Do desktop icons, widgets and even wallpapers chew up battery?

[brjoon1021]

Hi,
I have a G1, love it, but it has a wimpy battery as many of us know. I have been wondering if widgets, desktop icons and even the choice of wallpaper, or picture that is used for the desktop background make any real difference in battery life. No matter how I use the phone, the display is always the main or at least major component of battery usage.

I read on an android website that desktop widgets do tax the battery and it was also suggested that having all three desktops full of icons also does so. Lastly, I was thinking that a black desktop ( I took a picture of a piece of black paper ) would use the least battery because the screen is not producing any light.

Any input on these things ? If it would give appreciably better battery life, I would black out the desktops as I have done and not have any icons or widgets.

Thanks,
b

 

[clitrenta]

Hi,
I have a G1, love it, but it has a wimpy battery as many of us know. I have been wondering if widgets, desktop icons and even the choice of wallpaper, or picture that is used for the desktop background make any real difference in battery life. No matter how I use the phone, the display is always the main or at least major component of battery usage.

I read on an android website that desktop widgets do tax the battery and it was also suggested that having all three desktops full of icons also does so. Lastly, I was thinking that a black desktop ( I took a picture of a piece of black paper ) would use the least battery because the screen is not producing any light.

Any input on these things ? If it would give appreciably better battery life, I would black out the desktops as I have done and not have any icons or widgets.

Thanks,
b

I don't know if that would work but even if it did, WHY would someone want to do that? Doesn't it kind of defeat the whole idea of what these phones can do? I have my phone the way I want it and it lasts all day which is all I ask of it - get me from taking it off the charger to putting it on. The only thing I tend to be more conscience of are the widgets that want to update but at least you can set the update interval.

 

[shawheim_a]

yeah it is true that the widgets and brighter colored wallpapers take up more of your battery life. but as clitrenta stated, you can change the intervals that the widgets download info. i have the clock/weather widget, the email widget, the facebook widget, the text widget, the speed dial widget and the bookmarks widget all running. to save battery i changed the time to check for emails to 1 hour instead of every 5 mins. for the weather i changed it to update the weather manually instead of checking the area constantly. also check your brightness and your vibration and all that also. there is a write up on here that tells you little secrets to do to certain stuff that helps the battery out. hope this helps a little.

 

[vincentp]

I don't think icons themselves are having much of an effect on your battery life. Widgets, absolutely. Icons just kind of sit there idly. Widgets are typically doing something, or at least waiting for user input, so they will have some impact on your battery. How much? I don't think it's a ton. If a battery is weak, it's weak. Listening to music for 10 minutes is probably going to drain more battery than your idle widgets will all day. Of course I have no scientific basis for saying this, but it just seems that way.