What Apps and Settings to Change to Maximize Battery Life

[marvinh]

Hello - I have been reading many threads on different forums on ways to maximize battery life.  Can someone provide a concise listing (such as what settings to change or which apps to install) to maximize the battery? Also didn't the latest update from Verizon say that it would make better use of the battery?

This way we could have all the steps in one place to make reference to.

Thanks!  Marvin  

[pat3332]

Hi Marvin,

Since I'm not sure if posting links to other sites is frowned on here or not, if you just Google for thunderbolt battery saving tips, or something similar, you'll get more tips than you need. Some have lists with 30 to 40 tips and you can just try them and keep the ones that work for you.

One big one is to turn your screen brightness down. I have an app that lets me pick the settings I want to use, Brightness Profiles, and I usually set it at 15%, 25%, or if I'm outside, 100%. Inside, 15 to 25% is bright enough for even my old eyes. There are a lot of other apps in the market that will let you quickly change your screen's brightness, but I like this one and need to give Ann154 a thank you for recommending it.

[AZSALUKI · Accepted solution]

i'll just give you my setings/options/details, as i believe i get as much out of the battery as i can get. fyi....i use the stock battery that came with the phone. 

-i use NO battery saving apps (juice defender, etc). While they may help some, i just don't see the need for them.

-I use no app killer and don't try to "manage" the apps running in the background. i believe they do no good. i know others will disagree.

-my screen timeout is 30 seconds

-my screen display is 35% (i increase it sometimes during the day or outside to see better)

-i leave it on 3g for the most part. i turn on wifi if it's available and i'm going to be using data. i put it on LTE if i'm going to be streaming or downloading large files.

-i don't sync facebook, stock, or news. i sync email every 15 minutes, weather every 3 hours, and google is set to sync (docs, contacts, gmail, and calendar) although i don't know how often it does it? i also syn backup assistant every night.

-i have standalone gps and google location services on all of the time.

-i have the power saver enabled and is set to activate when i get to 15%

i use my device moderately. i hop on facebook, text a bit, make a few calls, download and play podcasts, and browse a bit during the day. i can get through a full day with one full charge on an average day. this entails about 2.5-3 hours of actual use and at least another 12-15 hours of idle time. on a good day i will get 20+ hours of idle time. the more i actually use it, the less idle time i will get. here's a screenshot of yesterday's stats. the "uptime" is the time i actually used the device (calls, apps, texts, etc). the "real uptime" is the amount of time that the device had been turned on since i unplugged it from the charger. i "bump charge" it daily. this is fully charging it (while the phone is on)....then turning it off and plugging it back in again. the light goes back to orange for another 10 minutes, and then goes green. so my phone is turned off every day, for about 10 minutes.

edit: i forgot to mention that i'm in an extremely solid network all day and this will have A LOT to do with your battery life. if your in a poor coverage area, your phone will struggle to get and hold a signal and that will strain the battery....and there's really nothing to do about that, short of moving...lol. but if live in a pretty good network area, then you can get a full day off of one charge (unless you're using it half the time your awake.....in which case no phone is going to help ya out..lol).

hope this helps.

[tim_12564]

Can I ask how you got to a screen on your Tbolt that shows the info yours does??

[pat3332]

I'm not sure what he used but there are several apps that will give you that much information including Elixir which will give you a lot of information about your phone.

https://market.android.com/details?id=bt.android.elixir&feature=search_result

[AZSALUKI]

That actually is elixir......its pretty nice. But I should have alsoi mentioned that I do use timeriffic to automatically put my phone into airplane mode every night from midnight to 6 am which ensures it wont die on me in my sleep because I use it as my alarm clock......so I guess I do use a battery saving app.....sort of.

[Elitist_Jerk]

Turn off push email, check it yourself

Turn off auto birghtness, set it yourself

Turn off mobile network, turn it on when you need it