Conserving battery in phone

[the_randomizer]

So, as some of you know, I recently got an Android phone and despite being low-end, it runs many emulators quite well, GBA emulation is full speed, no audio hiccups and so on. But there seems to be something, rather anomalous with the frequency on charging the battery. I have to do it pretty much everyday. I believe I either have to root the phone, install some power-conservation apps, or disable WiFi altogether, which is apparently a big killer of batteries even when the phone is in standby. I disabled GPS, which I've no intention of using. Set the screen to shut off after a short time, speaking of which, is it better to let it shut off on its own, or shut it off every time I'm done using it?

What I'm trying to find out is the following:
============================

1 - Can I get an app on a non-rooted phone that will help disable unneeded apps/tasks and help?
2 - Is there a way I can free up system memory (if that would even help at all), and/or stop music apps
from playing in the background, even when I pause the sound and leave the player?
3 - I'm pretty sure it's not normal to see battery life deteriorate in < 24 hours' time. What can I do to better extend the life of the battery? And if I have to root, which should be possible, even with a ZTE Sonata (I believe that's the official name).

tl;dr - Just need some advice on what I can do to stop the charge from deteriorating so quickly, one charge per day can't be good.

 

[Zerousen]

1. The most you can do is disable the apps that you don't use in settings > applications.

2. You shouldn't have too much of a need to free up RAM, unless it's just bloat that you want to get rid of. Having RAM taken up will not deteriorate battery, in fact, manually closing up apps and then having to run them again later will be worse for the battery compared to just leaving them in the background.

3. Go to settings > account, and then disable anything that you don't need to have sync. Also, don't download any of those silly RAM freeing apps or something like Juice Defender. You should try Greenify and see if it helps you, I personally don't use it since I find that my phone's battery is able to last throughout the day without it, but I think lower end devices should benefit more from it, although I don't know how much it would be able to help you with it's non-root option.

 

[the_randomizer]

1. The most you can do is disable the apps that you don't use in settings > applications.

2. You shouldn't have too much of a need to free up RAM, unless it's just bloat that you want to get rid of. Having RAM taken up will not deteriorate battery, in fact, manually closing up apps and then having to run them again later will be worse for the battery compared to just leaving them in the background.

3. Go to settings > account, and then disable anything that you don't need to have sync. Also, don't download any of those silly RAM freeing apps or something like Juice Defender. You should try Greenify and see if it helps you, I personally don't use it since I find that my phone's battery is able to last throughout the day without it, but I think lower end devices should benefit more from it, although I don't know how much it would be able to help you with it's non-root option.

I know the device can be rooted, to an extent as I found a forum for it, but it might be tricky. Now, with apps, can apps be permanently disabled or is it only temporary? Never heard of Greenify, but I'll check that out is well. Thank you! I just kinda get worried that the battery is used up that quickly is all

 

[gifi4]

Yes, WiFi is a massive battery drain. Depending on what phone you have, you may have an option for quickly turning off/on services with a single tap.
The reason WiFi is a battery drainer without even having a connection is that the wireless adapter is ALWAYS looking for WiFi networks. You ever notice how your phone may alert you that there's an unsecured WiFi network? That's because it's always scanning for networks.
Turn off WiFi when it's not in use.
Turn off mobile data when it's not in use.

 

[loco365]

I know the device can be rooted, to an extent as I found a forum for it, but it might be tricky. Now, with apps, can apps be permanently disabled or is it only temporary? Never heard of Greenify, but I'll check that out is well. Thank you! I just kinda get worried that the battery is used up that quickly is all

+999999999x10^e for Greenify. It's a great application for sleeping apps that you don't need all the time. If you get the free version on XDA, it's limited, but if you pay, you can greenify system apps if rooted. Greenify basically just hibernates the app, and when you need it, it's still there. If you want a more permanent option, you can root, install Titanium Backup, and just freeze apps you don't want running at all (Be careful with this, disabling system apps can break your system).

