Android phones are powerful machines, but sometimes they don’t work like we expect. We certainly don’t expect an expensive phone to die in the middle of the day, which leads us to the ultimate question: “why does my Android battery die so fast?” In what follows, I’ll explain everything you need to know to get your Android battery life to last as long as it can.
Android Phones Aren’t As Optimized As iPhones
As an Android user myself, I have to admit one simple fact: Android phones just aren’t as optimized as Apple’s iPhones. This means that your battery drain can be very inconsistent from one app to another. Apple gets around this by being the engineer of both the software and hardware in their phones, so they can ensure that all apps are as battery efficient as possible.
With Android, things aren’t so simple. There are many different manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Motorola, Google, and more. They all have their own special software skins over Android, and apps are designed to work on all of these different devices with different specifications.
Does this make Android phones worse than iPhones? Not necessarily. That flexibility is a great strength of Android, and generally Android phones have higher specs than iPhones in order to outweigh the downsides of less optimization.
Choose Your Preferred Network Type
Many new Android phones these days have 5G connectivity. However, 5G isn’t quite as ‘built out’ as 4G LTE and 3G. If you have spotty 5G connectivity in your area, it may be a good idea to switch your Android phone’s preferred network type to 4G instead of 5G. This can help you save some much needed battery life.
Not every phone has this feature. If you have a Pixel 5, this should work for you. To get this set up, head over to Settings -> Network & Internet -> Preferred network type. Choose the network that you would like to set as your default and you’ll be all set to start saving battery.
This screen may look different depending on your carrier as well. Some carriers will let you choose 5G, 3G, etc. However, other carriers will let you pick LTE / CDMA, LTE / GSM / UMTS, and Global. You may want to choose LTE / CDMA if you are looking to choose 4G over 5G.
Some Apps Drain Battery More Than Others
The flexibility of Android apps means that they can be a jack of all trades, but master of none. The best Android apps for battery life tend to be the ones made by the phone’s developers. For example, a Samsung app will be much more optimized on a Samsung phone than on a Google Pixel.
Aside from the optimization issues, some apps just tend to drain more battery than others. YouTube, Facebook, and mobile games are common culprits. Just think about what they’re doing: YouTube brightens your screen and keeps the display on for long periods of time, Facebook checks for updates in the background, and mobile games require more processing power to display 3D graphics.
Being mindful of your usage is the first step to figuring out strategies to make your Android phone last longer. Simply using these apps a little less can be a life saver for your battery.
Is Your Phone Old? The Battery Might Be Going Bad
Smartphones, as of right now, use lithium ion batteries. Over time, these batteries degrade thanks to annoying buildups of structures called dendrites in the battery, and the materials also wear down.
If you’re using a phone that’s several years old, it may be time for a new battery. However, it might be more worth it for you to just get a new phone. Newer phones have much higher battery capacities than phones from a few years ago, as you can see in the following table.
| Phone | Year Released | Battery Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | 2016 | 3600 mAh |
| Samsung Galaxy S8+ | 2017 | 3500 mAh |
| Google Pixel 2 | 2017 | 2700 mAh |
| Samsung Galaxy S10+ | 2019 | 4100 mAh |
| Samsung Galaxy S21 | 2020 | 4000 mAh |
| LG V60 ThinQ | 2020 | 5000 mAh |
Close Out Of Apps When You’re Not Using Them
Most of the best life-saving strategies for your Android phone’s battery life are good habits, and the most important habit of all is to close out of apps when you aren’t using them. Some people argue that this isn’t a good idea, but that’s just plain wrong. Closing out of all your apps when you aren’t using them prevents the apps from using power by running in the background.
All you need to do is tap the task button at the bottom of your screen, usually on the lower right (on Samsung phones it’s on the left). Then, tap Close all. You can lock apps you don’t want to close by tapping on their icons in the list and tapping lock.
Android Battery Saving Mode
This varies from brand to brand, but most Android phones have a battery life-saving power saving mode that you can take advantage of to save power. This does a few things such as,
- Limits the maximum speed of the phone’s processor.
- Reduces maximum display brightness.
- Reduces screen time-out limit.
- Restricts the background usage of apps.
Some phones, like Samsung Galaxy phones, can go all the way up to a maximum power saving mode which pretty much turns the phone into well…a normal phone. Your home screen gets a black wallpaper and the number of apps you can use gets restricted. In some cases, this mode can allow your phone to last days or even a week on a single charge, but you sacrifice all those great smartphone features to do so.
