Gadget Blog

Yes, you couldjust tiwn everything off, but we show you the best power-saving methods that actually work

Battery life is one of the biggest issues facing the Android world today. Take your SIM card out, turn off Wi-Fi and never touch it, and your phone will sit there happily, lasting for a whole week on a single charge. But try to use it for anything 'smart' and that's where your problems start.

You have to admit that it's a pretty sorry state of affairs when you're counting the uptime of today's smartphones in hours rather than days: the standard metric of decent battery life being whether a phone can last a whole working day on a single charge. So are there any realistic things that you can do to improve the duration of your smartphone's battery life, other than just switching it off, hiding it away in your sock drawer and hoping no one ever calls you?

Read on to discover some easy, not-too-compromising methods of boosting your Android phone's battery life, so you're not always wondering where the nearest power socket is.

It's not possible to suddenly double your Android smartphone's uptime by magically tweaking a few settings, of course. However, you should be able to squeeze out a few more hours from even the puniest of batteries, which could be the difference between listening to music on your way home and sitting in silence wondering where it all went wrong.

> Set a rigid bedtime

Some of today's smartphones feature automation tools, which enable you to, say, turn off the mobile signal and Wi-Fi after a certain time.

Putting your phone into this sort of induced coma does save power, so if your phone doesn't already support scheduled activities, try installing a management app, such asTasker, and switching off all non-essential stuff overnight. Or you could stick itin airplane mode yourself. You'll sleep better, too.



> Deactivate Wi-Fi when not needed

If your phone's constantly sniffing out and trying to connect to every Wi-Fi signal in the area, like a robot dog on heat, you're wasting battery power.

Switch off Wi-Fi when out and about or when you know that you're not going to be needing it. A homescreen toggle makes this easy. Think of it as something boring but essential you have to do, like always putting your seat belt on.


> Upload and sync only on Wi-Fi

If you're a keen Dropbox user or rely heavily on music syncing services, you'll benefit greatly from only doing your uploading through Wi-Fi. It's vastly quicker, which means your phone isn't working so hard on demanding tasks, and a lot less strain on those battered lithium reserves.

> Uninstall any unnecessary apps

You can never be too sure what's running itself in the background, what with all the multi-tasking, self- uploading, auto-replicating features in today's modern Android apps.

So at least minimise the chances of something randomly hoovering up all your battery by constantly trying to connect to some non-existent server, by deleting any unused or old apps.

> Use push notifications

when possible Android's built-in email application is great and stylish and everything, but having it poll for messages every 15 minutes isn't best for your battery. If your email provider offers push notification support, use it - the excellent standalone Hotmail app does, for example, which will help lessen power drain a little.

> Switch off GPS

Unless you're one of those people who's still using Foursquare to tell the world every time you go out to the corner shop to buy a packet of crisps, there's little reason to have GPS constantly active on your smartphone. Turn it on only when you actually need it, and use the option to have your phone detect your location through the Wi-Fi connection. Wi-Fi location is usually close enough an approximation for most apps.

And if they do need GPS, they're clever enough to tell you anyway.


> Check yourself

Apps such as Battery Doctor give you a much better indication of what's eating away at your smartphone's battery over time than Android's own limited battery life checker does, which could help finger something that is the key culprit in draining your device's power. And if you can live without it. bin it.


> Install a brightness toggle widget

Set your phone to its minimum possible brightness by default, because it's your display that's by far the biggest user of power. Then stick a big brightness high/low toggle widget on the homescreen, in a place you can find it without being able to see it (such as when using your now ultra-gloomy phone outside). Then only max the brightness when you need to. It might help, and even the automatic brightness option uses a marginal amount of power, because the light sensor needs to sense light.

> Dump the widgets

Yes, widgets are a key part of Android, and we're trying to keep this guidepractical and not tell you to nuke everything, but do you really need a constantly updating Facebook widget on a homescreen? It's just full of boring people's boring baby photos anyway, and updating widget content puts a constant strain on your battery throughout the day, even if you just activate your phone for a few seconds to check a text message.

> Remove haptic feedback

Surely your brain's had enough practice using touch devices that it knows if you've pressed something or not by now? If so, turn off all the haptic feedback options. These little bumps and grinds use power each time you press a key, so try to get used to life without physical feedback.

> Put your phone on the windowsill
A strong connection to your phone network requires less power to maintain, so the technical people tell us.

So instead of keeping it in your pocket, stick it somewhere else and point it in the right direction so you see the maximum number of connection strength bars.

Simply flipping your phone 45° on your desk might actually make the battery last longer What a mind-blowing revelation, eh?

> And keep it cool

Batteries work best in cooler temperatures, with prolonged warm periods gradually lowering their efficiency over time. Putting your phone in a looser pocket might help, or perhaps just gently fanning it while it charges.

That might not be the best use of your working day, but at least you'll still be able to get on Twitter on the train home.