8 simple way to improve Android battery life

When it comes to battery life, no smartphone has a battery that is substantial for consumers today. Many android users would be happy to make it through a single day, hoping that a nightly recharge is sufficient.

There are a number of factors that have conspired to reduce gadget endurance over the past several years. The move from 3G to 4G networks particularly of the LTE variety has also taken its toll. But there is plenty that you can do to extend your battery life:

Network selection mode

Though switching to 2G mode from 3G won’t save a lot of battery, but it can be a real life saver if you are low in battery and need to save some for crucial minutes later on. Switching to 2G network makes the device consume lesser battery.

Screen Brightness

Although auto screen brightness is a safe bet, for overly bright screens, manually setting the brightness would be a better way if you can do it manually every time. This auto feature is a good addition but when you do it manually, you can ass at what levels of brightness you are still able to read. Also, just in case you are too lazy to do it manually, you have an application called Lux Lite to do the hassle for you, though it will keep running in the background consuming some battery on its own.

(Disabling auto, adjusting brightness automatically)

Close background applications

Killing background applications doesn’t really improve on your performance, but there might be some application which could be requesting internet data in the background by pinging the servers for requests, ensuring a connection establishment or updating in the background.  You should consider killing these applications instead, in order to reduce the energy demands of the device which can be done later on as well. Also, you can restrict background data from the mobile data section to avoid background applications from fetching data and in turn gives you battery some boost.

Disable GPS

People are generally smart enough to keep their GPS off when it isn’t needed, but what they generally don’t do is disable the location reporting and history when they are actually using GPS. These two services are pre-bundled with android and are enabled by default as soon as you turn on your GPS. If you wish to turn these off, you need to go to Settings > Locations > Google Location Reporting and disable these.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

You should keep your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi drivers off when you don’t need them to preserve you battery. Also, in case of Wi-Fi People are generally smart enough to keep their GPS off when it isn’t needed, but what they generally don’t do is disable the location reporting and history when they are actually using GPS. These two services are pre-bundled with android and are enabled by default as soon as you turn on your GPS. If you wish to turn these off, you need to go to Settings > Locations > Google Location Reporting and disable these.

Wallpaper and Themes
Live wallpapers are flashy, fun things to have on your home screen, but again they take a lot of your battery life, consider not using them to get you battery life to last longer.

Disable Google Now Cards

Google Now is a great assistant to have and once you start using it, you will find that it is unmatched in quality. Although you may not use all of the Google Now services, they will still keep running in the background.

To disable specific cards, go to Now, scroll to the very bottom and touch the magic wand icon located at the lower center of the screen. From here you can customize the cards you need and disable the ones you don’t. As a thumb rule, cards relying on GPS (such as Travel Time, Nearby Places etc.) will drain more battery. So you can disable those to boost your battery a bit.

Sync
Sync is a feature in which your device constantly contacts Google’s servers for downloading emails, calendar records and other information in the background. This uses loads of battery power and you should shut it down when it is not needed. Don’t worry; everything will be synced later when you turn it on again.

Note:

1. If you are really low on battery, switching to airplane mode is the best way to save some battery to be used later when it’s crucial.
2. If you are still unsure of what is draining your device’s battery and wish to monitor battery usage statistics by various applications, you can read more about it in this post