battery savers and task killers

[ryokox3#AC]

Hi all,

Using a non rooted os, which battery managers/ task killers work best with the Droid X. When gingerbread is pushed will that change?

-Ry

 

[Arelunde]

NEVER NEVER NEVER use task killers on the X. The operating system is designed to let apps stay open for a brief time after you close them, in case you go back to them. Then, the OS closes the apps. If you use a task killer, the X spends precious battery life re-opening the apps in the background ... over and over. Plus you will create untold weirdness to other operations.

Ever since the operating system called Froyo (2.2), there has been increasingly efficient battery life, allowing that you do such basics as keeping the GPS off, limiting widgets that need constant updates, using wifi only when you have it available and are actually using it. Do a search for battery-saving options and you will find a considerable number of discussions on this, giving you even more options.

 

[ryokox3#AC]

Thank you. I had a pro for a little while which was 2.1, and the task killer was a must. With or without a task killer, the batt died too quickly so before my 14 days was up I went to the X. Really liking it so far and I do see a noticable difference in battery life after only a couple days.

 

[potatoho]

Motorola's GB comes with a Task Manager. I hadn't used one in a while, but I do use that one. It gives you the option to kill certain apps and services when you turn off the screen, which I'm not sure if that is a unique to that task manager, but it works really well in practice.

My prior experience with task managers has been bad. Mostly because they use improper triggers for killing tasks, and they just F up the system. They should have done something simple, such as Motorola has done, whereby turning off the screen is the trigger for killing certain tasks.

Android's method of leaving apps in memory is an implementation for an ideal environment. In practice, it sucks. I'm not referring to apps you would legitimately leave in the background, such as the web browser, but rather apps which finish() and yet are still kept in memory due to the system. Due to bugs in the API: webview unkillable worker threads, webview refcount bugs, inner task reference bugs, asynctask threadpool lingering, listview recycler bugs, and in general poor app design regarding GC.. many apps will suck up a lot of usable memory for no purpose. For a heavy user, you'd be better off with apps going away between runs.

 

[revwill]

There's no harm in using a battery saver like JuiceDefender. It can add a little to your battery life. But task killers are unnecessary.

 

[RemmyZero]

+1 Juice Defender. Use SetCPU to clock down your processor either all the time or when the screen is off to save battery.

 

[.46caliber]

Task Killers are bad m'kay.

There's a tips and tricks thread here in the forum that has a lot of battery saving tips. I use most of them, with no task killer and no juice defender and I get great battery life.

Keep screen at the dimmest settings, it's fine for indoors. Use Wi-Fi when available. Keep syncing and data trafficking widgets to a minimum. Adjust sync to a frequency that works for you but isn't so frequent that it taxes the battery. Check Menu>Settings>About Phone>Battery Use. It will show you what's eating battery and you can adjust accordingly.