Battery Drain with 3rd party Home launchers?

**Shaner** · 12-11-2010, 10:42 AM

I have an HTC Desire running 2.2. I run HTC Sense, Launcher Pro and tinker with ADW. Has anyone observed a decrease in battery life between those three home UIs? Just curious. I seem to have lower battery life with Launcher Pro....but it could just be me...

**DenverRalphy** · 12-11-2010, 11:10 AM

It may be a result of which widgets you're using in LP. I see no significant change in battery consumption using LP on my HTC device.

**takeshi** · 12-12-2010, 12:54 AM

Not with LP on a Droid.

**Chris Kerrigan** · 12-12-2010, 12:57 AM

I haven't heard or seen of any battery issues with any of the major third party launchers. Bear in mind that if you have a lot of Widgets running those will be pulling information and using more of your battery.

Sent from my Fascinate via Tapatalk Pro

**HYDE** · 12-12-2010, 08:01 AM

I used LauncherPro on my EVO running Fresh ROM and it killed my battery. I was using the exact same widgets (GPS, 4G, Airplane and WiFi) that I used with Sense so I don't think that was it. When I say it killed my battery, I mean I was getting 4-5 hours off of mild use. When I went back to Sense, battery life went back to around 15 - 20 hours.

**Chris Kerrigan** · 12-12-2010, 10:54 AM

Hmm that's strange -- ROMs normally improve battery life.

**eze036** · 12-17-2010, 02:55 PM

3rd party launchers are terrible they kill batt and corrupt software

**Shaner** · 12-17-2010, 03:48 PM

Third party Launchers kill batteries and corrupt software? Can you explain further? I appreciate the response I would just like to know the hows and why's. I really like Launcher pro, more than Sense anyway.

**murso74** · 12-17-2010, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by Shaner

Third party Launchers kill batteries and corrupt software? Can you explain further? I appreciate the response I would just like to know the hows and why's. I really like Launcher pro, more than Sense anyway.

never had that problem.. sounds like a trollish generalized statement to me

**blastncast** · 12-17-2010, 05:32 PM

I run LP Plus on my D Inc and with the stock battery get about 12 hours, when I used Sense exclusively I got about the same. As others have stated the widgets you are using and frequency of sync will make a difference but one thing that will also make a difference are the widgets you have running on Sense while you are on LP. Some of the Sense widgets will continue to update even if you are on LP, I ended up going to the clean slate scene on sense and I was able to notice a difference in battery life.

**terpitude71** · 12-17-2010, 11:33 PM

where a lot of people run into battery problems with 3rd party launchers is they forget to clear the widgets and shortcuts off of their other launchers. for example, if you want to use LP as your main launcher, you should also clear out all of your homescreens on the stock launcher, otherwise your widgets and shortcuts will essentially be running twice. to the OP, if you bounce between stock, LP, and ADW, and you have widgets set on all 3, you are basically running those widgets 3 times, which will kill your battery/decrease phone performance.

i have used 3rd party launchers for the vast majority of time owning an android device, and have NEVER seen any battery or software issues.

**Gerorne** · 12-18-2010, 05:08 AM

I have a dumb question... I installed LauncherPro yesterday, and I never figured out how to exit from it since it doesn't appear in the app drawer. (DInc/android n00b here. Had it for just one week now.)

How do I exit it so I can clear out the widgets in sense like you guys are suggesting?

**blastncast** · 12-18-2010, 09:25 AM

You will need to download a home switcher app from the market, this will allow you to go back and forth between launchers.

**TechWhore** · 12-18-2010, 09:56 AM

I am trying to uninstall the widgets on my home screen. I installed home switcher and went out of LP. When I long press and drag to the trash, it pops back up on the screen. Any ideas? It is the calendar, news, gallery, music etc. I guess the stock widgets, I never put them there.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

**Cyber Warrior** · 12-18-2010, 10:06 AM

I agree also with the Widgets and there update interval. I started using LP about two weeks ago and before that it was all stock on the phone. I get the same battery usuge. I also get about 12 hours with medium usage before the phone needs charging.

**blastncast** · 12-18-2010, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by TechWhore

I am trying to uninstall the widgets on my home screen. I installed home switcher and went out of LP. When I long press and drag to the trash, it poops back up on the screen. Any ideas? It is the calendar, news, gallery, music etc. I guess the stock widgets, I never put them there.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

I haven't played with the X at all so I don't know how it is set up but have you checked to see if it has different scenes and wallpapers that you can set your phone to? Work, Play, Blank slate, etc? Most phones have a blank setting with no widgets that you can customize, this would be the best to choose.

**awesomo4308** · 12-18-2010, 01:42 PM

You can go to options>applications>laucherpro and then hit "clear defaults". Then when you hit the home button it will let you choose launchers. Clear the others then you can set LP to be default again.

**TechWhore** · 12-18-2010, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by awesomo4308

You can go to options>applications>laucherpro and then hit "clear defaults". Then when you hit the home button it will let you choose launchers. Clear the others then you can set LP to be default again.

I can switch back and forth just fine, I just can't delete the widgets off the stock homescreens. The minute I dump them in the trash, they pop back up into place?

**Chris Kerrigan** · 12-18-2010, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by TechWhore

I can switch back and forth just fine, I just can't delete the widgets off the stock homescreens. The minute I dump them in the trash, they pop back up into place?

Try setting your stock homescreen as your default, dumping them, and then changing back your 3rd party launcher as the default.

**TechWhore** · 12-18-2010, 04:46 PM

I can't seem to set my stock home screen as default. I have tried home switcher and home manager. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

**Kimo91** · 12-18-2010, 06:35 PM

i haven't seen any major battery drains with my adw launcher..only severe battery drain i'm seeing is from that freaking angry birds game lol

**Shaner** · 12-20-2010, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by blastncast

I run LP Plus on my D Inc and with the stock battery get about 12 hours, when I used Sense exclusively I got about the same. As others have stated the widgets you are using and frequency of sync will make a difference but one thing that will also make a difference are the widgets you have running on Sense while you are on LP. Some of the Sense widgets will continue to update even if you are on LP, I ended up going to the clean slate scene on sense and I was able to notice a difference in battery life.

That is exactly what I was wondering. I just didn't really ask the right question. I have since switched back to Sense to find that the phone responds faster to commands and such that Launcher. Not sure why but it is very noticeable. No difference to battery life observed. But I made sure no widgets were left on any of my home screens in Launcher.

Thanks for the reply.

**Shaner** · 12-20-2010, 11:12 AM

oh one other question....how do you delete "scene's" saved in Sense? I have a bunch of them and would like to get rid of them.

**the Ramen Noodle** · 04-20-2011, 01:27 PM

I'm bumping this because there has been a newer player in the game of launchers: Go Launcher EX.

I've been using Go Launcher EX on my HTC Thunderbolt. Up until 2.21, Go Launcher EX was great and I loved its features. But 2.21 is less stable on my Thunderbolt, so when I went searching for other's comments, I saw some people saying that Go Launcher EX was more of a battery-drain than LauncherPro or ADW.Launcher.

Can anyone confirm this? Perhaps I'll try a three-day test, using one launcher for a whole day and switching with each recharge. Would Battery Use and Where's My Droid Power? be the best ways to try benchmarking this?

On the topic of widgets in other launchers, is this really an issue if the third-party launcher is set as the default and the manufacturer's launcher is not running (either via a reboot or a Force Close)?