Battery Saving Apps for Android Devices

Smartphone battery life is a sensitive issue when OEM manufacturers start throwing hardware specs at customers, because the number of hours your device is juiced up often depends on personal usage rather than overall benchmark tests.

Having a state of the art smartphone doesn`t mean it`ll stay powered up for days. It actually may mean that it comes with a lot more features to drain your battery. From tablets to smartphones and any other Android device, a couple of tricks and tips can squeeze out some more precious minutes/hours of performance.

Before enumerating five apps to brighten your day, let`s talk a bit about Bitdefender`s Power Tune-Up that packs everything you need in a single solution. Besides cleaning up cache files and monitoring your 3G traffic, Power Tune-Up enables you to view all processes that impact CPU and RAM consumption. Stopping them before clogging up your device an easily be achieved with the push of a button.

Having two battery widgets that track the remaining “juice”, you`ll always know exactly how many conversation hours you have left or how much standby time your device is in for. Profiles can be customized according to your most specific desires, but if you`re the lazy type, you can simply choose the default battery saving mode and be done with. Power Tune-Up is an all-in one solution and its best asset is that you don`t need to have a rooted device to benefit from all these features. Free of charge and ad-free, it`s an efficient battery optimization solutions for any Android handset.

While there are some other useful apps that deal with battery optimization, there are a couple of modifications that you can tinker with from the “Settings” menu of your device. By checking the “Battery Use” section you`ll quickly discover what apps gobble up the most battery life, thus having to turn them off after you`re done using them should be on your to-do list.

Another major battery drainer is the display. The bigger the screen, the more it will drain your battery. Dimming the brightness is the only thing that can help. Easily achieved by moving the slider in the “Brightness” menu under “Sound and Display”, you can gain some juice for other activities if you`re not particularly fond of having your screen light up the entire room. An interesting survey reported that AMOLED screens reduce power consumption by a factor of seven when using black background images, although your device may look a bit dull.

The Power Control Widget helps turn on/off WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Push sync, and even adjust screen brightness with a single push of a button. Instead of going through endless menus and settings, go to your “Home Screen”, hit “Menu” -> “Add” -> “Widgets” and select Power Control.

Concluding this small tips and tricks section with built-in features, worth mentioning is that you need to turn off background-running apps you`re not using and make sure screen timeout is at its lowest. However, if you`re interested in a bunch of apps that can do all of the above and more, we`ve compiled a list of 5 Android apps to help keep your battery juiced up and optimized.

1. Android Assistant

Android Assistant prides itself on its 18 features for managing and optimizing your Android smartphone, including a monitor status that enables CPU, memory and battery analytics and optimizations. Packing more than just battery enhancement features, Android Assistant also comes in handy when clearing internet cache, uninstalling apps in batch mode, and even killing apps.

2. JuiceDefender

JuiceDefender packs a punch when in optimizing your battery`s performance because it features multiple profiles designed for balanced, aggressive or extreme battery optimization. There`s a Plus version for $1.99 that adds features for those who are a bit paranoid about power consumption. There`s also an Ultimate upgrade (for $4.99) which enables AutoSync.

For rooted Android devices, you can even control the CPU speed, along with GPS control and 2G/3G switching. As confusing as it may be, fiddling around with all these options will enhance your battery`s performance and earn you some precious conversation minutes.

3. Memory Booster

Acting much like Advance Task Killer, Memory Booster lets you shut down apps or processes that drain your processor, memory or battery juice. With the ability to add apps to a whitelist, you can effectively control which will be granted running privileges and even set up memory consumption thresholds that kill all apps when too much memory is used. This extra feature will cost $2.99, but if you`re also into scheduling app killings after you`ve locked your screen, then you`re using the right app for the job.

4. SD Speed Increase

Rooted devices can make use of SD Speed Increase which can be a powerful ally in increasing the overall file transfer rate and read/write abilities of your SD card. The free app works by increasing the cache size up to 2048kb and, in theory, it should boost the file transfer. While this is not exactly a battery saving app, it does help to reduce SD card power consumption by increasing its efficiency.

5. CPU Tuner

CPU Tuner is one of the best Android apps for monitoring CPU activity and setting up performance thresholds based on user-defined profiles. Saving battery is all about monitoring your CPU performance and with this app you can do all that in minutes. You can configure triggers based on your battery`s state that activate when you have a call in progress or when you lock your screen.

Data connections usually cause drainage and you can enable or disable them with the flip of a switch (as it were) so you can keep your CPU power consumption at its lowest. Having a rooted device also helps because the app requires such privileges and you`ll find that it`s a really intuitive and powerful piece of software.

While these tips and tricks may not guarantee a significant increase in your battery life, they`re only purpose is to optimize power consumption and make sure hardware resources are used properly. Encouraging you to at least try out a couple of the apps and hints, make sure that you always make the most of your smartphone`s battery.

All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.