Getting Started with Android - Tips and Tricks
- Thread starter milominderbinde
- Start date
this is super useful, thanks!
Just picked up a Nexus S, Tweaking for best battery life
Just picked up a Nexus S, Tweaking for best battery life
samsung fascinate
I have a samsung fascinate. I use a trident Cyclops case and every time i put the case on the phone the screen turns black. whats should i do?
I have a samsung fascinate. I use a trident Cyclops case and every time i put the case on the phone the screen turns black. whats should i do?
A great guide for a new user to get up to speed fast. Thanks for the effort.
Extended Battery for Droid Charge
Has anyone seen the extended battery or back cover for the Droid Charge.?
Has anyone seen the extended battery or back cover for the Droid Charge.?
Hi all - excited to learn the world of Android with my new Samsung Fascinate. As soon as I can get rid of Bing....
If your phone is running slow or your battery life is poor, they are often both caused by apps or widgets that are draining your power and CPU speed. Just like on your computer, you may have downloaded apps that slow you down and steal your power. Let's start with the battery side of the equation.
Most Android phones should get at least 10 hours of battery life with steady to moderate use. If you know the tricks you can do better.
? The easy answer might be to get an Extended Battery that may even double battery life.
An extended battery can help but also consider energy conservation. Android phones may have WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, 2G, 3G, 4G, and FM, plus a huge bright screen. With everything on and the brightness full, you may only get a few hours from your battery and performance may be slow.
The Road Ahead
Start with the easy things.
? Get a good charger for your car. GPS and streaming music can drain your battery fast.
? Make sure your car charger is one like these intended for your phone. A cheap car charger may not keep up.
? There are also car kits to consider.
Reboot Your Phone
If you are getting only a few hours of battery life or your phone is running slow, it is probably not your phone. An app or widget is killing you. Start with a reboot to flush things out:
? Press and hold the power button > Tap Power off. Then turn the phone back on.
? Daily reboots can help keep rogue apps from taking battery life.
Hoarding is Bad
Make sure you have at least 100 MB of Available Space for programs to use: Tap Menu > Settings > SD & Phone Storage. Have you downloadeded apps you never use? Some apps can be moved to the SD card to free up internal memory (not if they have a widget you use): Tap Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Menu > Sort By Size. The first ones are the biggest. Tap an app to Delete or Move to SD Card.
? Apps 2 SD and Advanced SD Card Manager let you do move a list of apps to or from your SDcard.
If you hoard messages, your messaging app will eventually run slow, then your entire phone. And you battery life dies as your phone is in the background constantly trying to dig through the piles of messages. To automatically delete old messages: Tap Menu > Settings > Delete Old Message ON and set your Text Message Limit to 100 messages per conversation or whatever you like. Some set this to 0 so that there are no old messages to be found. Also keep old emails deleted out.
Battery Suckers
Certain streaming Music, Music Players, Talk, Video Chat, Navigation, Weather, and Map apps. widgets and live wallpapers, are notorious battery suckers. In addition certain Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and other apps that constantly sync over the internet can steal your bandwidth, speed, and battery life. The TrafficStats app will show if unexpected apps are using the Internet. You will be amazed what you might find. Apps taking internal resources can be found by tapping Tap Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Running. To close a running app, tap it then Force Stop. Only close apps you installed.
Find the Battery Sucker
If your battery drains fast or your phone now runs slow, turn everything off and then start turning things on until you find the problem.
1. Reboot the phone: Long press the power button > Tap Power off. Then turn the phone back on.
2. Save your current Homescreen Scene: Tap Menu > Settings > Personalize > Scene > Menu > Save.
3. Turn off radios: Tap Menu > Settings > Personalize > Wireless & Networks. Set WiFi, Bluetooth, Hotspot, 4G, etc. OFF and Airplane Mode ON.
4. Don't use live wallpaper: Tap Menu > Settings > Personalize > Home wallpaper. Chose a non-live wallpaper.
5. Remove widgets. Long-press them and drag them down off the screen. Use App Icons for now.
6. Dim the brightness to 25% or less: Tap Menu > Settings > Brightness
7. Reduce auto-sync: Tap Menu > Settings > Accounts & sync. Turn off ones you don't use. Slow down the rest.
8. Use TrafficStats to see what is taking your bandwidth, speed, and battery life.
9. Charge to 100%. Remove from charger for 10 seconds. Plug back in to make sure that it does not need more charge.
11. Tap Menu > Settings > About phone > Battery to verify a full charge. Take the phone off the charger.
12. Turn off the display and check the Battery in an hour. It should drop by no more than 2%.
- If drop was over 2%, check for rogue apps: Tap Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage applications > Running.
- - Are apps you installed running without you turning them on? Tap apps you installed then tap Force close.
- If drop is under 2%: Tap Menu > Settings > Personalize > Wireless & Networks. Set WiFi & Bluetooth ON, Airplane Mode OFF.
- - Check the battery % again after another hour. The drop should be no more than 5-8%.
- - Keep turning on apps and widgets on until you find the problems.
