Energy saving android. Everything you need to know about energy saving Android gadgets

Many budget models of Android smartphones and tablets are equipped with small capacity batteries. And this means that even with not the most intensive use of the device, you cannot do without additional recharging during the day. And if there is no way to constantly "sit near the outlet"? There are several ways out of this situation: carry an extra battery with you, buy a docking station with a recharging function, or try to improve the power saving of Android OS devices by turning off unnecessary functions by software. Since the latter method does not require money, we will consider it in more detail.

App logos: Battery Calibration and Battery Doctor

10 ways to save battery power

The display consumes the most energy - the larger its diagonal, the more capacious the battery should be. To reduce its power consumption - reduce the screen brightness to an acceptable minimum or turn on the function of its automatic adjustment. Some Android applications support work in "dark" or "negative" mode - they allow you to switch the background from white to black (dark background - light text). This also reduces battery consumption.
Disable features you are not currently using. Such as Wi-Fi, cellular, BlueTooth and GPS, since the constant search for networks and exchange data with them also requires a lot of energy. To do this, it is most convenient to switch to flight mode from time to time.
Turn off vibration and auto-rotate screen. Internal elements that are responsible for this are in third place in terms of electricity consumption.
Do not turn off your mobile device with the power button unnecessarily - turning it on and off consumes energy a lot.
Do not leave running applications that you are not working with. Don't wait for the system to complete them - do it yourself.
Do not use animations and videos as screensavers and wallpapers - choose a static picture for the background of the screen.
It is not advisable to store it for a long time, and especially to use the device in extremely low and high temperatures. The battery quickly degrades from this and its capacity ceases to correspond to the nominal one.
If you use the Internet, disable the synchronization function with other devices when it is not needed, and prevent automatic updates of installed programs. Make sure that your system is free from viruses that, among other things, harm, secretly increase the load on the battery.
Calibrate the battery from time to time - with the device turned off, carry out a full charge cycle, then turn on the device and use without additional recharging until all the energy is consumed. It can also be done using special calibration programs.
And if there is no desire to constantly monitor what the battery is draining from, the Android application that controls energy consumption will do it for you.

Programs for extending the battery life of Android devices

Easy Battery Saver

An intelligent program that flexibly manages the charge consumption by interacting with the software and hardware resources of the device. Easy Battery Saver has 8 settings that can be adjusted depending on the load on the device. Can work on automatic and custom settings. The app monitors the power consumption of network systems, manages sleep patterns, screen brightness, and monitors the impact of running applications and services.

Easy Battery Saver Benefits

free;
efficiency - allows you to save up to 50% energy;
ease of use and customization;
selection of several energy saving modes;
displaying the charge level and its main "consumers" on the main screen;
recommendations on how to reduce energy consumption at the moment;
video tutorial on using the program.

Battery Doctor

Convenient multifunctional application with great capabilities. When installed, it takes full control of the device's energy management. Using a unique three-stage technology, it regulates the charging process, prevents rapid energy consumption and precisely determines the time when it is necessary or, conversely, it is not necessary to connect the device to a power source. The Battery Doctor complex includes a Task Killer module that allows you to complete unused offers that are running in the background.

Program features

with high accuracy determines the level of charge and the remaining battery life;
automatically terminates unnecessary programs, positively affecting the performance of the device;
provides data about hardware resources and software;
monitors the processes of charging and discharging the battery, helping to prevent its rapid deterioration and extend its service life;
informs the user about how much the battery life will increase when disconnecting network devices, games and other things;
supports automatic and custom settings of power saving modes, quickly switches between them;
supports connection of network management widgets, GPS, etc.
the program is completely free.

Battery master

Another application for controlling power consumption and increasing the standby time of the device. It has a simple and convenient user interface, several design options, clear settings.

The advantages of Battery Master

russian language support;
three-stage charging technology;
built-in notification system about the remaining operating time in different modes: calls, music, video, Internet, and more.
management of systems that affect energy consumption through the application interface.

Battery Calibration

App Logos: Easy Battery Saver and Battery Master

Battery calibration software, which is important for extending battery life. Battery Calibration removes the batterystats.bin file from the Android system, which contains the charge level data used by the battery controller, and creates a clean one instead. These actions allow you to achieve a deeper level of charge and extend the life of the battery. The calibration procedure is recommended to be done after updating the device firmware, as well as once every 1 - 2 months for prevention.

