InfoWorld's Serdar Yegulalp provides a look at the best apps for boosting the battery life of your Android device. "The best place to start if you just want to survey your power usage habits is Battery Indicator. To follow that up with actual power management, Green Power and JuiceDefender are your best bets. 2x Battery is not a bad program, but it's limited to managing cell data and not Wi-Fi connections. If that feature were added in a future revision, 2x Battery would be a real contender."
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2011-01-28
Shmoopty,
"I've found SetCPU to be the best battery saver beyond any of those recommended apps. It will allow your CPU to be progressively underclocked when it reaches certain battery levels if your phone is rooted."
I don't have an ARM processor to test this on, but I hear that these processors are extremely aggressive in conserving power when they're not in use. This way, when they're idle, they should have a similar energy footprint regardless of clock speed. And when they're busy, the clock speeds are inversely proportional to the length of time spent being busy. So slowing down the clock isn't necessarily more efficient.
Here is data from a test I just completed on my Intel Xeon 3.00GHZ E3110.
A simple work load: ( 21.5B loops )
xor ax, ax
xor bx, bx
xor cx, cx
again:
add ax, 1
adc bx, 0
adc cx, 0
cmp cx, 5
jb again
int 20h
3GHZ Throttling enabled:
Idle = 5.2watt
Workload = 16.5watt for 23s = .105 watt-hours
3GHZ Full throttle:
Idle = 6.6watt
Workload = 17.6watt for 22s = .108 watt-hours
2GHZ Throttling enabled:
Idle = 5.1watt
Workload = 9.1watt for 98s = .248 watt-hours
2GHZ Full throttle:
Idle = 6.6watt
Workload = 17.6watt for 33s = 0.161 watt-hours
I can't explain what went on with cpu throttling at 2GHZ, a guess is that maybe it wasn't designed to work with an underclocked CPU? Never the less, take note that in all instances (with and without dynamic throttling), the CPU clocked at 3GHZ was more energy efficient under load than when it was clocked at 2GHZ. Interestingly the 2GHZ throttled test used the lowest wattage but required the greatest total energy because it was so slow. At idle, the cpu frequency made no difference, as I anticipated.
So, if the CPU's idle energy footprint is the same regardless of clock speed, then it may make the most sense to empty the work queues as quickly as possible to return to idle.
Comparing this to ARM processors is obviously apples to oranges, but it should provide a good warning against taking improved energy/frequency ratios for granted.
Can anyone shed light on empirical data for ARM processors specifically, like those used in Android phones?
Edit: I should add that my test didn't play with voltages levels, which were left at auto. The cpu throttling utility for my mainboard is supposed to do that, though I'm not sure exactly what it does since it's been end-user dumbified.
Edited 2011-11-03 05:30 UTC
Member since:2009-05-19
Member since:2008-02-01
Member since:2005-07-11
SetCPU shouldn't be needed on most modern devices running Android 2.3. CPU speed should be automatically controlled by default now. At least, it is on my Xperia Pro, as shown by System Monitor (goes as low as 200 Mhz and various steps up to the max of 1 GHz).
SetCPU isn't needed with Cyanogenmod 7.x either, as similar features are built in.
About the only time you need SetCPU anymore is if you are going to overclock the CPU.
Member since:2005-07-06
Probably mostly because it acts as a signal / limiter for you, to use it much less (while, per task, possibly actually using more power)
When people become (almost) obsessed about some goal desired by them, about tricks supposedly leading to it - they often overlook how much, during search for the holy grail, they modify their own behaviour (and, subsequently, lead themselves to feedback loop, reinforce their self-perception that tricks work)
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Member since:
2011-01-03
I've found SetCPU to be the best battery saver beyond any of those recommended apps.
It will allow your CPU to be progressively underclocked when it reaches certain battery levels if your phone is rooted.
At 30% battery, my phone becomes slow. At 15%, it becomes *very slow*.
Because slow is always better than dead, and the net effect is significantly longer battery life.