Database Develop

Battery saving tips for the N4

I know there are a few threads about the mediocre battery life on the Nexus 4, but I thought it might be an idea to bring solutions to the battery issue into one thread. So if you have any tips, please post!
Mine so far are:
1. Turn off location access: this does mean Google Now doesn't work, but I've not found it that useful here in the UK. Maps / location access seems to use a lot of juice.
2. Stop using Chrome: on my nexus 7 there doesn't seem to be problem, but on my N4 Chrome absolutely hammers the battery. I've switched to Dolphin and seen a marked difference in longevity.
3. Chrome tilt scrolling: this didn't do much for me, but some have reported better battery life using Chrome if tilt scrolling is disabled. Go to settings, developer tools, untick tilt scrolling.
4. General measures: limit 3g usage, WiFi sleep at night, disable active wallpapers, limit live widgets etc.
5. Give it time: it'll take a few charge / discharge cycles for your battery to work at its best.
Any more from the wise?
Simon
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Guess not then!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

1. Don't use phone

Turn off animations and doing this also makes any phone snappier

ceejay83 said:
1. Don't use phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont forget to turn the phone off.
Sent from my Nexus 7

sempersi said:
1. Turn off location access: this does mean Google Now doesn't work, but I've not found it that useful here in the UK. Maps / location access seems to use a lot of juice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's better to just turn off Google Now. Now polls pretty regularly and is a bit of a battery suck. Turning off GPS and then opening Maps is, frankly, dumb.
2. Stop using Chrome: on my nexus 7 there doesn't seem to be problem, but on my N4 Chrome absolutely hammers the battery. I've switched to Dolphin and seen a marked difference in longevity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Chrome is also slow as ass and it always takes three taps to do anything, like accessing bookmarks. Oh, and no flash. So...solid idea.
sempersi said:
4. General measures: limit 3g usage, WiFi sleep at night, disable active wallpapers, limit live widgets etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why aren't you charging your phone at night?
5. Give it time: it'll take a few charge / discharge cycles for your battery to work at its best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a myth. The best your lithium battery will ever perform is your first charge. The percentage calculation may be off, but the phone will shut down when the battery reaches minimum voltage regardless of calibration.
If you want to max battery life, make sure that
A) You don't have any wakelocks, or apps that keep your phone from going to sleep. Uninstall those misbehaving apps.
B) Use auto-brightness, or manually keep brightness low.

Google Now alone does not suck much battery. It's the constant location tracking (can be disabled in Google Maps location settings, uncheck all options there).
Without that, Google Now is still usable, but not as "effective".

myorks1127 said:
Turn off animations and doing this also makes any phone snappier
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont know if this is battery saving (probably not) but I just put them at x.5
Makes the phone feel way faster while still having some sort of transition animation.

The best one is turn of data
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Turned off Chrome sync. Just log out of it. I don't know if it helps in a noticeable way, but I don't need to it use so it's turned off.

i always wonder this. if you leave the phone in wcdma/gms(auto) mode and turn off data does it still drain more battery than if you foce it to use gsm(force 2g) with network turn off?

Omg these features are why you get a N4. If you wanna turn off all these features you should have gotten a GS3.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

jayprime said:
Omg these features are why you get a N4. If you wanna turn off all these features you should have gotten a GS3.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or an iPhone..... Or an old Nokia brick
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

If you want Now to poll less, you can just leave Location history enabled but have report location off.
Works for me and Google Now doesn't complain

Oh please, for the love of god, nobody chime in with "get juice defender!!!1"
Just turn off stuff that uses realtime data if you are in a bind. And step down to 2g if you are close to dying. Or use an external battery pack to top off when not by a wall plug.

myorks1127 said:
Turn off animations and doing this also makes any phone snappier
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And Ugly

Turn off phone, get INSANE BATTERY LIFE. My phone now LITERALLY LASTS FOR MONTHS! I turn it on once a week to check the drain, so far it's at 95%, but it's only been a week and I only charged it to 98%...
/s
Guys seriously? Turning off Google Now, Location Updating, Maps, Chrome, Apps? Why the hell didn't I just keep my POS flip phone, it lasted weeks on a charge? This phone has the possibility of lasting a good day under heavy use (5hrs screen on with 14hrs standby) or possibly 2 days with light use, thanks to a 2100mAh battery and the S4 Pro. If it doesn't get that battery life out of the box, it's just down to Google to fix it through software. Give it a few cycles and let the battery settle. Then, wait for some updates (they need to fix December in the calendar anyway). Don't suggest turning the phone into a dumbphone...

[Tutorial] Battery saving techniques

So yes this Phone's battery unfortuanatly is not well at all.. but here is how i managed mine to last a day without charging. Let me also say im a heavy user also. I text A LOT and always pull out my phone in class play a few games to pass the time or just browse my phone. So this does work for heavy / light users.
Go to Wifi/ menu / advanced and click never on Keep wifi on during sleep.
Go to settings/ Location access - Switch to off
For your brightness it will be on Auto switch that off and put it almost to the lowest as you dont really need it high just kills the battery.
- Go to the App store and download Easy Battery savor. When you access the app choose intiligent mode. It really helps !
-Dont ever use live wallpaper it just drains it so fast.
- DOwnload Faux App It really helps (Faux kernel Enhancement Project) Once downloaded go to CPU and set max clock to 1.35 instead of 1.5. it will still be buttery smooth and it will drain the battery less.
Also I am using the Franco Kernel - nightly #53 which in my opinion really helps !
- Try to turn off the WiFi usage as much as possible and you will see a huge difference.
That's all from me guys. By doing all this my battery significantly improved and lasts about a day now.
Anyways if you have better solutionson how you manage your battery and how you extend its life.
- post pictures
- post the apps you use
- post everything !
Thank you !

