How to save battery on Android? Top 9 ways to boost battery life

Features, camera setup, SoC, RAM, storage, build quality — all of those are not as important for so many users as the battery capacity. However, a big battery doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll always get the best battery life. For that, you’ll need some tweaks. So, today, we made sure to explain how to save battery on Android.

Table of contents:

1. Lower screen brightness
2. Disable background applications
3. Use Battery Saver when you need an extra mile
4. Stick to static wallpapers
5. Switch to Dark Mode
6. Disable haptic feedback
7. Disable Auto-sync
8. Debloat your device
9. Charging tips

How to extend battery life on your Android

1. Lower screen brightness

When it comes to battery longevity, the main expense goes to the screen. Smartphone displays are getting larger and, although the battery capacity enhancements follow closely, it takes a lot of power to feed 6+ inch displays. Especially LCD panels. So, the best thing to do to prolong the battery life and Screen-on Time is to lower the brightness.

Now, you can stick to adaptive brightness or just manually set your brightness based on the visibility and light settings. Enabling Adaptive brightness is often hit or miss, as it will frequently dim the screen too much or do quite the opposite, light it without need. So, sticking to manual controls is your best bet.

Here’s how to disable automatic screen brightness and adjust brightness manually:

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Display.
3. Open Adaptive brightness or Auto-brightness and disable it.
4. Now, drag down the Quick Access menu from the top of the screen and adjust the brightness manually.

2. Disable background applications

If we move away from the screen for a second, let’s address other consumers. Using an app actively vindicates its battery usage. But, there are so many apps running in the background, eating up the battery. And users don’t even use them regularly.

What you should do is either close them and prevent them from starting on their own or, simply, download and configure Greenify (get it on the Play Store) and let it do that for you. Either way, limiting background processes, although affects user experience, definitely improves battery life.

And if the battery life is paramount for you, here’s how to limit apps that work in the background:

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Apps & notifications.
3. Open All apps.
4. Now, on the list of installed apps, select individually all apps that you are not using and open them.
5. Select Battery.
6. And add Background restrictions to prevent it from working in the background. Have in mind that this will render some messaging apps unusable since push notifications won’t come through.

In addition, if you are not actively using NFC, Bluetooth, or GPS (Location services), make sure to keep them disabled. Even Wi-Fi and especially overnight. They are major reasons why the battery depletes fast even when the device is idle.

3. Use Battery Saver when you need an extra mile

To turn Battery Saver ON at all times might be overkill but it has its purpose when necessary. Especially with the introduction of Super Battery Savers in recent years which can substantially prolong the battery life and Screen-on Time. The trade-in is that they are quite aggressive and limit overall usability.

So, on rare occasions when you are on the move, without an opportunity to recharge, and without a power bank, enabling Super Battery Saver is the way to go.

Here’s how to enable Super Battery Saver:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Battery.
3. Select Battery Saver.
4. Enable Extreme Battery Saver (or Ultra or Super, depending on the Android skin).

4. Stick to static wallpapers

Live wallpapers are tempting and they bring additional aesthetics to both your home and lock screens. However, and to add to all remarks on the screen being the biggest consumer, live wallpapers are going to eat your battery with ease.

So, if you are looking to improve battery longevity, using static (preferably dark on AMOLED/OLED displays) wallpapers is the way to go.

5. Switch to Dark Mode

There’s a big question among Android connoisseurs and even scientists whether the dark theme is better for your eyes but the proven fact is that it is better for your battery. Of course, it depends on the display technology and what kind of ‘dark’ it is. With the AMOLED black, your display will shut down black pixels which will lead to less power consumption.

So, by switching to the dark mode, your Android with AMOLED display should reduce screen battery usage and thus improve overall battery longevity. Try it out and see for yourself.

Here’s how to enable Dark Mode on Android:

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Display.
3. Open Dark mode.
4. Enable Dark mode or set a schedule for it to automatically turn on and off.

6. Disable haptic feedback

The haptic motor quality is one of the biggest differentiators between premium and midrange and low-cost handsets. But, one way or the other, they use power, and, with haptic feedback enabled, you’ll see how the battery depletes faster.

For that reason, stick to vibration on calls if necessary but ditch haptic feedback for typing or on other instances. If you are unsure how to disable haptic feedback on your device, check these steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Open Sound.
3. Scroll to the bottom and expand Advanced.
4. Disable Touch vibration.

7. Disable Auto-sync

Auto-sync and background backup can come in handy but at a cost. Frequent uploading of backup files is something you should avoid if the main focus is to prolong the Screen-on Time. That’s why we suggest disabling this as well. Of course, you can always go to backup settings and back up your data at regular intervals.

To disable Auto-sync on your device, just pull down the Quick Access menu and tap on the Auto Sync tile.

8. Debloat your device

We already mentioned how preventing apps from working in the background is quite beneficial. However, what to do with a plethora of useless rogue system apps that you can’t uninstall or disable? Debloating is one of the best things you can do to any device that comes with a bloat-ridden Android skin.

Some devices are easier to debloat than others but, usually, there’s always a way to do it. If you own a Xiaomi device, we got you covered with this article. For the rest, check the XDA forums for your device and learn how to remove pre-installed apps. Not only that this will reduce battery consumption, but you’ll get more storage. Which is always a bonus.

9. Charging tips

Some suggest not allowing your battery to fall under 20% and never charging it above 80%. That way, they suggest, you’ll extend the battery life and retain your battery capacity for longer. Ideally, you would want your battery to always be around 50%. To some extent, that can be beneficial but that’s not of almost any importance in comparison to consistent charging cycles.

Namely, overnight charging is one of the main reasons why your battery capacity drops. Add fast chargers (some up to 100W which is blazing fast) and your battery that initially stands at, say, 4500mAh will drop to 3800mAh faster than usual. If you are in no dire need to charge your device fast, avoid fast chargers.

Avoid doing demanding tasks on your device while charging as it will heat up and the heat is probably the main reason why your battery lifespans shorten. Also, using your device while charging might trigger short charging cycles (discharge, recharge, discharge, and so on) which is also quite bad in the long run.

Also, to avoid false readings, you can calibrate your battery from time to time as we already explained.

With that in mind, we can call this a wrap. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to check our Facebook and Twitter pages for more informative articles.

Editor’s note: This article was initially published in December 2020. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.