Getting better Android battery life

One of the big dissapointments with smartphones is the battery life. However, I have managed to get amazing battery life from my cheap Chinese Android (V1277 with dual core processor, running ICS) phone with a reasonably low capacity battery - 1700mAh. It is 50 hours since charging my phone, and I still have 79% battery left!

Heres what I have done:
I used Autostarts to stop apps needlessly starting up in the background.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.elsdoerfer.android.autostarts

A lot of apps are scheduled to start when certain actions happen. For example, you can stop an app from running at startup, but it may still launch at other times. With Autostarts you can disable them from doing that, so that an apps will only be run when you launch it yourself.

I am running the excellent app DX Battery Saver, and have used it to enable the phone to run slower when it is idle (underclocking).

I also have data and wifi disabled. I always have wifi disabled, as I see no point in using it. At the moment I have mobile data disabled too as I have no use for it. I spend all day at work using a PC with internet, and at home I've got my laptops and internet. I can live without internet when I'm out.

 

That's the problem, 24/7 data connection and background apps kill the battery but then, why would you want a smartphone if you are going to disable these functions?
Hahahahaha

 

Most of the background apps do not need to be running, and I prefer to have them only running when I choose to launch them. As an example I've got a number of 3rd party app stores installed, and I don't want them launching in the background and checking for updates when I can launch them manually. Also, my phone, has only got 512megs of RAM which is rather limiting, so I like to not have too many apps running to save RAM and keep my phone running fast.

I did have my phone set to turn off mobile data at 11 at night, and enable it again at 6 in the morning via DX Battery Saver. However, I decided to try keeping it always off until I really need to use it.

My next phone will have 1 gig of RAM, I'm just trying to decide what phone to buy.

 

Hahahaha, i'm waiting the Galaxy S IV, i've turned into a smartphone junkie in just over 1 year.

 

It should be a really good phone. For the moment I'm sticking with cheap Chinese phones.

My $200 phone (my third smartphone in two years) is really fast, has an excellent IPS screen (AMOLED would be better of course), takes really good photos/video via an 8MP Sony camera, and the build quality of the phone is actually pretty decent.

 

Is that a Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE or Oppo?
Those are the good chinese brands.

I only change my phones because i usually get them a lot cheaper than buying it straight from a store.

Just 1 year and a half ago i had a Nokia 1200, then i got a Galaxy S II and since then . . . i've been a smartphone junkie, my inner geek cannot resist.

 

They are among the better Chinese brands. My phone is made by a company called Ulefone and also known as Gotron. The actual brand name is iStar (not Star), and comes from a different factory to the Star brand Chinese phones.

I had to actually track down the manufacturer and buy it directly from them as all the sellers I looked at only sell the phone with a lower quality 5MP camera, and only have the 8MP camera in the model with a slower processor.

 

Personally I have first gen htc wildfire with crap memory and cpu but all I an eat data.....but I just use it as a phone and tether my nexus 7 to it.Instead of forking out for a better android smart phone just get a tablet to do the buisness and use the phone.....as a phone.Works for me anyway.

 

To be really honest, I have noticed Android phones drain really quickly. My Bada based Wave II lasts over double the time my Xperia does. Ditto for the Symbian based Nokia N8.

 

With Autostarts and running DX Battery Saver on a rooted phone, you can increase battery life alot.

 

They do if you use it a lot. If you let it idle usually it's like 1% to 1.5% per hour as long as you don't have many apps running.
The problem is not Android IMO, it's the apps and how they always use the data connection. If you put your Android phone in Airplane mode it would last weeks but then comes another problem . . . Why would you carry a phone if you can't even call.

If you run your Android with the data off it would last pretty long, probably a couple days without charge or even a week, who knows.

 

I dont know anyone with a smartphone or laptop run off battery that doesn't charge everyday anyway.Its quite easy to turn off auto synching and use lower brightness which are two of the biggest culprits

 

I'm guessing that with data off I could go about 5 days without charging until my battery went flat.