I use harsh. Whenever I don't game, I lower the max freq to just 810mhz, ondemand, row, mpdecision on (as harsh recommended) and it's still buttery smooth, and of course battery life is incredible, and I also do check the Disable HW Overlays and Force GPU in 2d rendering. And since no kernel controlling apps are needed, my phone feels cleaner too I can't upload battery stats yet as I'm in an area with only edge connectiom and I hate using slow internet connections
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Hi.
I think that autobrigthness it's very hard in all phones. It would be an app Download the brightness.
Bye.

In my testing having wifi connected(like ay home and not going saves more battery, this been texted in several android devices including gs3,note 2 and iOS like 4S and iPads, just giving some info
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Why dont you buy an old nokia since you almost get rid of all the cool stuff this phone offers? Brightness to lowest level...that cracked me up lol
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

A couple of things I noticed with this. The first thing I notice is, in two of your screenshots, you appear to have mobile data disabled completely. The second thing I noticed is that your final screenshot shows 24hr 52 min on battery, yet according to your clock, a it should really be a total of 33hr 6 min since unplugged. Your first screenshot shows 88% battery remaining with it already having been unplugged for 7hr 35 min. With that screenshot showing a time of 3:11pm, that would mean your phone was unplugged at 7:36am. If the phone was unplugged at 7:36am, then how is it only showing a total of 24hr 52min at 4:42pm the next day? It should be showing 33hr 6min. That's an odd inconsistency there. All in all, even with the data that is showed in your screenshot, it shows very little use as phone idle and cell standby are both in your top 5. Your screen was your highest drain, yet there isn't anything else there accompanying it. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that all you did was keep the data turned off on your phone, and connect to wifi where available. You turned your screen on, but didn't really do anything with the phone besides having the screen just on. That said, even stock with no changes, a person can get 24 hours on a charge if they're disabling their phone and not using it.

Interesting tips however I have a few points:
Your first tip suggests having WiFi to Never stay connected during sleep. I am part of another Android forum which deals with tablets. We tested this feature as with a tablet, you are likely to leave it for hours on end before using it again. It was excellent if the tablet was not touched, however we noticed that it significantly increased the battery drain if you were regularly switching between sleep and using it.
Agree with the second but don't throw away practicality, use Location settings when they need to be use, not just turn them off and don't use them.
Leave it on auto-brightness dude, why ruin the nice visuals of a fantastic screen by having it so dark you can't see it? I only ever use lowest brightness when its dark or the battery is nearly dead.
No idea about the battery saver.
I definitely disagree with this. If you use 3G permanently, like I do, then turning on WiFi definitely reduces battery drain. I don't turn off data ever, so switching WiFi where possible is quite a useful battery saving technique.

skezza said:
Interesting tips however I have a few points:
Your first tip suggests having WiFi to Never stay connected during sleep. I am part of another Android forum which deals with tablets. We tested this feature as with a tablet, you are likely to leave it for hours on end before using it again. It was excellent if the tablet was not touched, however we noticed that it significantly increased the battery drain if you were regularly switching between sleep and using it.
Agree with the second but don't throw away practicality, use Location settings when they need to be use, not just turn them off and don't use them.
Leave it on auto-brightness dude, why ruin the nice visuals of a fantastic screen by having it so dark you can't see it? I only ever use lowest brightness when its dark or the battery is nearly dead.
No idea about the battery saver.
I definitely disagree with this. If you use 3G permanently, like I do, then turning on WiFi definitely reduces battery drain. I don't turn off data ever, so switching WiFi where possible is quite a useful battery saving technique.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
His solution is to turn off connectivity and functionality on the phone. That defeats the purpose of even having the phone at all.

That said, I think a safe UC of maybe 200MHz can have a difference, but to me, it's all about enjoying the phone and the phone experience. No need to screw with it

Don't do the wifi feature. It will use more battery because it will constantly have to reconnect to the wifi connection every time your phone comes out of sleep mode and that will consume more battery.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app

Crisisx1 said:
Don't do the wifi feature. It will use more battery because it will constantly have to reconnect to the wifi connection every time your phone comes out of sleep mode and that will consume more battery.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Crisis, I pointed that out above...

Someone tell me how I can go all day AND listen to 8 hours of Bluetooth audio and I will be impressed.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

ronnyg12 said:
So yes this phone battery unfortunately is not well at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just curious, why did you buy it then? Personally, I'm leaving everything on because I bought the phone for the looks and usability.
And yes, the phone lasts me all day while using it for everything including emails, conference calls, web browsing etc.

I've set up profiles using the Smart Profiles app to quickly turn things on and off at will - hit CAR and bluetooth/GPS turn on, Wifi turns off. Hit HOME and the reverse happens, etc.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

chrisrozon said:
I've set up profiles using the Smart Profiles app to quickly turn things on and off at will - hit CAR and bluetooth/GPS turn on, Wifi turns off. Hit HOME and the reverse happens, etc.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing here..but I use scripts When I'm in school and all I need my phone for is some tethering and music, I activate my script that sets the max freq to just 810mhz and I undervolt an extra -50mv from the stock undervoltages of harsh, but when I'm out and away, I enjoy the full 1.5ghz quadcore beast trapped inside my pocket
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Don't get me wrong, it's useful to have a decent battery life, but I really don't see the need to turn the device into an expensive brick. My suggestions, which may or may not be better than the ones in the OP, but they seem to work for me on every Android I've come across without screwing with undervolting etc:
1. Turn Auto-Sync off, or increase the duration between each sync. On my old phone, the phone would use Auto-Sync every hour or so which totally killed the battery over the course of day. I turned it off and would sync it manually (taking all of 15 seconds) on a Friday. Made a huge difference, although simply increasing the time between syncs is just as effective if not more so as you still save a bit of time (might opt for that myself :good
2. Use Inverted Apps on SAMOLED, Don't use Inverted Apps on IPS, white colour uses more battery on SAMOLED, but a lot less on IPS :fingers-crossed:
3. Get yourself a Toggle-based Notification bar, you will remember to switch off your WiFi when walking around in public. To that end, switch your WiFi off unless you are connected to a hotspot, the constant scanning will drain your battery and depending on the interval may take quite a large hit over the course of a day. If you rely on WiFi then maybe increase the scan interval time.
4. Turn off all mobile networking services when in a known signal blackspot. e.g. When work pays for us to go to a hotel on the Welsh border in Cheshire, there is absolutely no signal guaranteed unless you go to the end of the driveway, so I turn off all phone services unless I am there. Your phone will drink your battery very quickly otherwise, guaranteed. The easy solution is to use WhatsApp, switch your phone onto Airplane mode then turn on WiFi and connect to a hotspot (if they have one available, hotels usually do). This is surprisingly low on battery consumption.

So basically, just leave my phone in my pocket and not use it. Okay. Gotcha.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

chancy319 said:
So basically, just leave my phone in my pocket and not use it. Okay. Gotcha.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My battery life is amazing. I guess it just depends on what you compare it to. I had an evo 3d before, and my 3d would be dead by noon without even turning on the screen. My work blackberry lasts 5 days with fairly heavy email usage.
My N4 though, I use it fairly often for browsing, occasional calls throughout the day, streaming audio, this and that. After 12 hours of use I am still at 60% usually. From 7am to 5:30 (typically when i get out of work) I will be at 70%+
Not sure why people are so bent out of shape about it...
On my 3d if I ran facebook app or any stupid **** like that it would kill my battery like i didnt even have one.

Here's another idea get a job or pay attention in school. That will save battery life as well. I have literally seen people stare at a screen without doing anything with the phone, just because they are so obsessed with it being in their hand
Oh and my Sig does not represent the nexus in the mail
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk 2

What about those external battery things? Does anyone know where I can find some decent ones online?

Nexus 5 BETTER Battery Performance

I have been reading the many battery threads where people are posting screenshots and either complaining or raving about their particular Nexus 5’s battery performance. I am shocked that some people are turning off their Wifi, Mobile Data, GPS, Google Now, Sync, and every other feature that makes these phones so useful and still suffering with poor battery performance.
In this thread, instead of complaining or bragging about your battery performance, I thought that this could be used as a place where you all can post how you use your device and what you are doing to save juice and how it works. I’ll go first.
I have had 3 different Nexus 5’s. The first had the speaker/microphone problem and was RMAed. The second was doing great until it overheated and the LEDs at the bottom of the screen exploded. It was RMAed. My current one seems to have a weaker vibrator motor, but I’m going to live with it.
I use my phone instead of my laptop. It seems the only time I use my laptop these days it to flash my phone. I browse the web (Chrome), watch YouTube (YouTube App), read my email (Gmail), shop Amazon (Amazon App), manage my schedule (Calendar App, Pure Calendar Widget), get my news (Flipboard), participate in groups (Google Plus), Chromecast (Netflix, YouTube), participate in these forums (XDA Premium App), and various others. I don’t really play games and don’t tax the CPU to hard.
To save juice, I…
use LUX to manage my screen brightness and usually can function with the screen below 0% unless I’m outside.
use Tasker to turn on/off my wifi, data, gps, sync, and perform a few other tasks, kind-of-like juice defender, but a lot more reliable.
use Better Battery Stats to keep an eye on my apps and de-install apps with bad behavior. I plan on installing Greenify, but have not gotten around to it.
I usually get 12 to 14 hours with 3-4 hours screen time before I plug my phone in at night and have 25%-50% battery left. And, I don't feel I'm depriving myself of any performance.
Some things I have read…
With these new batteries, you never want to let them fully discharge. In fact, keeping them charged is very important, so having a charger at work, or in your car is a good practice.
When your phone gets hot, give it a rest. A hot phone is not working efficiently, and you can damage the battery permanently if it overheats.
It takes a few days for your phone to reach its best performance. When you first get it, it is working in the background to index files and such, which is keeping the phone from reaching deep sleep and is using juice.
After an update, if your phone just doesn’t seem right, it might not be. Do a factory reset and try again. If something didn’t update correctly, there is no telling what could be affected…even your battery performance.
If you have ideas on how to increase battery performance, or discovered apps or settings that drain your battery, please post them here.
Added From Comments Below...
Make sure your apps are configured properly. For example, make sure apps such as Google + are configured to only backup while charging.
In Settings / Locations, set mode to 'Battery Saving' . It passively detects your location which uses no battery. It has been reported that turning off 'location reporting' has no negative effect on Now and Maps. This is a big juice saver.
Kill apps when done using them. Some apps, if left open, will continue draining your juice.
Turn off 'Scanning Always Available' in Wifi /Advanced Settings.
Things I Have Been Experimenting With...
Greenify is a great app for battery optimization. I have apps on my phone that I don't use often, but seem to keep the phone awake. Greenify them and put the app to bed until you need it.
I've been experimenting with Kernels. After much experimentation, I used Franco Kernel on my GN, so I tried his out and have noticed a battery savings on my screen off time. This is a recommendation for rooted phones because the Franco Updater app on the Play Store does all the heavy lifting.
If you find this information helpful, please hit the 'thanks' button.
.