Battery Calibration Specifications

ease of use - operated by pressing one button;
notifies about the current state of the battery;
has a built-in voltmeter;
can notify with a sound signal about the opportunity to start calibration (at a charge level of 100%);
distributed free of charge.

Using docking stations and portable batteries

Docking station for Android devices - a device for stationary connection of tablet computers and phones to peripherals. Allows you to charge the device, connect to computer networks, TV, multimedia centers, printers, etc. Docking stations are available both for specific models of gadgets, and universal. It is certainly convenient to use them: while the tablet or smartphone is idle, the docking station will provide it with charging, not to mention other possibilities. However, this option is only suitable for home, office or car - you will not constantly carry a docking station in your pocket.

There is another means of extending the "life" of the battery - portable batteries. These are small devices that can transfer energy to a mobile device through a cable. The portable battery is charged from the mains. Due to its compactness, it can be carried with you in your pocket or bag, and is especially convenient to take on the road. This gadget will give you the opportunity to use your mobile device 2 - 4 times longer during normal work, without using other energy-saving "tricks".

P. S.

There is no dispute about the relevance of energy saving tools for mobile devices today, since for most owners of budget phones and tablets this issue is quite acute. The electronics industry has not yet reached a level where the user will not worry about his gadget turning off at the most inopportune moment. Therefore, almost everyone is looking for something that is most suitable for themselves - a program or an adaptation, good, there is a lot of both. And what is the best - everyone decides for himself, based on personal preferences and capabilities of his mobile technology.

Not everyone knows that the new version of the "green robot" has acquired a new power saving mode. In order to turn it on, you need to go to the "Settings" - "Battery" tab, then press the menu button (three dots) and select the power saving mode. Power saving mode does not work if you have plugged your device into a power outlet.

By default, when the charge drops to 15 percent, the system automatically prompts you to turn on the power saving mode in the form of a notification that you can view at any time. Many people wonder - "What does this regime give?" - let's figure it out.
First, let's say right away that the power saving mode in Android 5.0 is not similar to those offered to us by other manufacturers. For example, Samsung is adapting the functionality of its mode, taking into account the specifics of AMOLED displays, while disabling all unnecessary background processes, leaving only the basic functions. In Android 5.0, everything is a little different, the "lollipop" has rather an adaptive power saving mode, as well as adaptive backlighting, which also became an innovation for fans of stock Android.

When you turn on the mode, what immediately catches your eye is a changed animation, rather a simplified version: now, if you slide the shutter down, it will not go down gradually and smoothly, but abruptly and instantly. In other words, the guys from Google have worked on drawing the animation itself, thus the load on the video accelerator drops noticeably. But if you pull the shutter without releasing your finger, the animation will be the same as in normal mode. That is, the developers have worked to ensure that the difference for the average user is not so noticeable, and they succeeded. Also note that now, when you click on something, you will not be able to enjoy the beautiful animation of circular waves, on the contrary, everything happens in the same way as in Android 4.4. For example, the effect of a button press is not circular waves, but simply a lighter shade of a button or menu item depending on what you press.
Among other features, now when opening applications they will not fly out from the bottom, but appear right in front of the user without any animation, many will like it even more, because it takes less time to open. Note also that when you turn on the power saving mode, the status bar and navigation bar get an orange tint - stylish, beautiful and informative. On the other hand, this color is too bright and distracting, especially when surfing the Internet.
If earlier, when you clicked on the application shortcut on the desktop, it (the shortcut) rose a little and a small shadow appeared under it, now this effect is gone, everything is done to simplify the visual component, thereby there is less load on the processor. It would be a little silly to say that the display brightness decreases, so we will omit this information.

As for the load on the processor, in my case I did not notice the difference, in both cases AnTuTu produces similar results, and this is probably the adaptability of this mode: in case you need maximum performance from your smartphone, but you want the maximum save a charge, and not turn off the power saving mode, then the system will meet you and allocate the required power of your gadget.
Summing up, I would like to praise Google for such a quality work done, we expected a lot of different things from the new version of Android, but what we got is beyond praise.

As you know, Google does not hesitate to sometimes borrow for its Android operating system some useful but missing functions from the proprietary firmware for smartphones and tablets that manufacturers equip them with.