Reduce Screen Timeout
In your display settings you can configure the amount of time that it takes your phone’s screen to time out. This will reduce the amount of time that your phone’s screen is turned on while you’re not using it and can help you save power. You can change this in Settings -> Display -> Screen timeout.
Dark Mode! Optimize For OLED
Samsung’s maximum power saving mode turns your home screen black, but why? Most smartphones these days use OLED or AMOLED display technology. The basic concept is that individual pixels on your screen that are completely black turn off and don’t use any power, so black backgrounds use less energy than white.
Dark mode is a feature of many apps and newer versions of Android that’s intended to be easier on your eyes and more importantly be a battery life-saving feature. Your phone’s display drains more battery than any other part of the device, so reducing the energy used by the screen is a must!
Switch to a dark background and turn on dark mode in your app settings! I guarantee you will see positive results for your battery. Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t work for older LCD-display phones.
Set Motion Smoothness To Standard
If you have a newer Android smartphone, you may have a 120 Hz refresh rate by default. This means that your screen ‘refreshes’ 120 times a second. This is much more often than a traditional smartphone which refreshes its screen 60 times a second (60 Hz). This looks great and is really fun to use but it can be a drain on your battery.
To turn it off, head over to Settings -> Motion smoothness and then select Standard to start saving battery life.
Take Control Of App Permissions
Some apps try to hoard your microphone or camera in the background. For example, Google Assistant or Bixby voice assistants will constantly use your microphone sometimes to look for a wake word. You can turn off the ability for these apps to listen for the wake word, but you can take it a step further and restrict their permissions at the system level.
To do that, head into Settings -> Apps and find the app you want to configure. Select Permissions and then configure as needed. For most cases, you can set the microphone permission to only be allowed when using the app. This will maintain the functionality of the app without it taking up battery-draining resources in the background.
Turn Off Enhanced Processing
Some new Android phones, particularly new Samsung devices on Android 11, have a feature called enhanced processing. This forces the processor of the phone to work at its maximum speed so that you can load apps faster. However, by doing so you’ll drain your battery faster. This feature has fairly limited usefulness unless you’re a power user, so it’s better to turn it off.
Turn off enhanced processing by going to Settings -> Battery and device care -> Battery -> More battery settings -> Enhanced processing and tap the switch to turn it off.
Turn On Adaptive Battery
In the same screen where you turned off enhanced processing you can toggle on adaptive battery. This limits battery usage for apps that you don’t use very often.
Turn Down Your Brightness
A bright, vibrant screen is amazing to look at, but it’s just not good for your battery at all. Turn down your brightness when you can. Auto-brightness typically gets the job done unless there’s something blocking the sensor.
Keep in mind that your phone’s screen may brighten when you’re outside in the sun. It may not look very bright when you’re looking at it outside, but it’s actually using way more energy. Be mindful of your usage when you can.
Keep Your Phone Cool
When your phone runs hot, it becomes less efficient. Having it out on a bright summer day with the screen brightness turned all the way up isn’t just bad for your battery. It can even melt some of the internal components and break your phone!
Try to keep your phone cool when you can. Be careful when using it outside in very hot weather. That being said, don’t try and put your phone in the freezer, as getting too cold can be bad for the battery too!
Turn Connectivity Off When Not In Use
Another battery life-saving trick that you can use is to turn off connectivity features when they aren’t in use. For example, if you’re out and about and don’t need a Wi-Fi connection, turn it off! This will keep the phone from constantly searching for new Wi-Fi networks.
Turn Off Wi-Fi
To turn off Wi-Fi, you’ll want to swipe down from the top of your screen and tap the gear to get into your settings. Tap Network settings or Connections and then tap Wi-Fi. From here you can turn Wi-Fi on or off.
On most devices you can also do this by swiping down from the top of the screen and tapping the Wi-Fi button in your quick settings.
Turn Off Bluetooth
If you don’t need to connect any Bluetooth accessories, you can just turn this feature off. Turning off Bluetooth is a great battery life-saving strategy. You’ll find your Bluetooth settings in your network settings just like with Wi-Fi, or you can tap on it in your quick settings.
Turn Off Mobile Data
If you’re not getting very good reception at all, it might be best to just turn off mobile data. When you’re having trouble finding service, your phone will constantly search for signal, and this can drain your battery life fast.
Turning it off when you don’t need it can be a life-saver for your battery. Head back into your Network settings and toggle it off in the Mobile data menu.