My battery life has been fantastic ever since I disabled Google+. It was constantly running in the background all the damn time and just destroying my battery when I wasn't even using it. Ever since I disabled it, I can easily pull down 4-5 hours of screen on time.
That being said, I'm definitely an opportunistic charger. I work from home so it's easy to keep my phone juiced up when I'm not using it. I rarely go below 50%.

Wow. On stock I easily get 5 hours screen on time with everything on, but only 14ish hours total. With light usage (2 1/2 hrs) close to 27 hours. However I've seen guys posting over 3 days so now I'm playing around with kernels (Franco at the moment) and multirom. I'm using ART but not sure how much difference honestly.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

maxpower7 said:
My battery life has been fantastic ever since I disabled Google+. It was constantly running in the background all the damn time and just destroying my battery when I wasn't even using it. Ever since I disabled it, I can easily pull down 4-5 hours of screen on time.
That being said, I'm definitely an opportunistic charger. I work from home so it's easy to keep my phone juiced up when I'm not using it. I rarely go below 50%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can also just greenify Google+ and also check if you have the photo backup with it turned to on. I found my app running for half an hour while phone was off and it was due to the backing up of the photos.

Instead of opening "yet another thread", this could've been posted here, here, here, here, here and probably in many others..

I use Google+ every day all day. The impact it has on battery life is zero. Of course that's my experience. If it's murdering your battery them you don't have something set up properly or as they say "you're doing it wrong"
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

rayiskon said:
Instead of opening "yet another thread", this could've been posted here, here, here, here, here and probably in many others..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea. But mostly you will read people bragging or complaining. There is a lot of good information in those threads, but to find it, you will have to dig. My intention is that this thread will be a place to find, test, and compile solutions for those suffering with poor performance.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

jbdan said:
I use Google+ every day all day. The impact it has on battery life is zero. Of course that's my experience. If it's murdering your battery them you don't have something set up properly or as they say "you're doing it wrong"
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also use Google + every day with little impact. I checked my settings and I have it set to only back up while on WiFi and only while charging.
I also use Tasked to turn off sync when the screen is off keeping the phone in deep sleep.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I greenify most apps, keep screen brightness down, GPS Bluetooth always off, data only on when screen on, etc. I got 1 day 15 hours with over 6 hours screen time with my usage. I mostly use my phone for xda, 9gag, some chrome browsing, and a couple other things.
prshosting.org

JamieFL said:
I also use Google + every day with little impact. I checked my settings and I have it set to only back up while on WiFi and only while charging.
I also use Tasked to turn off sync when the screen is off keeping the phone in deep sleep.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup I use that same setting thanks for pointing that out :good:
Nexus5

IMO, I shouldn't have to do any of this to "save" battery life. It is what it is.

jbdan said:
I use Google+ every day all day. The impact it has on battery life is zero. Of course that's my experience. If it's murdering your battery them you don't have something set up properly or as they say "you're doing it wrong"
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google+ kills my battery regardless of what my settings are. I literally only used it as an offline photo gallery - there was no syncing being done at all, no auto-awesome, no photo backups or any of that. I don't know how there could possibly be any user error in my setup.

I think literally the only thing that should be done to save battery life is to disable location reporting and to possibly disable autobrightness when indoors. Other than that, nothing needs to be done to get spectacular battery life. All I have is a tasker profile to disable autobrightness when connected to my wifi network and re-enable it when I am not connected, and then location reporting turned off. I get 6 hours screen on time daily.

muyoso said:
I think literally the only thing that should be done to save battery life is to disable location reporting and to possibly disable autobrightness when indoors. Other than that, nothing needs to be done to get spectacular battery life. All I have is a tasker profile to disable autobrightness when connected to my wifi network and re-enable it when I am not connected, and then location reporting turned off. I get 6 hours screen on time daily.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Location reporting is such a huge battery drain and it doesn't seem to have any real benefits. Google Now works fine without it.

maxpower7 said:
Location reporting is such a huge battery drain and it doesn't seem to have any real benefits. Google Now works fine without it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea. I was very surprised that it had absolutely zero impact to turn it off for me. Google Now works perfectly fine. Maps works. Everything works. I guess the only negative is that you are not contributing information into the Google hivemind to help out others with traffic information and crap like that. . . . Otherwise there are no negative effects to turning it off, and doing so squashes the nlp wakelock bug completely.