Put Battery % in Your Status Bar
? Battery Status Bar shows the real Battery % and it draws almost no power. The screen below shows 76% remaining.
Fast and Slow Charging
? Phones charge slowly when connected to a PC. Use a good wall charger or car charger for faster charging.
Lower Your Screen Brightness
? Tap Home > Menu > About phone > Battery > Battery use, to see where your power is going.
The Battery usage screen below shows that with 25% brightness, Display usage can be under 15%. Reduce your brightness when you can: Tap Home > Menu > Display > Brightness. Try Auto-Brightness as well.
Dim the Screen More Quickly
Tap Home > Menu > Display > Screen Timeout
The more quickly the screen turns off, the less power you will use. Try 1 minute or less. The example above shows 13% of total power goign to the display.
Power Widgets
See Setup Tips and Tricks.
Your phone may have Power Widgets to easily turn features off when not in use. There are many in the market as well:
? Curvefish: ? WiFi On-Off ? Bluetooth On-Off ? GPS On-Off ? Brightness Level (See image below)
? Free Power Widgets - A dozen to choose from
? Volume Button Controller - Control them all in one place. (See below)
? Battery Status Bar - Puts real battery % in status bar (it's 76% in the screenshot below).
Limit Syncing
? Tap Menu > Menu > Accounts & Sync and tap on an app to change sync settings.
Even apps you rarely use may be constantly syncing. Gmail and Facebook apps may control their own syncing in their own settings.
Turn off Live Wallpaper
Live Wallpaper can also take power. Chose any that is not Live.
? Tap Home > Menu > Personalize > Home wallpaper
Dark Wallpaper
? Tap Home > Menu > Personalize > Home wallpaper
A large beach photo wallpaper with bright colors makes it harder to read icon labels so you may need to turn up brightness. Part of the secret to the iPhone's long battery life is the black homescreen background. Try this black wallpaper shown above above.
Turn off 4G
Unless you are streaming HD or huge files, turn off 4G if you have it. 4G kills your battery, especially if you are in a fringe area. You may have 4G widget and they are in the Android Market.
Turn off "Enable Always on mobile data"
See if you still get notifications after turning off Enable always-on mobile data: Tap Menu > Settings > Wireless > Mobile networks.
Turn off Bluetooth
Unless you are using a Bluetooth device, turn off Bluetooth. Bluetooth can be a huge drain.
Turn off GPS
Navigation program need a car charger. Active GPS can take even more power than 4G. If you are not using GPS, turn it off. Again, your phone may have a widget for this and they are in the Android Market.
Use WiFi When You Can
WiFi takes less power than 2G or 3G. Use WiFi at home and whenever possible. WiFi On turns off the 2G/3G radios. If you have no WIFI, turn WiFi OFF or it will constantly look for WiFi hotspots. Again that's a lot of power.
Turn on Airplane Mode
Airplane mode ON turns OFF your 1x, 3G, 4G and WiFi radios. You turn WiFi back on if you have WiFi service. Note that you will not be get calls or texts. If you are roaming or are in a poor reception area, you phone may endlessly search for a better signal, draining your battery.
Turn off Haptic Feedback
Haptic feedback uses a small motor to shake your phone. Try Tap Menu > Settings > Sound settings > Haptic feedback OFF.
SystemPanel
Get the $3 SystemPanel app and tap Menu > Settings > Monitoring enabled. Let it watch your typical usage for several hours. Then from SystemPanel, Tap Menu > Monitor > History > Plot > Top Apps. Now you can see what is using your battery. "System" should be taking most of your battery. The free version is limited.
Try JuiceDefender
The free JuiceDefender app saves your battery by letting you automatically:
? Turn off WiFi when you are not near you WiFi hotspots, like your home
? Turn off 1x/3G//4G when WiFi is available.
? Turn off 1x/3G/4G/WiFi and set to silent mode overnight while you sleep.
Add JuicePlotterfor history and UltimateJuice for full features.
SetCPU
Users who have rooted can use programs like SetCPU (more info & How to use) to set profiles to give more power when you need it and save battery when possible as in this example:
? Charging/Full profile: Keep the CPU speed higher when charging with 100% battery: 998 max, 768 min, performance.
? Screen Off profile: Keep the CPU speed lower when the display is off: 576 max, 245 min, ondemand
See Also
? Keep your charge on -- how to improve battery life
If this helped you, please click ↓↓
cool tips
this getting started android forum really help me out alot. I didn't have an android before and I just got a EVO 3 d & now I'm all up to date thanks guys
I'm a newby w/ android. I read all the reviws and went w/ the new HTC 3d EVO. I love it except I miss my old slide keyboard. It's a pain getting used to the screen type.
srkmagnus
Retired Moderator
- May 23, 2010
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There are third party keyboards that work great compared to the stock virtual keyboard. Swiftkey is one and has a free beta for the newest keyboard they are working on. Go to their website and look for the Swiftkey X VIP Beta program. Swype is another good one...it's in Beta so you'll need to sign up to use it.
There are many other good ones...look through the Application forums and see the keyboard thread (I think there is one created).
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