You may have noticed that your Android device likes to consume a lot of battery. You don’t have to tell me about it. I am always thirsty for a nice fully charged battery – on the rocks, shaken not stirred… Delicious…
Well back on point. Battery life, and what you can do to keep it charged. Well it all starts with your charger. If you pay close attention to the fine print on the charger you will see a little number on there that tells you the wattage of the charger. Even though the chargers have the same end (most have micro USB) you will not get the same performance with a different charger. Especially for these gigantic screened newer models with all the newfangled features like 3D and dozens of built in types of wireless technology. If you lose your charger you will need to find something similarly rated to get the best performance out of your battery.
The next thing to keep an eye on is the notification area at the top of the screen. the more things that are up there the more processes are probably running on your phone, and the more things running, the shorter your battery life will be – along with the performance of the phone taking a hit too. As you can see by the screenshots below there is an app called Advanced Task Killer running. Although it is an app that claims to improve your battery life, remember that if it is always running in the background then it will have to take some sort of hit to your battery. Also – with the improvements made to the Android OS a task killer is no longer useful. It is all built in to the OS. So if you have one, uninstall it now.
For a more detailed look at all of the applications that are running in the background navigate to “Settings” – “Applications” – “Running Services”. This will give you all the details of what is currently running in the background in real-time. If you constantly see an app listed here that you don’t uses a lot consider uninstalling it. You have to weigh the pres and cons of these apps. Also keep in mind that the above and below screenshot was taken on an HTC phone, so your results may vary.
One other place that you can go to to lessen the drain of you battery is under “Settings” – “Accounts & Sync”. This gives you a list of what data is synchronized from the web into your phone. Things like your Google data will show up here, along with Facebook, weather apps, stock widgets, etc. If you don’t use it, uncheck it. See the final screenshot below:
So before you give up on your Android phone, or take it in for service because the battery isn’t holding a charge, try these simple tips. You will definitely notice an improvement in your battery life.
Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone: