[Q] [SGS2] Will more homescreens eat up more battery?? - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello,
I'm on SGS 2, lite'ning rom 2.2 and i use launcherpro plus cause it looks great.
Now... if i use like 6-7 homescreens with calender, friends, facebook etc...will it eat more battery than using 1-2 homescreens?
It should not right? cause the program itself is running...
Any thoughts are welcome..
greets

maybe my android os = 50 % :S

I dont think that the pure amount of homescreens drains more or less battery, but ofc. the more active widgets(Twitter, News, ...) you use, the more battery will be used.

More homescreens makes the process use up more memory. With you using more widgets, your Launcher Pro will use up more memory. More memory usage equals more battery power is necessary. So if you USE those homescreens they'll suck your battery dry.
Btw, you made two threads.

Will asking the same question twice eat up more forum space?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1168611

It's not about more Home screens but the widgets in them. More widgets=More battery drain, especially the one like Accuweather which continuously searches for place and refresh temp at an specified interval unless you stop automatic refresh.
Regards.

Related

A drastic change in battery life since update to 2.1

As the title implies; I've been experiencing a drastic change in my X10 mini's battery life ever since I went from 1.6 to 2.1. The battery depletes itself in less than 24 hours, whereas it used to last for 3-4 days.
I have set down the brightness, using only GSM.
Any insights?
Thnx
My battery performance has actually increased with 2.1. Check your background app activity. Regular updating of tweets or weather can reduce battery life
Sent from my E10i using Tapatalk
Same with me. The battery does not last long enough. I have to charge it every night. Any suggestions ?
Try using the standard "Home" that shipped with the phone instead of a 3rd party app like AWD launcher or Launcher pro. You'd be surprised by how much power these apps use.
My battery life went from 1 day using ADW to 2-3 days using Sony Ericsson's Home launcher.
I am also using ADW, with 1.6 the phone last without charging one day, max one and half.. with 2.1 I can not say now, because I am testing these days. But anyway, i am not going to remove the ADW, because the original SE home screen pretty sux
Contrarian said:
Try using the standard "Home" that shipped with the phone instead of a 3rd party app like AWD launcher or Launcher pro. You'd be surprised by how much power these apps use.
My battery life went from 1 day using ADW to 2-3 days using Sony Ericsson's Home launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SE launcher sucks. Isnt there any other solutions to this problem?
Under 1.6 my battery used to last 1 day; now 2. Much better with 2.1.
I went from about 12-14 hours of usage with 1.6 to 3-4 hours of usage with 2.1 with adw launcher as homescreen. Everything was the same, screen brightness, wifi, blutooth, widgets, update setting etc. Then i changed to launcher pro and are gettin a full day before needing to recharge. Still same settings, widgets, power control etc. So there might be a big clash between adw and some widgets or something. You should try other home screen replacements. Launcher pro gives you the same and in some cases better customisation than adw. Worth a try. ;-)
Sent from my U20i using XDA App
Same with me, the battery life is much better than it was for me on 1.6...
Ive know gone back to the stock SE launcher. I am already experiencing an improvement in battery life. ADW seems to be the only cause. It must be a bug or something.
Try zeam ;-) it is great and light!
Sent from my U20i using XDA App
There was a wifi bug in 1.6 (at least the 1.0.xxx release) that turned wifi off more often than it should. Check the power saving preferences on your wifi, maybe it's set to "always on"?

[Q] Will more homescreens eat up more battery??

Hello,
I'm on lite'ning rom 2.2 and i use launcherpro plus cause it looks great.
Now... if i use like 6-7 homescreens with calender, friends, facebook etc...will it eat more battery than using 1-2 homescreens?
It should not right? cause the program itself is running...
Any thoughts are welcome..
greets
Well, mainly depends on what you put on the homescreens I guess... If the widgets sync more, update more, etc it will (most likely) consume more battery...

shouldn't passive widgets stay passive?

I am still catching up on android, but as I see it there is not a real smart way of using widgets. those passive ones, ok. but I have about 20 widgets on one side of launcher screens. they show news, clocks, stock market. they update often. But what for? I only visit their launcher pages two times a day for an hour or so.
next to it I have social page. showing all social streams but the same, I go there few times a day.
I was searching for two solutions, but found none.
1) widgets would freeze until their page in launcher is visited.
2) I would have separate platform, where I would place those widgets and access it through shortcuts from launcher.
I would be thinking that having secondary launcher with them which doesn't run without starting manually, would solve it. but no. widgets are registered in system once installed and will just stupidly requesting system attention 24h a day.
So what to do? best would be if widgets would communicate with launcher. second is to implement refresh settings into widgets. (update rate if program was accessed recently, different rate if not)
or at last, make widget separate from main app. so it will run faster, take less ram, get not kicked out of it after every update.
Please take this in consideration when creating apps.
Questions or Problems Should Not Be Posted in the Development Forum
Please Post in the Correct Forums
Moving to Q&A
I think the best option is more options. LIke you said, refresh interval settings, or even an option to update on screen wake/disable background updating.
Don't some widgets already have these options? I only use MT so others would have to chime in on this..
I like the idea of widgets only refreshing when they're visible. If it is even possible, it would be something to suggest to the developers.
My solution would be to put all widgets on manual refresh, and just refresh them when needed. Clocks won't have this option, but generally clock widgets don't use too much battery or resources. Social, news, weather, etc should have manual refresh options. You can use those options and just refresh when needed.
Sent from my Evo + MIUI using Tapatalk!
plainjane said:
I like the idea of widgets only refreshing when they're visible. If it is even possible, it would be something to suggest to the developers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes. that's why I posted this to developer's forum.
Shouldn't use rhetorical question as an subject I guess. My msg was trashed before being understood for what it was
This is an issue actually. The system is only as good as it would work for average user. And he might fill he screen with widgets. It doesn't take much. Only couple of non efficient apps and the whole android get laggish. He wouldn't understand what caused it and will just get annoyed and switch over to iPad.
manual refresh - mm, I don't like the idea too much. maybe on some widgets. but for me widget is something to just catch its info and not really use it.
update on screen wake - please no. to use user present and connection change calls is just another way to kill the device's power. Once I press the standby button, or connect to internet, I do it because I want to do something with the device right away. I don't want to wait for ten application actions to race for processor power right in that moment.
yes some have update speed, but that's not the perfect solution for all widgets, is it. Say I want to kill an hour of my life by worthless online socializing, I want those widget to update on one or two minute basis. But once I go away, I don't want them to do so anymore. hour is enough.
as I wrote on start about communication between launcher and widgets.
User would stop over one launcher screen and it will start to call updates on it's widgets one at a time.
And with combination that launcher will report which screen is/recently was active and widgets would consider this info in update schedule. This would be better option for informative widgets and those updating longer.

Galaxy S III - Heavy RAM Usage - Possible Fix

i've been using my galaxy s3 for the past one month, i was really amazed by everything that phone has to offer. sadly though my phone started to lag after a week. then i got a firmware update from samsung through kies. after the update my phone's performance started to considerably improve and i was happy about that but again after a week of use the phone started to lag. i have a huge list of apps installed on my phone and mostly runs in the background and also loads of widgets too. my max ram usage usually stays at 677 mb sometimes reaches 721 mb which is too high. due to this i know its a part of my mistake too for my phone to lag because of many apps installed. so i factory reset my phone and after fresh boot it was around 584 mb. after some essential apps like facebook, twitter and few more apps my ram count was back to 680 mb.
sigh!!! now that really pissed me off. so i turned off and on few background processes in the settings until i went into the "Security" after turning off the "Ripple Effect" and BAMM!! my ram usage reduced to 420 mb and stayed there. even after installing every huge load of apps i had before my ram surprisingly still stays around 480 mb which is by far so awesome for my heavy usage. maybe others can try this and see if this the real reason for all the heavy ram usage. may be i'm wrong. by the way my phone lags no more after i turned off the ripple effect and no more "launcher reloads" too. i'm using Nova Launcher, my phone is rooted and no task killers installed. other than cf-root everything else is stock.
Hit Thanks if I helped...!!!
I'll try this now and report back
I haven't noticed a change with it on or off to be honest. I was at about 480mb before and I'm at the same now!
edit:
Hmm, 480mb before lock, 496 immediately after unlock, drops down to 476 shortly after. It uses about 20mb from what I can see.
Kryten2k35 said:
I haven't noticed a change with it on or off to be honest. I was at about 480mb before and I'm at the same now!
edit:
Hmm, 480mb before lock, 496 immediately after unlock, drops down to 476 shortly after. It uses about 20mb from what I can see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my girlfriend's s3 had a ram usage amount of around 630 mb, i just disabled the ripple effect on her phone now it shows 410 mb after cleaning the ram. may be users with heavy ram usage can see the difference. watever, she was happy with it and made me a sandwich
It seems to be a little better but its still hard to tell
I have about 244mb free running xda
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
androidified said:
my girlfriend's s3 had a ram usage amount of around 630 mb, i just disabled the ripple effect on her phone now it shows 410 mb after cleaning the ram. may be users with heavy ram usage can see the difference. watever, she was happy with it and made me a sandwich
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
om nom nom :cyclops:
androidified said:
i've been using my galaxy s3 for the past one month, i was really amazed by everything that phone has to offer. sadly though my phone started to lag after a week. then i got a firmware update from samsung through kies. after the update my phone's performance started to considerably improve and i was happy about that but again after a week of use the phone started to lag. i have a huge list of apps installed on my phone and mostly runs in the background and also loads of widgets too. my max ram usage usually stays at 677 mb sometimes reaches 721 mb which is too high. due to this i know its a part of my mistake too for my phone to lag because of many apps installed. so i factory reset my phone and after fresh boot it was around 584 mb. after some essential apps like facebook, twitter and few more apps my ram count was back to 680 mb.
sigh!!! now that really pissed me off. so i turned off and on few background processes in the settings until i went into the "Security" after turning off the "Ripple Effect" and BAMM!! my ram usage reduced to 420 mb and stayed there. even after installing every huge load of apps i had before my ram surprisingly still stays around 480 mb which is by far so awesome for my heavy usage. maybe others can try this and see if this the real reason for all the heavy ram usage. may be i'm wrong. by the way my phone lags no more after i turned off the ripple effect and no more "launcher reloads" too. i'm using Nova Launcher, my phone is rooted and no task killers installed. other than cf-root everything else is stock.
Hit Thanks if I helped...!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The system can manage the RAM very well. It will end applications accordingly when the RAM usage gets close to its maximum limit. You dont have to worry about any lags. I never have to clear the memory and I reboot my phone once a week or so.
Unused ram is wasted ram
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Lennyuk said:
Unused ram is wasted ram
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+100!
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Where's the other 200MB of RAM gone, though? These are 1GB devices, no?
Lennyuk said:
Unused ram is wasted ram
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that the phone should use as much ram as possible but my problem is that it doesnt keep things in ram that i want it to because all the stock things take up so much space.
For example, i play some games like "draw something" and often it has to reload the app after ive been out of it for a while. Or even worse, it has to reload the home screen icons and widgets when i leave an app. That second one is that one that really pi#$es me off. Why doesnt it keep the home screen in ram?