One of these features is the power saving mode, which appeared in the new version of the Google operating system: Android 5Lollipop and which can be very, very useful to those who unexpectedly low battery discharge of a smartphone or tablet is found far from external power sources. If, of course, you know how to enable and configure this mode.

Fortunately, this is fairly easy to do. So where to find it, how does it work, and how to use it to extend the battery life of your smartphone or tablet?

How it works: According to Google, "To extend battery life, power saving mode will decrease performance and limit the use of vibration and background data."

In other words: your tablet or smartphone will not work as fast, but it will take a long time and some applications will not synchronize data on the Web all the time, but only when you launch them.

Where to find and how to set up power saving mode.

The easiest way to get to the power saving menu is to slide the quick settings menu curtain from under the top edge of the tablet or smartphone screen with two fingers, click on the battery icon and press the menu button (three vertical dots) in the battery usage statistics window that opens.

Then, in the menu that opens, select "Power saving mode".

Here you will be able to turn it on manually (just by clicking on the On / Off switch), or set the automatic activation of the power saving mode by clicking on the "Turn on automatically" item, after which you will have a choice of three options:

When you select one of the automatic modes, when the battery reaches a predetermined level, you will see a prompt prompting you to turn on energy saving mode.

At the same time, so that you do not forget that the mode that slows down your device was enabled, the lower and upper navigation and notification bars on the tablet or smartphone screen will turn bright orange.

Many are accustomed to connecting smartphones to a charger every evening. This is the norm today. Technologies are developing, Android is being optimized, manufacturers are stuffing their devices with hi-end stuffing, but at the same time, as if by agreement, they are very reluctant to increase the capacity of the batteries, mockingly balancing at the same level of autonomy in one daylight. But we will not bring up the topic of the conspiracy of marketers, in this article we will talk about optimizing what we have and all the most effective and safe ways to improve the energy saving of a smartphone by at least 50%.

PART 1. IRON

Wireless & GPS

Remember: if you want to save energy, turn off unnecessary consumers, what you are not using at the moment. For example, leaving Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networks turned on constantly scan the area and look for available connection points or sparring devices; enabled "data transfer" (mobile Internet) allows numerous applications to constantly "break" into the network to update their data and send requests, additionally loading the processor and emptying the paid traffic or wallet; enabled geolocation (GPS, GLONASS, determination of coordinates via wireless networks) helps to constantly track your position, fulfilling requests from curious applications. All this can consume a significant part of the battery's charge, so “I washed my hands, turned off the tap,” well, in the sense - I pressed the button and turned off the consumer.

Mobile network

The reception level of a mobile network has a strong impact on battery retention. The weaker the level of the received signal (the fewer the divisions of the antenna indicator on the screen), the more the device spends energy on amplifying and maintaining this signal. Therefore, in areas of poor signal reception (on a train, for example) it is better to turn on the "Airplane" mode, thereby disabling the radio module of the device. You can do the same in the evening, turning off the radio module at night.

The problem of choosing: 2G or 3G When considering the characteristics of any phone, you probably noticed that manufacturers always indicate battery life in 3G networks less than in 2G networks. This is due to the fact that 3G networks are multichannel and provide a higher quality and reliability of the connection (seamless transition from one station to another). Therefore, if you are not afraid of short-term signal loss and a slightly worse call quality when leaving the underpass (although this depends on many other factors), you can select “only 2G” in the network mode settings (Settings → More → Mobile networks → Network type) »(Only GSM) and save up to 20% on network connections.

In addition, if you are in an area of \u200b\u200bpoor reception of the 3G network, and the automatic mode “2G / 3G” is selected on the device, the device will constantly try to connect to the 3G network, even if its signal is several times weaker than the 2G signal. Needless to say, such constant surges require significant energy consumption, which can also be avoided.

However, when it comes to transferring data (connecting to the internet), the situation is reversed. For less significant traffic, it is preferable to use 3G or Wi-Fi networks instead of 2G. At first glance, this seems to be a controversial statement, but the devil is in the details: firstly, data transmission in a 2G network (using EDGE technology) requires 30% more energy than in a 3G network, and only 10% less than Wi -Fi; secondly, the data transfer rate in the 3G (HSPA) network is up to 170 times higher than the speed in the 2G network (EDGE), not to mention Wi-Fi, where the difference will be 600 times. This means that it takes less time for the device to download certain information, which means less energy.