For me at least, I went from about half a day on full battery to almost a day and a half by turning off LTE and Wi-Fi scanning with constant usage. I was conflicted a bit for choosing either LTE or battery life but I'm happier with choosing battery life.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

I added the suggestion about setting location reporting off. Thanks.
I've heard that if your area has poor LTE signal, that can cause a big battery drain. Can anyone confirm that? If this is true, this could be a big contributor to unexplained battery drain.

muyoso said:
Yea. I was very surprised that it had absolutely zero impact to turn it off for me. Google Now works perfectly fine. Maps works. Everything works. I guess the only negative is that you are not contributing information into the Google hivemind to help out others with traffic information and crap like that. . . . Otherwise there are no negative effects to turning it off, and doing so squashes the nlp wakelock bug completely.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Were you still able to get traffic notifications? It's weird that it doesn't seem to affect weather updates as well.

PsychDrummer said:
Were you still able to get traffic notifications? It's weird that it doesn't seem to affect weather updates as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure about traffic notifications as I work from home and Google cannot comprehend that and thinks I work at the grocery store, but weather notifications work perfectly. Just traveled for Christmas and it was tracking me perfectly from city to city.

muyoso said:
Not sure about traffic notifications as I work from home and Google cannot comprehend that and thinks I work at the grocery store, but weather notifications work perfectly. Just traveled for Christmas and it was tracking me perfectly from city to city.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha. I mean it's not a huge deal. Google often thinks I'm driving to work/class when I'm not actually doing so and it's more useful to check traffic within the Maps app anyway. I'll try the reporting off for a few days though and see how much of a difference it makes.

12 Ways to Save Battery without Root and break 7hrs SoT

I put together a list of things that helped me get 7 hours SoT on a charge (Wifi). Edit: 6.75hrs SoT. Edit2: 7.75hrs SoT No root access or modifications needed for these.
This is my first Android device and I wanted to share some of the things I've learned mostly reading these forums. It also annoys me to read users complain about their battery life but are unwilling to do anything about it. I hope this will help people to realize the full potential of their phone.
Llama, Tasker, etc: Automate everything you can to save battery. It can be more efficient to run a line of code then to tap the screen.
Force stop all the programs you don't really need running in the background in Settings > Apps > Running. Basically act like your own Greenify. Or use Greenify.
Wakelocks: Track the "Awake Time" of suspicious applications and services and either reboot or force stop them if necessary.
Disable Google applications you don't need. Myself I disabled Chrome, Gmail and News & Weather.
Disable: touch and typing vibration. I have type sounds On and touch sounds Off because those really add up on speaker.
Disable: NFC, Bluetooth, Wireless printing etc. Automate to run only when needed for no lost functionality.
Wifi: Automate to turn on only for Wifi zones of your choice. No lost functionality. Wifi always scanning: Off.
Notifications: Apps and games can send you unnecessary notifications. Disable them. Enable only what you need.
Hotword detection: off. This specifically drains SoT and saves only a single screen tap.
Widgets: These drain battery without ever showing up individually on the stats page. Silent killers.
Lux: Another silent killer even when set "On Wake only" and "Slow". Just by disabling Lux lite and a once-daily updated Feedly widget I noticed significant SoT gains. Using Llama to automate brightness is more efficient.
Speaker vs Headphones: The speaker seems to use more battery.
Two apps that can help you monitor your battery and phone with no root requirement:
Play Store Link.
Current Widget - Set to update manually on your home screen for minimal power draw. Check your charge and discharge rates along with battery temperature.
Play Store Link.
S Tools+ - This just popped up in the XDA apps section the other day. Detailed information on CPU states, Deep Sleep time and ALL your sensors, nicely graphed and very polished including transparent nav bar. Other than real time graphing of sensors this shouldn't be much of a drain.

Speaker vs headphones....what?? Care to explain how? I'm saying the difference is negligible.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

Yeah, you really don't need to do all that to save battery. Just don't turn on data until you need it and you'll get a week of standby on a single charge with this phone, and a full day of usage (or more depending on how much you use it).

monkeypaws said:
Speaker vs headphones....what?? Care to explain how? I'm saying the difference is negligible.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I seem to drain more battery listening to music with speakers over headphones but its hard to tell and probably negligible, as you say.
Ober/Hydra said:
Yeah, you really don't need to do all that to save battery. Just don't turn on data until you need it and you'll get a week of standby on a single charge with this phone, and a full day of usage (or more depending on how much you use it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure if serious or not. That functionality is enabled on the phone by default and you'll see many people struggling to get over 3 hours SoT like that.
There are even reviews which seem to think topping 3 hours SoT is some kind of miracle. Most will answer that by saying: "you need root and flash x ROM with y kernel".
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Oops

