junky and Juice Defender
jameel
October 20, 2012 at 5:57 pm
changing kernels and roms will boost the battery life. None of these tips helps a lot in improvement of battery life though but when I changed stock 2.2 froyo ROM HTC desire to a custom stable gingerbread ROM, my desire is working awesome and i would never get back to stock HTC ROM ever.
Austin Krause
October 20, 2012 at 7:29 pm
I agree 100%. The battery is better on many of the Custom roms, such as Cyanogen Mod. Going into Airplane mode with wifi off is still the most effective way to save battery, but a custom roms makes a close 2nd place. For example my Galaxy SII went from a 24 hour battery to a 72 hour battery after switching to CM9.
This is due in part to underclocking of the CPU, and removal of a lot of unnecessary things running in the background.
hemalatha
May 30, 2013 at 5:07 am
wen i hear songs , my battery goes down within 1 hour? anyone can help me?
Steve Krause
May 30, 2013 at 8:11 am
Yikes… Well if all you want is music, perhaps drop the phone into Airplane mode and see if that helps you. Granted then you won’t get any calls…