Gone are the days when one charged a 'not so smartphone' once in 2 to 3 days. Smartphones these days are known to need charging on a daily basis. That is understandable, but my Samsung Galaxy SII GT-I9100 reached a point where it demanded charging every day - twice a day !!!
The situation was bad, especially, when I was out & away from power sources for my phone for extended periods of time. When I needed it the most I would find the low battery warnings. I would want to use the phone for some critical purpose (like calling someone) and what do you see - a 'Low Battery' warning. I would have a wonderful 'kodak moment' to capture with the phone's lens and my smartphone's flash would not work because of 'Low Battery' ! It was frustrating !
My first assumption was that the battery was kaput and needed replacement. Before building on that thought, I checked if the software was not party to the crime ! I was right, the operating system software of the smartphone was indeed a major suspect in the 'battery drain' case !
Hence this post that articulates some of the steps I took to work around this problem. With these measures taken, nowadays after a full charge I am still left with around 60% of battery even after 10-12 hours of normal usage and without hampering any communications via the phone. Earlier I would have needed to charge the phone once in that period.
Some points mentioned below may be specific to the Samsung Galaxy SII GT-I9100 but similar configuration screens would be available on your android phone.
So, what are the things that you can do to save yourself some smartphone juice when you 'really' need it ?!
You might come up with a very finite small number of apps that will help you meet those uses, this is a very good input for your making the most of the AutomateIt app !
Would you like your android phone to
AutomateIt has a very simple model - A rule consists of a trigger that results in an action.
You select the triggers from one screen and then select an action in the next, you name the rule and schedule it if necessary. That's it.
The video here shows how a simple rule of setting your phone to silent on a schedule with AutomateIt.
AutomateIt has a free version and a paid pro version. Personally for me, playing around with the free version for a while convinced me that I could do more with the pro version. The pro version comes with composite triggers, calendar triggers and sensor triggers. I have heard that iOS devices do many of the battery conserving activities by some blanket rules. Again personally, I appreciate the better, configurable control that comes with the Android phone and the apps in its ecosystem.
The situation was bad, especially, when I was out & away from power sources for my phone for extended periods of time. When I needed it the most I would find the low battery warnings. I would want to use the phone for some critical purpose (like calling someone) and what do you see - a 'Low Battery' warning. I would have a wonderful 'kodak moment' to capture with the phone's lens and my smartphone's flash would not work because of 'Low Battery' ! It was frustrating !
My first assumption was that the battery was kaput and needed replacement. Before building on that thought, I checked if the software was not party to the crime ! I was right, the operating system software of the smartphone was indeed a major suspect in the 'battery drain' case !
Hence this post that articulates some of the steps I took to work around this problem. With these measures taken, nowadays after a full charge I am still left with around 60% of battery even after 10-12 hours of normal usage and without hampering any communications via the phone. Earlier I would have needed to charge the phone once in that period.
Some points mentioned below may be specific to the Samsung Galaxy SII GT-I9100 but similar configuration screens would be available on your android phone.
So, what are the things that you can do to save yourself some smartphone juice when you 'really' need it ?!
 | ||||||||
| Phone settings to pay attention to for battery conservation & usage stats |
Reflect on what is consuming the battery ?
- Tools to support this reflection
- In the phone settings you will find the Power saving settings
- Use this to setup your phone for power savings
- In the phone settings you will find Battery
- Here invariably most phones will show the display is consuming most battery
- So how can you reduce your screen usage
- Check the display settings for and set them appropriately to consume lesser battery.
- Brightness - what brightness settings have you chosen ?
- Screen timeout - how long do you want your phone to stay on ?
- No Smart stay ?
- Is the phone's GPS on ?
- (this is a very quick battery drainer - you forget to switch off GPS after using it and in a short time you might not be able to make calls on your smartphone! Read below about AutomateIt on how to not let your slacker memory be cause of a battery drain)
- Is the phone's Bluetooth on ?
- In addition you will find some apps seems to be consuming lot of battery
- Reflect on whether you need all the apps that you have on your smartphone, it is so easy to go overboard with installing apps and with time forget about them as they idle in the background and consume battery power. In some cases these apps are pre-installed and come from the device manufacturer. If you do not have the liberty to root the device perhaps you will not be able to get rid of them. Some examples of heavy battery consumers are apps such as Google Now. This is because of their data connection requirements. Also synching of your google accounts causes a battery drain especially if you are using it to synch your pictures.
- You might also want to review your smartphone's data and wifi settings
- Is your phone constantly searching for a wifi connection ?
- Are apps on your phone constantly trying to get onto the network ?
Reflect on your own smartphone usage habits
- Do you need to be online all the time?
- If not, you have a very good chance of saving unnecessary power consumption by your phone - read below about AutomateIt and how it can help make your smartphone smarter in terms of power consumption.
You might come up with a very finite small number of apps that will help you meet those uses, this is a very good input for your making the most of the AutomateIt app !
AutomateIt - Make a smarter smartphone with AutomateIt !
Disclaimer: I am not associated with the makers of AutomateIt in anyway that I an aware of. I only use the Android app and find good utility in it!
 |
| AutomateIt - read as Automate it |
- go mute and stay silent automatically when you are in meetings?
- go mute during certain times of the day?
- seek for WiFi networks only when you are in certain regions (for example only at home)?
- make the WiFi/Data connections active only when the apps that need them are activated?
- routinely schedule a data or wifi connection to allow apps?
- switch on GPS only when you are using Maps or any other such application?
- keep the screen on longer only when you are on certain apps and otherwise go off sooner to conserve battery power?
AutomateIt has a very simple model - A rule consists of a trigger that results in an action.
You select the triggers from one screen and then select an action in the next, you name the rule and schedule it if necessary. That's it.
 |
| AutomateIt configuration options |
The video here shows how a simple rule of setting your phone to silent on a schedule with AutomateIt.
AutomateIt has a free version and a paid pro version. Personally for me, playing around with the free version for a while convinced me that I could do more with the pro version. The pro version comes with composite triggers, calendar triggers and sensor triggers. I have heard that iOS devices do many of the battery conserving activities by some blanket rules. Again personally, I appreciate the better, configurable control that comes with the Android phone and the apps in its ecosystem.
Where to get AutomateIt?
- On Amazon - Free version & Pro version
- On Google Play - Free version & Pro version
References
- Samsung Galaxy S 2 website
- The AutomateIT app website
- AutomateIT on the Google Playstore and Amazon's app store
- On Amazon - Free version & Pro version
- On Google Play - Free version & Pro version
- Other tools for further analyzing and fine tuning battery usage
