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Disabling pre installed apps

S

sig226

Lurker
First of all thank you to everyone who posted on my other thread about reliability. I decided to get the phone and I am mostly very happy with it. I do however have a question about increasing battery life. Even with wifi, data, bluetooth disabled and with screen brightness turned way down and sleeping after 15 seconds my battery still struggles to make it through the day. I only text and play hill climb racing on the phone. I am going to get an extended battery (can't decide between 2920 or 4800 mah, advice?). Anyway I was wondering, will disabling as many apps and services as possible increase performance and battery life and if so how do I know which ones I can and cant disable. I dont want to make my phone unstable or screw it up somehow. Thanks for your help.

BTW, I don't want to root my phone, makes me nervous about bricking it.
 
Disabling apps and services from running will increase battery life. Disabling them from being able to run won't do a thing if they aren't running. Being installed on the phone takes no power, only running does. And most of what you probably want to remove is either not running or is essential to the phone's operation. (Or yours - you can turn off messaging and email, but then you won't get messages or emails.)

As far as the battery, I always recommend getting a spare battery. (Or you can usually get a package of two and an off-phone charger). A larger battery takes much longer to charge, and if it's large enough, it takes a larger back on the phone, making the phone thicker and heavier. When it goes (and all batteries will), you have no phone. When one of your 2 or 3 batteries goes, you still have a phone until the new ones arrive.
 
If I never use it, and it can be disabled, I disable it. That being said, if you disable something that the phone needs and it can't find it, it will kill your battery looking for it.

I have the 2920maH battery and it is sufficent for running the phone for 30+ hours or so. There was another poster who has the big, big battery and he said it was quite a pocket full, but it would last for days. Battery performance is very much dependent on the habits of the operator and the quality of the network. If you are always using the phone with the screen lit up battery life is going to take a hit. If your phone is always searching for service or switching between towers or services (4g/3g) then battery life will also take a hit. It's really hard for anyone to predict how things are going to be for you where you are.
 
I understand the majority of batter usage depends on user and location. I was wondering if I could disable things like google search, google play services, settings, and smartcard service. Also, do cached processes use battery life? My data, wifi, and gps all stays off during the day and I barely ever turn it on and my cell service is quite strong in my area. I'm trying to squeeze as much battery life as possible.
 
You can disable google search. Google Now consumes battery, the search application does not unless you are using it, and it's pretty damn handy to use. You can't disable google play services, your phone will never sleep if you do. You also cannot disable smartcard service because apparently that's how android communicates with your SIM card. There's a list here:

http://androidforums.com/commando-4...6465-safe-apps-remove-freeze.html#post6031386

of apps that are safe to disable, although a few of them will cause a wakelock if the phone can't find them. Basically if it is an app that doesn't have an icon then don't disable it unless you know for certain what it does. If the phone is expecting to be able to use an app for something and it can't find it then it will wakelock and kill your battery fast.

I keep my GPS off and I force my phone into 1xrtt mode for data unless I need data for something. This way if someone sends me an MMS I still get it, but I don't have three radios consuming battery while my phone is supposed to be asleep. According to BetterbatteryStats I typically use about 2%//hour or less of battery while my phone is in my pocket.

I understand about trying to squeeze out maximum battery life, but there has to be some balance so you can use it as intended.
 
I get a full day easily on my phone, as long as I'm not playing games or keeping the display on a lot. Standard battery.

Keep your 4G data and WiFi turned off unless you need them. I have a toggle on my info screen to adjust the brightness at a tap, I keep mine on 25% most of the time since that's sufficient.
 
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