That, plus the obvious: disabling bluetooth, data, GPS, Sync, and reducing the screen brightness will all help as well.

Another thing to look for, if you battery is draining in less than a day, is for wakelocks. Those are nasty little things that keep your phone "awake" to update, but it gets stuck, and keeps the device in a semi-fully on state and drains the battery very rapidly. I had one for a couple of weeks, and it was an incredible pain in the ass to deal with. It went away on its own, though, but certain apps can cause them.

 

[Duo8]

If you want to get extreme:

1. Root it
2. Disable/remove all unneded apps
3. Greenify or TIBackup+Schedules
4. Tasker + Underclock CPU profile. Make a High-performance profile for when you play games.
5. Don't use live wallpapers.
6. Undervolt CPU. Use an efficient CPU governor (depends on kernel)
7. Auto brightness
8. If you're on 4.4+ disable Wifi scanning always available.
9. Switch Location to Battery saving
10. Disable Android device manager
11. Use stock ROM
12. Check wakelocks. If you're still having issues see if the CPU enters Deep Sleep.

Personally I've never cared much since I get 2 days of battery with medium Internet on my phone.

 

[the_randomizer]

Yes, WiFi is a massive battery drain. Depending on what phone you have, you may have an option for quickly turning off/on services with a single tap.
The reason WiFi is a battery drainer without even having a connection is that the wireless adapter is ALWAYS looking for WiFi networks. You ever notice how your phone may alert you that there's an unsecured WiFi network? That's because it's always scanning for networks.
Turn off WiFi when it's not in use.
Turn off mobile data when it's not in use.

Turned it off for now, yeah, it was pretty darn easy to turn off, same with GPS, 4G, the fact it was still looking for a network certainly didn't help. Failing that, rooting might be the only option, but that voids the warranty, naturally. So, I rarely used the internet on this thing, except installing apps, that's about it so far. Thanks again

+999999999x10^e for Greenify. It's a great application for sleeping apps that you don't need all the time. If you get the free version on XDA, it's limited, but if you pay, you can greenify system apps if rooted. Greenify basically just hibernates the app, and when you need it, it's still there. If you want a more permanent option, you can root, install Titanium Backup, and just freeze apps you don't want running at all (Be careful with this, disabling system apps can break your system).

That, plus the obvious: disabling bluetooth, data, GPS, Sync, and reducing the screen brightness will all help as well.


Another thing to look for, if you battery is draining in less than a day, is for wakelocks. Those are nasty little things that keep your phone "awake" to update, but it gets stuck, and keeps the device in a semi-fully on state and drains the battery very rapidly. I had one for a couple of weeks, and it was an incredible pain in the ass to deal with. It went away on its own, though, but certain apps can cause them.

How could I get rid of those nasty little buggers? And as for apps, can you disable/stop them and have them actually "stopped" and not restarted without my consent, unless I load them up when I need to? Sorry for the numerous questions, I feel so lost on this phone, it's my first Android (sad, I know). Syncing, so, I would just need to find out what apps use it, like the email apps (which I signed up with Gmail)? Rooting should be feasible, but the amount of rooting info for this phone is limited, but is out there, the model being ZTE Z740G.

If you want to get extreme:

1. Root it
2. Disable/remove all unneeded apps
3. Greenify or TIBackup+Schedules
4. Tasker + Underclock CPU profile. Make a High-performance profile for when you play games.
5. Don't use live wallpapers.
6. Undervolt CPU. Use an efficient CPU governor (depends on kernel)
7. Auto brightness
8. If you're on 4.4+ disable Wifi scanning always available.
9. Switch Location to Battery saving
10. Disable Android device manager
11. Use stock ROM
12. Check wakelocks. If you're still having issues see if the CPU enters Deep Sleep.




Personally I've never cared much since I get 2 days of battery with medium Internet on my phone.

