| By Whitson Gordon How to Get Better Battery Life from Your Android Phone
There are a lot of different things that can kill your phone's battery, and oftentimes they're things you don't even need. We've mentioned quite a few of these before, but if you're having serious battery life issues on your phone, make sure you check each of these settings, features, and customizations to make sure you're getting the best battery life possible out of your phone. The Features that Draw Battery PowerThere are quite a few settings and features on your phone that will drain battery life, sometimes without your even realizing it. To see what I mean, head to Settings > About Phone > Battery > Battery Use. You may see some things there you didn't realize were battery killers. Here are the settings that are most likely killing your battery, and how to turn them off when you don't need them. Your ScreenPhoto by Kevin Jarrett.
Your screen, especially if it's one of the new beautiful Super AMOLED or Super LCD displays, draws by far the most battery from your device. The best way to minimize your screen's battery usage is to turn the brightness down. By default, your phone should be on "Auto" brightness, which works, but might still use up more juice than you'd like. If you head to Settings > Display > Brightness, you can uncheck "Automatic Brightness" and put it on something like 10%. It'll be a little harder to see in direct sunlight, but you'll be better off everywhere else. Putting the Power Control widget on your home screen makes toggling between low and high brightness a lot easier, too, so that's a widget I highly recommend you use if you don't already. To add it, press and hold on an empty section of your screen, choose Widgets, and pick the Power Control option. I'd also recommend lowering the Screen Timeout from 1 minute to 15 or 30 seconds under Settings > Display. If you tend to let your phone sleep automatically (rather than hitting the sleep button when you're done using it), this will help you save some life as well. Cellular DataUnfortunately, one of the biggest battery killers—especially if you live or work with with bad service—is your cellular and data connection. Whether you've got a fancy new 4G phone or a standard 3G unit, your data will use up battery even if you aren't actively using the phone. You can turn your data connection on and off using either previously mentioned APNDroid or previously mentioned Quick Settings. Toggle mobile data on when you need it, turn it off when you don't. If you're just planning on talking, texting, or sending a quick email, EDGE or 1X is more than sufficient. You can turn data back on when you're browsing and need the extra speed. It seems extreme, but it'll save you quite a bit of juice. Unfortunately, these apps only work with GSM phones (AT&T and T-Mobile in the US); CDMA phones (like those on Sprint or Verizon) are left out. Some phones can turn off 3G from Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks, but others will have to go the more complicated route. Sprint users can also turn off 4G with the previously mentioned Power Control Plus widget, while Verizon users can turn off 4G with the LTE OnOff app. Wi-Fi
BluetoothHaving Bluetooth on kills battery just like Wi-Fi does. If you don't use a bluetooth headset, just turn Bluetooth off entirely. Again, you can toggle it on and off from the Power Control widget, so on the occasions that you are using a Bluetooth headset, or transferring files over Bluetooth from your computer, you can quickly toggle it on right from your home screen. GPSEveryone hates on GPS as a huge battery killer, but it probably isn't as bad as the others since it's unlikely that you're always using it. GPS only turns on (and drains battery) when you use it for something, like Google Maps or turn-by-turn navigation. Of course, if you use location services with Twitter, Facebook, or other social apps, then it may be turning on more often than you realize. Like the others, it can't hurt to toggle this one off using the Power Control widget when you're not using it, and then just turn it on when it's time to use Google Maps. How to Automate These SettingsOf course, toggling these settings on and off all the time isn't an ideal phone scenario that leaves you feeling like you live in the future. If you only use Wi-Fi at home and at your local coffee shop, for example, wouldn't it be nice if your phone just knew when you were there and turned Wi-Fi on for you? Or wouldn't it be nice if you could just have Bluetooth on during work hours, when you're more likely to use that headset? Automate Any Setting with Tasker
If you'd rather not go through the trouble of setting all these up, of course, you can still do it manually. Again, I can't recommend Power Control or Power Control Plus enough—it makes it so easy to toggle those settings on and off. Scale Back Data Usage with JuiceDefenderYour other option is to use previously mentioned JuiceDefender. It does all the automation for you, though you can tweak some of its settings if you like. Basically, it manages your data connection as intelligently as it can. It will essentially turn off your data connection and re-connect every 15 or 30 minutes, to see if you have new emails, Twitter mentions, or other notifications to download.
