Resource intensive?

[eric002]

So I've got a pixel 3XL. I'm pretty anal about keeping my phones resources at a low meaning excellent battery life and low RAM consumption. Just out of curiosity though would this kind of live wallpaper chew up my battery and RAM? in the past for Android, meant that it would I'm curious now.

 

[B. Diddy]

I almost always use live wallpapers, and have never noticed any significant increase in battery drain or drop in performance. But that's not to say a poorly coded live wallpaper can't do those things. Best thing to do would be to test it out.

 

[eric002]

I almost always use live wallpapers, and have never noticed any significant increase in battery drain or drop in performance. But that's not to say a poorly coded live wallpaper can't do those things. Best thing to do would be to test it out.

Yes, very true! I might just have to do that. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Mooncatt]

I'm pretty anal about keeping my phones resources at a low meaning excellent battery life and low RAM consumption.

Don't worry about RAM consumption. Android is designed to use as much memory as possible, which allows for more efficient task switching and lower battery consumption. If you have any battery/memory optimizing apps that have a RAM cleaner, you would be better off uninstalling it.

As for live wallpaper use, anything animated is going to use more power than displaying a static image. How much power depends on the specific LWP. A simple animation wouldn't require much. One that reacts to motion or uses your camera (I.e. making the home screen "transparent") is going to require more power. B. Diddy is right for his specific use case, but this is one of those variable situations where you'll have to just try it for yourself and results may differ.

 

[eric002]

Don't worry about RAM consumption. Android is designed to use as much memory as possible, which allows for more efficient task switching and lower battery consumption. If you have any battery/memory optimizing apps that have a RAM cleaner, you would be better off uninstalling it.

As for live wallpaper use, anything animated is going to use more power than displaying a static image. How much power depends on the specific LWP. A simple animation wouldn't require much. One that reacts to motion or uses your camera (I.e. making the home screen "transparent") is going to require more power. B. Diddy is right for his specific use case, but this is one of those variable situations where you'll have to just try it for yourself and results may differ.

Yeah that's also very true. And that's what I was thinking about. Anything that is constantly changing is going to use more battery than a static wallpaper. Just wanted to run that past you guys.

 

[B. Diddy]

Some live wallpapers might also refresh data from the web (e.g., ones that show your local weather, or update your location), which can contribute to battery drain if done frequently.

 

[eric002]

Yup yup, I think I'm just going to stay away from live wallpapers still. That makes sense and that's what I was thinking about in the past as well. Oh well. Thanks for your guidance here.

 

[me just saying]

also some live wallpaper are ad supported. that could also affect performance.

 

[eric002]

Yep also very true. All in all just not a good idea. Lol

 

[B. Diddy]

They're not all bad. Here's a list of ones I like to use:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxelus.livewallpaper.betta&hl=en_US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thecolorofcode.gears.android&hl=en_US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joko.lightgrid&hl=en_US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxelus.livewallpaper.demon&hl=en_US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxelus.livewallpaper.neoline&hl=en_US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.paperworldcreation.spirly&hl=en_US
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=wave.paperworld.wallpaper&hl=en_US