bblzd said:
I put together a list of things that helped me get 7 hours SoT on a charge (Wifi). No root access or modifications needed for these.
Llama, Tasker, etc: Automate everything you can to save battery. It can be more efficient to run a line of code then to tap the screen.
Force stop all the programs you don't really need running in the background in Settings > Apps > Running. Basically act like your own Greenify. Or use Greenify.
Wakelocks: Track the "Awake Time" of suspicious applications and services and either reboot or force stop them if necessary.
Disable Google applications you don't need. Myself I disabled Chrome, Gmail and News & Weather.
Disable: touch and typing vibration. I have type sounds On and touch sounds Off because those really add up on speaker.
Disable: NFC, Bluetooth, Wireless printing etc. Automate to run only when needed for no lost functionality.
Wifi: Automate to turn on only for Wifi zones of your choice. No lost functionality. Wifi always scanning: Off.
Notifications: Apps and games can send you unnecessary notifications. Disable them. Enable only what you need.
Hotword detection: off. This specifically drains SoT and saves only a single screen tap.
Widgets: These drain battery without ever showing up individually on the stats page. Silent killers.
Lux: Another silent killer even when set "On Wake only" and "Slow". Just by disabling Lux lite and a once-daily updated Feedly widget I noticed significant SoT gains. Using Llama to automate brightness is more efficient.
Speaker vs Headphones: The speaker seems to use more battery.
This is my first Android device and I wanted to share some of the things I've learned mostly reading these forums. It also annoys me to read users complain about their battery life but are unwilling to do anything about it. I hope this will help people to realize the full potential of their phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspected Lux was using battery but the actual app use is showing up as very very minimal. Less than 1%.
Its far too convenient! Does llama have the same exact function built in?

Don't forget to disable location reporting in Google Apps.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

You also forgot to keep the phone off.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Ulver said:
You also forgot to keep the phone off.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you actually read the post you would realize there is no lost functionality.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

7hr sot? No way...

bleuwave said:
7hr sot? No way...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The link is in the post, my good fellow.

Man I wish I could just stare at a 5 inch screen for 7 hours a day.
Not.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I must admit that using lux from within llama allows me to refresh brightness on screen rotation too which is not bad at all at least.
Inviato dal mio Nexus 5 utilizzando Tapatalk

WATERYEW said:
Man I wish I could just stare at a 5 inch screen for 7 hours a day.
Not.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotta agree. The vast majority of users charge overnight and with my own setup - currently on stock rom and stock kernel (though I'm currently bouncing between that and Franco to see which I prefer) with pretty much everything always on (NFC, WiFi, data, location access, though I disable notifications from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, etc. just because I'm not that invested in social networks that I'd want constant updates) I can get 3+ hours SOT - which I'd assume is more than enough for most people. Greenify is to thank for most of my battery savings.
But don't get me wrong - for those who do need more SOT than that, the OP is fantastic advice, and I'll be coming back to this thread when I'm on holiday etc. and won't be able to charge every night.

great tips
kuddos to the OP
very helpful tips...hotword detection remains off for me most the time
as i work in a noisy environment and hardly make use of it unless im relaxed in office/ home

FuMMoD said:
Don't forget to disable location reporting in Google Apps.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed :good:

Done most of those, still getting only around 3.5 hours SOT

bblzd said:
If you actually read the post you would realize there is no lost functionality.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't mind the haters. they're just mad that they only get 3 hours of screen on time and 10% battery drain per hour when deep sleeping
they would rather complain than take control of their device and if you dont use your own phone exactly like they use their phone, then they call foul and tell you that your results don't matter. they say the same thing to people that use their device like an ipod touch(by putting it in airplane mode).
haters will always hate

outofthisworld said:
I suspected Lux was using battery but the actual app use is showing up as very very minimal. Less than 1%.
Its far too convenient! Does llama have the same exact function built in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's just really hard to get good auto brightness on this phone right now due to the sensor. Using Lux Lite didn't help me very much since I was bouncing between very low and extremely high brightness but I imagine the full version could be more useful.
Llama is an extremely light weight application and uses only 6MB of RAM, the lowest of any service I've seen. I think it could add to Android System drain but using Cell Tower locations and properly set up conditions I don't think it will by much.
Thanks for the supportive comments. I really just want to help and have no hidden agenda here. We've known for months now that the N5 can get 8.9 hours SoT web browsing on WiFi and 6.9 hours web browsing on LTE. Of course Anandtech used perfect, non-root conditions with airplane mode On, Gnow off and zero apps or widgets; something that even I am unwilling to put up with. We can still strive to get as close to those numbers as possible.
Two apps that can help you monitor your battery and phone with no root requirement:
Play Store Link.
Current Widget - Set to update manually on your home screen for minimal power draw. Check your charge and discharge rates along with battery temperature.
Play Store Link.
S Tools+ - This just popped up in the XDA apps section the other day. Detailed information on CPU states, Deep Sleep time and ALL your sensors, nicely graphed and very polished including transparent nav bar. Other than real time graphing of sensors this shouldn't be much of a drain.

Generally speaking SOT depends on what you are doing.
I've been down this road and can get SOT times on any phone pushing 5 hours.
To say no loss of functionality is wrong. You state to kill half the apps that I use so that is a LOF to me.
The secret, well not really, is the brightness and network reception.
Turning down the brightness and getting max signal/bandwidth will affect the battery more than turning off apps. Remember the rule of thumb the longer the phone has to stay on for a wakelock the more the battery drains and that is SOT and sleep. What I mean is you'll drain your battery faster connected to a dialup internet connection than fiber at 1gig.... It's all about bandwidth and high signal strength and screen brightness.
Not hating just saying that no one person can say this will give you X number of hours of SOT when everyone's signal/bandwidth environment is different.