Turn On Airplane Mode
This is an extreme option, but turning off your wireless connectivity completely will definitely save your battery if you really need it. This is great if you don’t need to send or receive messages and calls while on a trip while still using your phone for things like watching locally stored videos.
This is also good for airplane mode’s intended purpose: preventing interference with airplane communications when you’re on a flight.
Progressive Web Apps: Use Websites Instead Of Apps When You Can
In the image below, you’ll see two versions of Twitter. One is an app, and one is a website. Can you tell the difference?
This might seem as extreme as turning on airplane mode, but uninstall Facebook, Twitter and Instagram right now. You don’t need them! Their website counterparts work almost exactly the same, and you can even set them up so that they appear and work like the app.
Progressive web apps, or PWAs, are a fancy word for websites that pretend to be apps. They don’t take up storage on your device if you add them to your home screen and you won’t have to open your browser each time to use them. They also aren’t constantly running in the background, so you don’t have to worry about them hogging your battery life.
By going into your browser settings while on one of these websites, you can tap Add to home screen to add a shortcut to them. If the website is a PWA like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, when you tap on the icon it will hide the browser UI and show the site as if it was the real app.
Adjust Or Turn Off Location Settings And GPS
Location services can be a serious battery drain. Adjusting them to a lower setting or turning GPS off completely can be an amazing battery life-saver. Go ahead and head to your settings and find your location settings.
Your phone uses more than just GPS to pinpoint your location. Your settings might look different depending on your phone, but there should be some options in your location settings about improving your accuracy by using Wi-Fi scanning and even Bluetooth.
If you don’t need a super accurate location, then just turn these functions off so that your phone is only using GPS. If you don’t need your location at all, you can turn off location services entirely to save your battery.
Turn Off Always On Display
On some phones, while the screen is ‘off’, the screen will show a dim clock or image. This works without using much battery because of the OLED technology explained earlier in this article. However, it’s still using your battery, so turning it off might be best.
You’ll likely find your always on display options in your display settings, but it might be elsewhere. Wherever it is, try turning it off as a good battery life-saving strategy when you need it.
Your Android Battery: Extended!
Now you’re ready to get your Android phone’s battery to last through the whole day using these life-saving strategies. Even trying just a few of these methods will definitely help improve the life of your phone. Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions about Android batteries, please leave a comment below.
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1 2 Next »I’m following the advice. I appreciate you sharing. I’m looking forward to the time I will have w/of having to plug in my phone.
Bloody smart phones. Life was so much more simple without them.
Do you know why my phone screen would go black
It really worked thanks
II can't find the super task-killer free in play store, it opened an app All in one? Not the same. Help. Great help. Thanks
I have an ZTE Android phone and could not find the Smart Task Killer you mentioned in your article. Is there another one that is similar and does he same thing?
Also, when I force stopped some apps, Drive was one of the apps listed. Is it ok to Force Stop that App?
Thanks so much! Your article is very helpful!
I'm following the advice. I appreciate you sharing. I'm looking forward to the time I will have w/of having to plug in my phone.
I have the galaxy note 2 my battery runs down so fast.what can I do to prevent this from happening
after 4% battery phone is not working
went to download the super task killer and it was called super toolbox is this the right one you suggest. i didnt want to delete the facebook app as i use it alot but i found even after downloading this toolbox when i went to check apps running i still had loads of apps running even after i had used the toolbox to stop them what am i doing wrong
One more question, what if battery died by shutting down even battery indicates 60 or 70 percent
so my android phone has been great for battery life up until a few days ago.. now by noon hour it is down to 39%.. where before it would last me until early evening. why?? thank you
I think that the battery saving apps are a waste of time. They will constantly try to close you ap, the app restarts, battery saving app closes it again. This cycle will repeat indefinite and waste CPU cycles and battery with it. This all happens in the background and you won't even notice it. The only thing you will notice is you battery drain even with this supposed saviour app running.
Great article thank you!!
I was recently overseas and noticed the change in my battery life. I am lucky if it lasts 4 hours now, if that. I changed the battery completely. Still losing charge at the same rate. I implemented the items listed in your article and my phone still won't hold a charge. What else could be wrong?
......wonderful, thanks so much John
Tyvm for all the tips!! I seriously hope they help. Just bought this LG V20 like 9 mos ago and the battery drains sooooo fast. It was approx an $800 phone. Im very disappointed w it, that's for sure!!
