Live wallpaper: battery impact?

**neocryte** · 05-07-2012, 10:28 AM

Do you guys have any experience with this? I don't find my battery life to be "fantastic" - more on the "ok/normal" side, and I am wondering if turning on live wallpaper will give it a significant boost.

**Stefan.Skoutelas** · 05-07-2012, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by neocryte

Do you guys have any experience with this? I don't find my battery life to be "fantastic" - more on the "ok/normal" side, and I am wondering if turning on live wallpaper will give it a significant boost.

They do drain battery. Try using a black wallpaper or a darker one in general. Do a little experiment for yourself too. Charge all the way up and use the phone normally with a live wallpaper and as its dying, check your battery stats. Charge back up again and use a darker non live wallpaper and check battery results as its dying.

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**neocryte** · 05-07-2012, 11:51 AM

Yep, good idea, was planning to try that tonight. The live wallpaper looks so good, hard to give it up...

**Stefan.Skoutelas** · 05-07-2012, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by neocryte

Yep, good idea, was planning to try that tonight. The live wallpaper looks so good, hard to give it up...

The only time I used a live wallpaper is if I have an extended battery. That isn't looking too promising for the one x though.

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**naviwilliams** · 05-07-2012, 01:38 PM

I've always found that live wallpapers cause serious battery usage. I simply don't use them...

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**neocryte** · 05-07-2012, 02:17 PM

Thanks guys. I will finish the day with live wallpaper on - and will turn it off tonight, so as to do tomorrow without it. Will check out how much of an effect it has.

**say anything** · 05-07-2012, 02:39 PM

of course live wallpapers cause battery drain; you're essentially playing a video 24/7.

**icebike** · 05-07-2012, 02:44 PM

Basically, in this phone I can't see any difference using Live wallpaper.

Look, how long are you starring at your wall paper. It stops running when its off screen (when running another app), or when the phone sleeps, so just how long is it really doing anything? Not very long.

Also when you touch the screen, most of the live wall papers freeze, and stop moving so as not to interfere with screen manipulation.

And another thing --- While I am in rant mode.....

This is NOT a Amoled (LED) screen. Its a back lit Super LCD screen.

Picking a DARK wallpaper takes MORE power. Because it takes power to make a LCD pixel go black, (or selectively filter the backlight). So the DARK wallpaper advice is totally wrong for this phone.

You want to save battery, turn on auto-brightness control which dims the backlight and save a lot of power.

**naviwilliams** · 05-07-2012, 02:53 PM

icebike, I've always been curious is AUTO-Brightness really saves on battery. If you think about it, doesn't the screen have to be more alert to its surroundings to help auto-brightness work better?

I just keep mine to at around 40% or so...

**Stefan.Skoutelas** · 05-07-2012, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by icebike

Basically, in this phone I can't see any difference using Live wallpaper.

Look, how long are you starring at your wall paper. It stops running when its off screen (when running another app), or when the phone sleeps, so just how long is it really doing anything? Not very long.

Also when you touch the screen, most of the live wall papers freeze, and stop moving so as not to interfere with screen manipulation.

And another thing --- While I am in rant mode.....

This is NOT a Amoled (LED) screen. Its a back lit Super LCD screen.

Picking a DARK wallpaper takes MORE power. Because it takes power to make a LCD pixel go black, (or selectively filter the backlight). So the DARK wallpaper advice is totally wrong for this phone.

You want to save battery, turn on auto-brightness control which dims the backlight and save a lot of power.

Wow you're right. I must have overlooked the type of screen O_o I stand corrected haha.

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**icebike** · 05-07-2012, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by naviwilliams

icebike, I've always been curious is AUTO-Brightness really saves on battery. If you think about it, doesn't the screen have to be more alert to its surroundings to help auto-brightness work better?

I just keep mine to at around 40% or so...

Takes a tiny bit of cpu to monitor the room brightness. But the saving by having the CPU turn the backlight down automatically more than makes up for it.

But yeah, I think you can wring even more runtime out of the phone by going to the lowest screen brightness (when in dimly lit places). The saving just isn't worth the bother, so I use auto.