A simple example: you want to download several songs with a total size of 30 MB. Using EDGE, it will take 30 Mb * 8 / 0.08 Mbps / 60 \u003d 50 minutes, using HSPA - 30 Mb * 8/14 Mbps \u003d 17 seconds, but using Wi-Fi - only 30 Mb * 8/50 Mbps \u003d 5 sec. Now, multiplying the download time by the average consumption of one mode or another, we get: for EDGE - 300 mA * 50 min / 60 \u003d 250 mA h; for HSPA - 210 mA * 17 s / 60/60 \u003d 1 mA h; for Wi-Fi - 330 mA * 5 s / 60/60 \u003d 0.5 mA h. In the end, everything will depend on the amount of data: the larger it is, the greater the savings will be when using a faster network.

Conclusion.

When focusing on voice calls and rare access to the Internet (for example, only updating the weather and reading news), it is preferable to use 2G mode, it will give the greatest energy savings. With frequent use of the Internet with a large volume of traffic (viewing pages with pictures, working with email attachments, downloading files), it is preferable to use the 3G mode. As a compromise solution, if necessary, you can change the 2G / 3G network settings using the quick access panel or widgets.

Sensors and sensors

Modern phones are crammed with all sorts of sensors, which naturally require energy to operate. It's very easy to see what sensors are in your phone and how much they consume, just install the Android System info application, go to the System tab and select the Sensor item. In the first Android devices, a conventional accelerometer (a sensor that determines the position of the device) consumed up to 15 mAh, in modern devices this value is usually 100 times less, so there is no particular point in disabling "automatic screen orientation" or "automatic brightness" ( light sensor), this will not significantly affect the overall power consumption of the device.

However, it should be remembered that many applications that use tilt control of the device can use several sensors at once (accelerometer, gyroscope, rotation sensor, acceleration sensor, orientation sensor, gravity sensor, and others), which in total can give a consumption of up to 100 mAh ...

Screen

The screen of any modern device is the main consumer of energy, while there are a number of main factors that affect its gluttony:

Screen size. The larger the screen, the more energy is needed to backlight it.
Backlight brightness and time. The higher the screen brightness and shutdown timeout values \u200b\u200bset in the settings, the more the device consumes power. I recommend setting automatic brightness control (by light sensor) and backlight timeout no more than 30 s.
Screen resolution. The higher it is, the more power is consumed by the video accelerator of the device, which is responsible for displaying the image on the screen.
Screen manufacturing technology. All screens can be roughly divided into two categories:

liquid crystal (LCD) displays, consisting of an LCD matrix and a light source (backlight). These include LCD, TFT-LCD, SCLCD, IPS, TFT screens;
organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, consisting of an active matrix that emits light. These include AMOLED screens, Super AMOLED screens, and the like.

Here's a simple example to explain the difference in their work. If you want to read text on a piece of paper at night, you have two options: either turn on the main light in the room, or illuminate the piece with a small flashlight. The result is one in the end, but it will be obtained with different energy costs.

In our example, the main light is an LCD screen in which there is only a common light source that illuminates all the pixels at once, regardless of whether they are displaying an image or not. The energy consumption of such a screen is constant and depends only on the set brightness.

In AMOLED screens, only those pixels that are involved in image formation emit light, if a pixel does not participate in it (with black in the picture), it does not emit anything and, accordingly, does not consume energy. Thus, the total consumption of the screen will depend not only on the set brightness, but also on the image: the more black and dark shades in it, the less power consumption of the screen. However, there is also the opposite rule: the more white areas in the picture, the more such a screen consumes energy, and in certain cases an AMOLED screen may turn out to be even more "voracious" than an LCD screen.

Comparison of power consumption of LCD and AMOLED screens depending on the displayed picture

We look at the table ..
Thus, all the advantages of the economy of AMOLED screens can be obtained only by observing some simple rules, namely: try not to use a white background, install dark themes in applications; use dark pictures with a color temperature of no more than 6500K as desktop wallpaper. Only in this case the AMOLED screen can be up to two times more economical than the LCD screen.