Experiments searching for better battery life

Please reply with your own real experiences.
Q. Does rooted Greenify really improve battery life?
I use it, but I can't say it makes a huge difference.
Q. Does Package Disabler Pro really improve battery life?
I use it, but my co-worker doesn't, and his Note 5 lasts basically as long as mine.
Experiment:
Maybe what would be the most useful is using Tasker to really deal with battery life. I'm thinking about shutting off wifi and data when not needed, etc.
Has anyone tested something like this?
Thanks!:good:

Hey gaston. So I haven't rooted my note 5 just yet but I spent a year and a half with my opo trying all the permutations you mention.
Rooted greenify I feel works a lot like doze on marshmallow. If you are gaming you tubing etc constantly you won't really feel a difference.
Tasker is awesome and you will notice a difference in battery life to an extent but it goes way way beyond in terms of automation. If you end up using tasker profiles based on location and wifi you may just end up using more juice.
Package disabler using the profiles I have tried so far marginally improves battery life but nothing sizeable. I feel it makes the phone snappy by freeing some ram but that might just be a placebo.
Ergo I run the phone in full beast mode now and make use of the fast charge once in the evening for a half hour and that's good to get me through the day.
Sent from my SM-N920G using Tapatalk

swarup.siddharth said:
Hey gaston. So I haven't rooted my note 5 just yet but I spent a year and a half with my opo trying all the permutations you mention.
Rooted greenify I feel works a lot like doze on marshmallow. If you are gaming you tubing etc constantly you won't really feel a difference.
Tasker is awesome and you will notice a difference in battery life to an extent but it goes way way beyond in terms of automation. If you end up using tasker profiles based on location and wifi you may just end up using more juice.
Package disabler using the profiles I have tried so far marginally improves battery life but nothing sizeable. I feel it makes the phone snappy by freeing some ram but that might just be a placebo.
Ergo I run the phone in full beast mode now and make use of the fast charge once in the evening for a half hour and that's good to get me through the day.
Sent from my SM-N920G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I appreciate your honest reply. Many people here in the forums seem to lie a lot about performance and battery life.
Maybe keeping the phone charged is the best and simple solution.

That being said you are rooted so go ahead and try the custom roms out there. That is the one sure fire way to see a difference in performance and battery life.
Sent from my SM-N920G using Tapatalk

I've been using Greenify (unrooted), Package Disabler Pro, and dark themes to maximize my battery life. But I think Tasker does the most to help me conserve battery power.
When I am at work, Tasker turns off WiFi, Bluetooth, all sounds, and drops screen brightness to about 20%. I only turn on GPS when I am using an app that requires it. Tasker turns my brightness and volumes down when I am connected to WiFi at home.
I think these simple actions with Tasker help my battery life more than just about anything else. I average about 6.5 hours of SOT, and I still have 30%+ left on my battery when I get home.
But it all depends on how you use your phone. YouTube and video games consume more juice than TapaTalk and light Internet browsing.

Just try to uninstall or disable facebook app via settings, and feel the difference. I read on Internet that Facebook app known as battery eater. Just try it and give some response here. Hope that help.

It depends. Some people want the extreme battery savings and are willing to sacrifice a lot of performance on the phone, dim screen, no GPS, etc.
I prefer my phone to operate at its full potential all the time. I don't want to mess with settings if something came up and someone wanted to see a picture and I have to worry about setting brightnesses and whatnot.
For the most part, most of those apps are only getting a marginal amount of better battery. Maybe 20 or 30 minutes more charge over the day.
During work, I rarely use my phone because I'm actually working lol. Sometimes I use it for work but the quick charge takes care of whatever I lose during my lunch hour
I use GSAM the monitor was actually using the most battery in just address what's needed. The only feature that I usually do turn off and keep up for the most part is my Wi-Fi. In the areas I use my phone the most, my average download speeds over cellular are over a gigabit
Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

greeify - yes, only if you know greenified app was a battery drainer.
package disabler - yes, only if you know those services were battery drainers.
I use betterbatterystats app to find out what is draining the battery.
biggest culprit for me was phone not going into Deep Sleep. If you can remedy deep sleep issue, your battery will last much longer. I currently get around 1 percent drain every 2 hours when my phone's screen is off. that's with wifi on all the time.
Best way for me was installing a custom rom. most custom roms will have battery issues fixed. I use dr ketan's rom. it's awesome.
Another way without rooting that I found out, is disable google services. google play services and all google services. if you do that, watch your battery last forever.
I forget which app, but you could make profiles so you could enable or disable all google services, and google play services. I mean, you don't download new apps all the time, right?
So only enable google play services when you want to download apps and turn it off for the rest of time.
and of course deal with bloatware.