This phone ain't new and I only have Jellybean on it, not sure how I'd get Kitkat on there, if at all. Auto brightness, hmm, have it set to lowest possible to where I can still see what I'm doing. Wakelocks, no clue what those really do, or how to disable them, hence rooting. Heck, I don't even know what kernel I'm on or what the phone uses. And isn't undervolting kinda dangerous?

 

[Duo8]

This phone ain't new and I only have Jellybean on it, not sure how I'd get Kitkat on there, if at all. Auto brightness, hmm, have it set to lowest possible to where I can still see what I'm doing. Wakelocks, no clue what those really do, or how to disable them, hence rooting. Heck, I don't even know what kernel I'm on or what the phone uses. And isn't undervolting kinda dangerous?

You can use one of those wakelocks checker apps out there.
If you haven't flash a ROM on it then it's most likely running a stock kernel.
Dropping 1-2mV is usually OK. Though this helps with heat more than battery AFAIK.

Also check the battery usage stats.

 

[the_randomizer]

You can use one of those wakelocks checker apps out there.
If you haven't flash a ROM on it then it's most likely running a stock kernel.
Dropping 1-2mV is usually OK. Though this helps with heat more than battery AFAIK.

Also check the battery usage stats.

I have checked that, and those can't be reallocated at all, a good chunk of it is used to maintain standby mode in a low power state, rated at 320 hours of max standby on a single charge. What about screen timeout? Like having it go off after X amount of time, is that a bad replacement for standby?

 

[Duo8]

I have checked that, and those can't be reallocated at all, a good chunk of it is used to maintain standby mode in a low power state, rated at 320 hours of max standby on a single charge. What about screen timeout? Like having it go off after X amount of time, is that a bad replacement for standby?

That's pretty good. My phone gets about ~400h anyway.
What does screen timeout have to do with standby?

 

[the_randomizer]

That's pretty good. My phone gets about ~400h anyway.
What does screen timeout have to do with standby?

Nothing, but I'm sure how often I turn it off and on in standby makes it worse, I can't do much about that, but what would be a a good timeout for the screen?

 

[Duo8]

Nothing, but I'm sure how often I turn it off and on in standby makes it worse, I can't do much about that, but what would be a a good timeout for the screen?

Anything you like. It's just there to prevent the screen staying on for too long.
When at home I set it to 2 mins even.
By "Standby" I assume you meant "Cell standby" which is the power consumption of the baseband processor.

 

[the_randomizer]

Anything you like. It's just there to prevent the screen staying on for too long.
When at home I set it to 2 mins even.
By "Standby" I assume you meant "Cell standby" which is the power consumption of the baseband processor.

Yes, that's what I meant, I just want to conserve as much as I can, charging once a day seems...kinda off for some reason.

 

[Duo8]

Yes, that's what I meant, I just want to conserve as much as I can, charging once a day seems...kinda off for some reason.

Well, other than turning off mobile data there isn't much you can do about cell standby save Airplane mode.
Screen off time doesn't affect battery much.
1 day is typical for a 1700mAh device anyway especially if you play games.

 

[Clydefrosch]

one days charge is pretty much the norm for low end phones. and you said yours was used or something? if its a year or older, the battery might already be kinda worn out in that case, might've lost 10-30% of its maximum charge depending on how it was used before.

manually disabling wifi/mobile when you dont need it and putting screen brightness on auto (on my phone, auto usually keeps the screen brightness lower than the lowest manual setting) is among the best things you can do. not sure about jellybean, but theres probably a widget preinstalled that has at least switches for wifi, gprs, bluetooth and sync (which also drains the battery since, depending on settings, it will just dumbly check every minute if theres a new message on any of your mail adresses or news apps)

most battery saver apps i've encountered caused more problems than they solved. they might save you 5% battery but in turn use 15% to do it (since they're also always active, always checking etc)

generally, you should just get used to having only about 4-6 hours of total active (screen lit) usage time on these phones. less if you go for emulation and games

 

[TVL]

Underclocking the CPU and turning off Wifi are the two most significant changes to be made. The rest gives - in my experience - pretty miniscule changes in battery life.