Hi,i added the task killer but i open it up and there is no button thst says kill apps
Thanks!!
just added google assistant and now my battery is running down about 4 hours faster. I did 90% of your suggestions. We'll see how it does now. Could assistant change it that much?!
Wish i saw this last month, before buying yet another battery. Thank you so so much!! =)
Thanks very much for all the info.. Sorted my phone out a treat :)
Brilliant, done & sorted! Thank you :-)
do musically and vivavideo are also responsible for draining battery????
Is super task killer not the same with phone boost from clean master?
Thank you for your invaluable help. Ive recently bought an Iphone and your website has been massive in giving lots of tips and help.
Thank you for the tips
What if I am travelling in other counrty and keeping my local SIM inside the phone. Will my phone try to find the netweork that doesn't exists in that counrty as the SIM is still inserted and eventually endup draining battery?
Appreciate the help.Sound like a deal. Was a lot of help.Thanks
I don't have the "kill selected apps" option...
I don't even have data and my phone went from 70% to 2% overnight without me using it
Thanks John "Wiggums" Miller - excellent guide
I have Samsung galaxy note 3 phone and my battery runs down so fast.what can I do to prevent this from happening please thankyou
I am new to these phones and require a tutoroal class yto gain knowledge. No library classes available. I need help
I have the Galaxy S6. Without having to download other apps, I have a question...
Under:
SETTINGS...
SMART MANAGER...
RAM... If I click on the "End All" button under RAM, would this close all apps properly, and then keep them closed until I go to use it again?
Thank you, Julie
Great info,thanks.
Are all of the battery saving apps necessary? I feel my phone is constantly telling me to clean this or that when I'm not even it.
Everything out there says you should NEVER use a task killer or you will worsen batter life.
If anyone is still having these problems you may just need to buy a portable charger, I just bought one for my girlfriend that she loves and its also a compact mirror with an LED light, you can find it at fifthandninth.com
I have a galaxy s3 and i just purchased i new battery and it still drains so fast! I always keep my brightness at lowest it can go and i keep my data,wifi, Gps, etc. Always off unless of course im using it. The only thing i can think that might be causing it to drain is 1. Its just not a good battery from factory or 2. My apps are not closing out like you stated. Im going to download the task killer you said too and hopefully this will work. I downloaded an app called battery life repair which has really good reviews and its saying my battery is healthy and there is no issues, which i expected being that it is a brand new battery. Thank you so much for your helpful tips i definetly learned some things from your article.
Thanks man
In the "about author" it says he loves the BBC. Does this mean something else or is this guy into black dudes?
Myou galaxy Evant battery drains faster than it charges. Ex: right now it's plugged in and when using it (for work) it continues to drain faster than it charges. Can u help
I love my android phone, but the battery life on the tablet is so short it's not even worth using so i basically spent $600 for nothing. Going to give these tools a shot, and if still no good, I'll have an expensive photo frame!
My phone is Samsung Mega and the battery is week it takes like 5hours to charge and be 76% and like 4hours to be 15% what should I do and I followed every thing you said..
I have an LG optimus G phone. Whenever the charging drops to 80% it starts to vibrate and then shut down the apps the I'm using (but they are still running) that's when I know that I should start charging my phone but that is so stupid! It shouldnt do that! Please help me!!!!
Hello John I recently bought a kingpad tablet on ebay brand new and I barely use it for 15 minutes on a fully charged battery and after 15 to 20 minutes it's already at 15% battery. I have done all your steps except install that app task killer. I hope it works. And the only thing that I try to modify and work with us the brightness setting because the color is weird and hard to see. I do my jigsaw puzzle game and just to see the right color of the puzzle piece I have to look at the tablet at an angle. Please any suggestions besides the ones I read above will be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Nikki Chavez
California
Most of your issues can simply be resolved by using your phone all the way to 0% then charge it back up to 100% without going on it then once that's done the battery should last way longer if not then maybe you dropped your phone or ur phone just doesn't have that much battery life also could need a new battery
[…] Why Does My Android Battery Die So … – From an Android tech: The real reasons your Nexus, Galaxy, Note, or other phone / tablet battery drains and real Android battery life savers and apps! […]
Probably you didn't know that almost every battery can be reconditioned to be useful again! This can save you lot of money and also you contribute to protect the environment :)
Check this link to learn more about it! http://reconditionyouroldbattery.co.nf
Thnz to u....Now my battery last longer......