gaston_garcia said:
Thanks!
I appreciate your honest reply. Many people here in the forums seem to lie a lot about performance and battery life.
Maybe keeping the phone charged is the best and simple solution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad you asked, i've been using greenify amplify and powernap as of recently, and no it does not improve battery life automatically but it helps to keep your running services in check.
I've had couple of times that chrome was running in background, despite i closed it, means it drains battery when your screen is off, greenify prevents that from happening which result in battery improvement or more precisely, helps you manage the services right.
However to my surprise, calibrating the battery via batterycalibaration app or L Speed tweaks apk(both need root), it stabilized my battery after couple of cycles, i did a test charge the phone to 100 then using performance governor, i put Angry birds 2 till the battery reached 5% so i could see the SOT, before this step i had 2h 45m but AFTER calibration i had 4h 30m, that a LOT for performance non stop ab2 gaming.
It helps with regular uses as well, i also used repair battery to make sure that battery health is in check, hope all that helps

o7ex said:
Just try to uninstall or disable facebook app via settings, and feel the difference. I read on Internet that Facebook app known as battery eater. Just try it and give some response here. Hope that help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried this several times and over the last 3 weeks and honestly have never notice any difference to battery life. The less features of the web version to me doesn't warrant this as a worthwhile change.
---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 AM ----------
Larry Johnson;65227925
Best way for me was installing a custom rom. most custom roms will have battery issues fixed. I use dr ketan's rom. it's awesome.
Another way without rooting that I found out said:
Re dr ketans rom assume this requires root? Does it take away features of the standard rom or is it closely linked to the OE Rom?
Interesting re profiles - I will look this up thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Derpling said:
However to my surprise, calibrating the battery via batterycalibaration app or L Speed tweaks apk(both need root), it stabilized my battery after couple of cycles, i did a test charge the phone to 100 then using performance governor, i put Angry birds 2 till the battery reached 5% so i could see the SOT, before this step i had 2h 45m but AFTER calibration i had 4h 30m, that a LOT for performance non stop ab2 gaming.
It helps with regular uses as well, i also used repair battery to make sure that battery health is in check, hope all that helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. I've never tried calibrating a battery.
Honestly, I feel fine with my Note 5. But I always imagine what I want from a ROM or device:
Better battery is always good
Fast performance is good

Larry Johnson said:
Best way for me was installing a custom rom. most custom roms will have battery issues fixed. I use dr ketan's rom. it's awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've thought about installing and trying Dr. Ketan's Rom.
Has it been great for you? What's been the thing you like the most about it?
Thanks for your answer.:good:

stm8 said:
I've been using Greenify (unrooted), Package Disabler Pro, and dark themes to maximize my battery life. But I think Tasker does the most to help me conserve battery power.
When I am at work, Tasker turns off WiFi, Bluetooth, all sounds, and drops screen brightness to about 20%. I only turn on GPS when I am using an app that requires it. Tasker turns my brightness and volumes down when I am connected to WiFi at home.
I think these simple actions with Tasker help my battery life more than just about anything else. I average about 6.5 hours of SOT, and I still have 30%+ left on my battery when I get home.
But it all depends on how you use your phone. YouTube and video games consume more juice than TapaTalk and light Internet browsing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey..
I was interested when you mention using Tasker app, so I tried to use it.
When I was setting the app I try to set WiFi on when at home and set off when I'm not, does this need root? could you share the tutorial setup to me?
One more thing, I tried set GPS on when using the allowed app, I find this set must be rooted, If you could, would you share the tutorial setup too?
thanks

Seriously? Swipe down and toggle wifi and mobile data on/off!
Less than 2 seconds plus you can see your beautiful notification drawer if you using a theme you like!

bonerp said:
Re dr ketans rom assume this requires root? Does it take away features of the standard rom or is it closely linked to the OE Rom?
Interesting re profiles - I will look this up thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea, any rom install requires root. I thought about not rooting my note5 for a while. damn knox count that disables samsung pay + much harder to sell and lowers the resale value. HATE samsung for doing that. I mean, if I flash a stock rom, everything should be back to normal. ONLY company that makes the resale value of phone drop forever, if you root!
sorry, i digress.
dr ketan's rom is very clean and snappy. he only removed knox and carrier apps, and left everything stock. didn't take away any functions, but added "actually useful" features. insane amount of features without slowing down the phone. it feels like stock rom without the bloat and the usual "limited" feeling of stock. battery life is improved also. especially the deep sleep. what i noticed was that, when i was on stock, deep sleep was pretty good already, then I rooted and deep sleep was out of wack. I tried everything for the deep sleep to be better, but didn't work well. so i flashed dr ketan's rom, and deep sleep is now actually better than stock.
---------- Post added at 10:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:24 AM ----------
gaston_garcia said:
I've thought about installing and trying Dr. Ketan's Rom.
Has it been great for you? What's been the thing you like the most about it?
Thanks for your answer.:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- nonstop update/support. he actually replies to everyone. only developer i've seen who does that.
- very good features. they are actually very useful and powerful.
- very stable.
- an of course, great battery life.

Mr. Wayne8 said:
Hey..
I was interested when you mention using Tasker app, so I tried to use it.
When I was setting the app I try to set WiFi on when at home and set off when I'm not, does this need root? could you share the tutorial setup to me?
One more thing, I tried set GPS on when using the allowed app, I find this set must be rooted, If you could, would you share the tutorial setup too?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, there is a pretty steep learning curve when it comes to Tasker. On the bottom right hand corner in the Tasker app, click on the question-mark icon. From there you can click on "Guides" for user tips and tutorials. Click on "Userguide" for the manual.
GPS cannot be set without root, since Gingerbread OS I believe. I manually turn it on and off when I need it. I leave WiFi on during the time frame I am at work. Tasker turns it back on at quitting time. When I get home and connect to my home WiFi, Tasker sets my brightness, sound levels, etc.