But one great suggestion that hasn't been mentioned in saving the batterylife of your phone... Run emulators on something else.

 

[Duo8]

FYI I had my wifi on overnight once and next morning my battery is still at 100%
So I'm not sure how much battery wifi actually drains when not connected to anything.

 

[the_randomizer]

Well, other than turning off mobile data there isn't much you can do about cell standby save Airplane mode.
Screen off time doesn't affect battery much.
1 day is typical for a 1700mAh device anyway especially if you play games.

I don't play games that much as I hate touchscreen controls for emulators, I might get the MOGA controller, which is designed with Android devices in mind and feels a lot like an Xbox controller apparently, there's one for 15, 35 and 65 dollars respectively, glad to know that the lifespan is typical though, I thought I was doing something wrong.

one days charge is pretty much the norm for low end phones. and you said yours was used or something? if its a year or older, the battery might already be kinda worn out in that case, might've lost 10-30% of its maximum charge depending on how it was used before.

manually disabling wifi/mobile when you dont need it and putting screen brightness on auto (on my phone, auto usually keeps the screen brightness lower than the lowest manual setting) is among the best things you can do. not sure about jellybean, but theres probably a widget preinstalled that has at least switches for WiFi, gps, Bluetooth and sync (which also drains the battery since, depending on settings, it will just dumbly check every minute if theres a new message on any of your mail adresses or news apps)

most battery saver apps i've encountered caused more problems than they solved. they might save you 5% battery but in turn use 15% to do it (since they're also always active, always checking etc)

generally, you should just get used to having only about 4-6 hours of total active (screen lit) usage time on these phones. less if you go for emulation and games

For emulation, yeah, I think I'll save up for a Shield handheld instead, they're far more powerful and emulation reigns king (at least, one of the best Android devices for emulation anyways), possibly with a tax refund, much easier that way lol. I'll look at what syncs but my phone acts like a real beeotch when I try and turn it off, saying "it may damage the system" or "the app might misbehave" or some BS. I'll disable it as much as I can. And yeah, there is a screen where you just flip the GPS, WiFi, etc off on the fly.

Underclocking the CPU and turning off WiFi are the two most significant changes to be made. The rest gives - in my experience - pretty miniscule changes in battery life.

But one great suggestion that hasn't been mentioned in saving the battery life of your phone... Run emulators on something else.

Oh believe me, as soon as I can, I'm getting a Shield handheld and not a tablet, as you need a 50 dollar controller for that (300 bucks vs 200, rather get the 200 dollar handheld) I may need to root the phone.

FYI I had my wifi on overnight once and next morning my battery is still at 100%
So I'm not sure how much battery wifi actually drains when not connected to anything.

Well, having it off seems to be helping to a degree, I suppose that I was merely worried about the fact batteries can only charge so many times before they degrade is all

 

[Mario92]

I love my Nexus 4 because I haven't disabled a damn thing and actually have many extra background programs running like Skype, Steam and IRC all the time and battery still holds for two days which gives more than enough time to recharge it every night. And I was afraid of not being able to switch battery out

My first phone was ZTE, those are incredibly cheap compared to power. I was going to suggest installing custom ROM as something like Samsung has even something like Yahoo Stocks updating in background for no reason, but ZTE didn't have that much bloatware to begin with? Of course custom ROM is still possibility.

most battery saver apps i've encountered caused more problems than they solved. they might save you 5% battery but in turn use 15% to do it (since they're also always active, always checking etc)

Battery savers and antiviruses are the worst things on android. At least right now they usually cause more problems than they solve, especially on battery life. Last time my operator called me to check that did I have cheapest possible option from them they tried to advertise their android antivirus like it was more vital thing to have than on Windows machine.