CPU

There are three main parameters affecting the power consumption of the processor, which can be changed: frequency, frequency control mode, voltage.

Frequency.

All modern devices can control the frequency of their processor, reducing it at low loads, thereby reducing power consumption. When the screen is turned off, a properly optimized device should switch to a power saving mode, reduce the processor frequency to 15–30% of the maximum value, and remain at this frequency until the user wakes up again. Therefore, you can evaluate the optimization of the device's power consumption by looking at the statistics of the processor's operation at a particular frequency. To do this, open the Android System info application, select the System tab and the CPU item.

If the processor runs at maximum frequency most of the time, then there is a problem with the optimization. To solve it, we install the SetCPU application (you need root), with which you can not only set the operating frequency of the processor (or clarify the operating frequency range), but also create frequency profiles that are activated by any event (launching an application, reducing the charge, turning off the screen , time), that is, optimize the frequency control process for yourself. For example, the operating frequency can be set to no more than 1000-1200 MHz; on the event "screen off" and "charge less than 15%" limit the maximum frequency to half of the operating frequency, and set the minimum to minimum; set profiles for frequently launched applications, limiting their maximum operating frequency to the amount at which the interface is comfortable for you (for example, 800 MHz may be enough for games, and 500 MHz for watching movies and listening to music). This approach can save up to 50% of the power consumed by the processor.

However, it should be understood that the lower the frequency, the less responsive the interface can become and the lower the overall speed of work. CPU frequency control modes. These modes (algorithms) determine how the processor frequency will change, within what limits and how quickly, depending on the load experienced by the processor, its duration, and so on. Frequency control modes and frequency step are embedded in the core, and their set for different firmware may differ. I will not give a description of these modes, if necessary, you can easily find them yourself.

I will only say that for multi-core devices it is preferable to use the hotplug mode (if you do not have such a mode in the SetCPU list, use interactive, or ondemand, it is by default on most cores), which in idle time disables idle processor cores and is most efficient in the ratio performance / economy.

Reducing processor voltage (undervolting).

This option for optimizing processor power consumption has already been discussed in the article, so we will not dwell on it.

PART 2. SOFT

After turning off the screen, the device should go into power saving mode (the so-called suspend mode), while the processor frequency is reduced, "extra" cores are turned off, and application activity is minimized. The purpose of this mode is clear - the maximum reduction in power consumption when the user does not need the device, and since the phone is in this mode most of the time, the overall operating time of the device significantly depends on its efficiency.

Unfortunately, this mode does not always work correctly, as a result of which the charge continues to decrease when the screen is off. This is usually due to the wake-up of applications (using wakelocks), which continue to load the processor with their requests and execution of tasks in the background.

The topic of combating such awakenings has already been touched upon in the article "", but now we will dwell on this in more detail.

First you need to check if the device has problems with the power saving mode in the "sleep" mode. This can be done even without installing third-party applications using the standard settings menu item "Battery Usage" (or "Battery"), preferably after a long period of inactivity of the phone, for example in the morning. You don't have to dwell on the first screen, which shows what tasks the already consumed charge went to, there is not much interesting for us, it is better to tap on the graph and go to the "Detailed log", which displays the battery discharge graph and five strips. You can determine the presence of wake-up applications by comparing the "screen on" and "working mode" bars.

If the “screen is on” bar is empty, and the “operating mode” bar has a fill for the same period of time, it means that the device was waking up at that time and it was exiting the power saving mode, which, in turn, reduced the charge. In a properly optimized device, there should be no such awakenings at all.

What exactly wakes up the device and why? For the normal functioning of many applications, it is necessary to periodically update data or even work in the background (for example, for a music player), so the most frequent alarms are applications with configured auto-update or auto-sync, social network clients, mail programs, various instant messengers, system status and weather widgets.

To reduce battery consumption in these apps, you can turn off auto-sync and reduce their refresh interval. However, the list of wake-up programs often includes other applications or processes, including system processes, that do not have the "sleep" options in the settings.