It's extremely easy to set up and use, and you can grab it from the Market for free. However, some of the features (like the Wi-Fi ones) are only available in the $5 JuiceDefender Ultimate upgrade, so I highly recommend you grab that too. It's well worth the price. Other Things to TryAll that said, there are a few other tweaks I'd recommend, whether you're using the above settings or not. Here are some extra things you can do to make sure your phone's getting the best life out of its battery. Tweak and Uninstall Data-Heavy Apps
If you have apps you aren't using, uninstall them. Some apps will try to connect to the internet without you realizing it, and it's best to just uninstall them entirely. If it's a piece of crapware that came with your phone, you'll have to root and use Titanium Backup to freeze it. Also, get rid of any widgets that are constantly pulling data down, like Facebook widgets, weather widgets, and so on. Or, at the very least, make sure you can edit their settings so they only poll for data every half hour or hour. Turn Off the Eye Candy
Screen animations, live wallpapers, and other eye candy features can get pretty CPU intensive, so if you're looking to save battery life, turning them off is a great way to do so. You lose some of the "awesome" factor of course, but if you've done everything else and still aren't happy, this should give you a bit more juice. Keep Your Phone from Getting Too HotNothing kills a battery like extreme heat. This is probably common sense by now, but don't leave it in a hot car, get it out of your pocket when you can, and keep it as cool as possible during the summer. The hotter that battery gets, the faster it will die. Wipe Your Battery Stats
Don't Use a Task KillerWe've talked about this before, so I won't get into the whole spiel here, but unless you're using an old version of Android—like 1.6—you don't need a task killer. They'll harm your battery life more than they'll help it. If you've done everything else correctly, like uninstalling apps that constantly connect to the internet for no reason (including crapware), quit apps when you're not using them, or use battery-efficient notification intervals, you don't need to be killing apps left and right for any reason. Don't use it. Underclock or Undervolt Your Phone
You can also use a lower voltage kernel, which you can find around the internet or grab with previously mentioned Kernel Manager. Sometimes these can be a little less stable, and you may have to underclock your phone at the same time, but they can seriously give you better battery life. Get a Secondary BatteryLast but not least, there's no shame in getting another battery for your phone. Most modern smartphones have crappy battery life, it's just a sad fact of owning one. If you find that, even with the above tips, you use your phone enough that the battery doesn't last you as long as you'd like it to, it's time to swallow that pride and just pick up a second battery. They don't take up a lot of space; you can keep it in your backpack or pocket until your phone dies and then just pop it in to give it new life. If you prefer, you can also get an "extended battery", which is a larger battery that will bulk up your phone, but give it quite a bit more battery life.
Hopefully you've learned at least a few new tricks for saving battery on your phone today—there are a lot of different things you can do, and it's up to you to pick and choose which ones work the best for you. Of course, many of you have probably built up your own arsenal of battery tips over the years, so if we didn't mention one of your favorite battery tricks, be sure to share them with us in the comments.
| April 26th, 2011 Top Stories
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If you have a modern Android phone, you know the pain of turning on your phone at 5 PM only to realize it's deep in a low-battery coma. Here are the simple manual changes, and clever automatic tweaks, that will keep your phone awake and useful for far longer.
When you have Wi-Fi networks around, use them. They'll automatically turn off your data connection and use Wi-Fi instead, which is better for battery life than cellular data. However, when you aren't around Wi-Fi, it'll actually drain your battery by constantly searching for networks to connect to. Apart from a few choice locations, I don't use Wi-Fi very much except at my house—so I'll turn Wi-Fi off with the Power Control widget when I'm out and about.
Luckily, you can do all this (and way, way more) with 
By default, this particular setting probably won't do a ton unless you're already using your battery inefficiently. If you have your apps set up to use push notifications or battery-efficient intervals for pull notifications, this shouldn't save you a ton of battery (more on that below). What is really cool about JuiceDefender is its other features. For example, you can set it to disable Wi-Fi after one minute if it hasn't yet connected to a nearby network. It will then keep Wi-Fi off for 15 minutes and check again. It can even learn the Wi-Fi spots you connect to most, and just turn Wi-Fi on whenever you enter those areas. It can also turn off data entirely at night and re-enable in the morning, either after a certain time or when you wake the phone from sleep. You can also configure which apps have access to background data, which is nice for those that may be sucking up your data without you knowing it.
If you're rooted your phone, you'll want to make sure you 
If you have a new, powerful phone, you probably don't need all that CPU power it's giving you. Rooted users can download and install 
Make sure you're buying a real OEM battery, though. A lot of places, like Amazon, are selling a lot of knockoffs for super cheap. They can be tempting, but they can also cause problems—buy directly from your cellphone manufacturer or carrier to make sure you're getting a real, high quality battery for your phone.
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