Disable Service: blue - processes running in the background, red - disabled, white - total number of application processes

Such applications and processes can be dealt with in one of the following ways:

Delete if it is not a very useful custom suggestion.
Disable autoloading using Autorun Manager. I advise you to disable not only suspicious and wake-up programs, but also other rarely used applications that often hang in RAM and cache (Settings tab “Applications → Running”). This will create really frequently launched programs in memory.
Freeze temporarily using Titanium Backup or the same Autorun Manager. This is in case the application is needed in the future or if we are talking about a system application that you do not want to remove (if, for example, you want to keep the ability to update over the air). When frozen, the application will disappear from the list of programs, but will not be physically removed. However, remember that freezing some system applications can cause the system to malfunction, so proceed with caution.
Disable a specific wake-up application process using the Disable Service program, without disabling the entire application.
Force wake apps to deep sleep with Greenify app. But it should be borne in mind that a "greenified" application will stop running on events, update its data, receive push notifications, and so on until the next manual launch. Another useful little thing is that Greenify is built into the Wakelock Detector, and its functionality is available right from there.

Sometimes third-party applications can affect the sleep of the device through system processes that turn out to be "extreme" and are displayed in the list of wakelocks as the culprit for not sleeping (for example, suspend processes, events / 0). In this case, you can find the true culprits for not sleeping by sequentially freezing / removing suspicious applications (starting with recently installed ones) and observing the leaders in the wakelock list.

The device may not sleep if one or more hard buttons are pressed. When the screen is off, the "operating mode" bar will be completely filled. This problem has existed since the time of the first Android devices and in modern firmware should already be eliminated, but in case of a strong charge consumption, do not be lazy and check, especially if the smartphone is "transported" in a case.

Buy batteries and chargers only from an official manufacturer. Experience shows that the real capacity of cheap batteries is much less than that indicated, and cheap chargers at best will not deliver the maximum current declared for them, and at worst they will harm the battery with increased voltage or pulsating current.
Try to charge the device not from the USB port of your computer, but from the wall charger. At the start, the battery is charged with a higher current, which the USB port cannot supply, as a result, the charging time increases and the battery life decreases (first of all, this applies to powerful batteries with a high charging current of 1 A).
Charge devices in full cycles, try to avoid deep discharge (before shutdown) and partial recharges in the middle of the cycle, all this affects the battery life, a gradual decrease in its capacity.
SD and SIM cards can affect power consumption. If you are faced with a high discharge, try walking a day without an SD card. If the assumptions are confirmed, format the card in the phone itself or replace it if necessary. It is also better to replace SIM-cards with new ones every 3-4 years (fortunately, it's free).
Once every six months (and more often if the discharge is suspiciously fast), check the external state of the battery for swelling and deformation (the beginning of swelling can be seen by placing the battery on a flat surface), if they are found, it is better to replace the battery.
Also, periodically blow and clean the USB contacts of the device.

Last updated by at January 27, 2017.

The Android 5.0 operating system has received a large number of innovations. We have already talked about many of them in the previous articles of the cycle. In particular, the opportunity to create new users was mentioned. This function will be used by parents who trust their children with a smartphone or tablet. The ability to pin the application will also be useful for them. For all others, there is a power saving mode. Previously, only branded casings from various manufacturers possessed it. Now this mode is implemented in "pure" Android.

Google has been working on a power saving mode for a long time. Now its experts assure that the inclusion of this mode will allow you to get 90 additional minutes of battery life. The engineers had to work hard. After all, the operating system is installed in the overwhelming majority of cases on smartphones and tablets with a conventional IPS-screen. So adding darker shades will get you nowhere. It was necessary to find other ways of solving the problem.

There are two ways to activate power saving mode. The first is to use the tray (which contains notifications and the current state of the wireless modules). Swipe down from the tray. Then repeat this action. This will bring up the quick settings. The battery percentage will be displayed next to the battery icon. Click on this icon. You will be taken to a separate section of the settings. Press the "Menu" button, depicted in the form of three dots. A context menu will pop up. You will immediately notice the desired item.

The second method is similar to the first one, only it takes more time. Go to "Settings". Then select the "Battery" section. Then repeat the above steps, since you will find yourself in the same place that was discussed above.

After pressing the button "Power saving mode" you get into its settings. The switch is at the very top. Below you can select when this mode will turn on automatically. This may never happen at 5% charge or 15% charge.

When the power saving mode is enabled, the tray and virtual control keys are colored orange. This slows down performance and disables vibration and background data transmission. The smartphone or tablet will automatically exit this mode when the charger is connected.