Also this is advertised as having 1gb of ram right? Why does it only display 780mb? I tried turning off the ripple effect with minimal change in ram usage. Ive checked the running apps but theres nothing using a particularly large amount of ram. Does anyone have any suggestions? Its really frustrating because i had a galaxy s2 running ICS which had the same amount of ram but it always had like 300-400 mb free and always kept things in ram ready to go. now i usually only have 100-200mb and it always closes the apps i want kept open, ESECIALLY the HOME SCREEN icons and widgets. So frustrating.
Help? Please?
Jaisah said:
I agree that the phone should use as much ram as possible but my problem is that it doesnt keep things in ram that i want it to because all the stock things take up so much space.
For example, i play some games like "draw something" and often it has to reload the app after ive been out of it for a while. Or even worse, it has to reload the home screen icons and widgets when i leave an app. That second one is that one that really pi#$es me off. Why doesnt it keep the home screen in ram?
Also this is advertised as having 1gb of ram right? Why does it only display 780mb? I tried turning off the ripple effect with minimal change in ram usage. Ive checked the running apps but theres nothing using a particularly large amount of ram. Does anyone have any suggestions? Its really frustrating because i had a galaxy s2 running ICS which had the same amount of ram but it always had like 300-400 mb free and always kept things in ram ready to go. now i usually only have 100-200mb and it always closes the apps i want kept open, ESECIALLY the HOME SCREEN icons and widgets. So frustrating.
Help? Please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even i have the same issues with the home screen. i dont use the default TouchWiz launcher, i use Nova. I made it a system app by moving the apk to the system folder. after this the launcher's performance is much better compared the past. even though it still reloads sometime after i launch some heavy apps like GTA or few other games.
what i think about the heavy RAM usage when compared to the SGS2 is the use of many background process for the motion and other smart features in SGS3. you can try disabling the few you dont use much, it might help reduce the heavy RAM usage but there isn't much we could do about the RAM usage.
i tried few of those unofficial stock 4.1 jelly bean ROMs, compared to the official ICS they are much faster and the total RAM was above 820mb which is a really good thing. the usage of RAM in ideal state is very minimum also the touchwiz launcher had no unnecessary reloads as far as i checked. i guess we need to wait few more days until samsung releases the official version. may be in that all the RAM issues will be fixed.
Use titanium backup to freeze the bloat.
Sent from my SHV-E210S using xda app-developers app
androidified said:
even i have the same issues with the home screen. i dont use the default TouchWiz launcher, i use Nova. I made it a system app by moving the apk to the system folder. after this the launcher's performance is much better compared the past. even though it still reloads sometime after i launch some heavy apps like GTA or few other games.
what i think about the heavy RAM usage when compared to the SGS2 is the use of many background process for the motion and other smart features in SGS3. you can try disabling the few you dont use much, it might help reduce the heavy RAM usage but there isn't much we could do about the RAM usage.
i tried few of those unofficial stock 4.1 jelly bean ROMs, compared to the official ICS they are much faster and the total RAM was above 820mb which is a really good thing. the usage of RAM in ideal state is very minimum also the touchwiz launcher had no unnecessary reloads as far as i checked. i guess we need to wait few more days until samsung releases the official version. may be in that all the RAM issues will be fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Care to share how do you make nova a system app? Using omega v13.
Ev0d3vil said:
Care to share how do you make nova a system app? Using omega v13.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the easy way to do it is by Titanium Backup Pro. first your phone should be rooted then Open Titanium Backup > Select the App you want to convert > then choose "Convert to System App"
if you dont have TB Pro then you must have a File Manager App with Root access.
make sure your system folder has write access
go to the location /data/app
search for the file "com.teslacoilsw.launcher-1.apk"
move that file to /system/app
restart your phone
After changing Nova to system app you will definitely feel the difference in its performance.
Yes, the ram is not to use the phone and he drove.
---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:54 AM ----------
Phone itself does ram processes to manage load and use.
LG9 ROM has excellent memory usage. With stuff open I now idle around 480. Not very often does it go into the high 600's like before.
androidified said:
the easy way to do it is by Titanium Backup Pro. first your phone should be rooted then Open Titanium Backup > Select the App you want to convert > then choose "Convert to System App"
if you dont have TB Pro then you must have a File Manager App with Root access.
make sure your system folder has write access
go to the location /data/app
search for the file "com.teslacoilsw.launcher-1.apk"
move that file to /system/app
restart your phone
After changing Nova to system app you will definitely feel the difference in its performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright great. What if I want to revert it?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Ev0d3vil said:
Alright great. What if I want to revert it?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
move back the same file from /system/app to /data/app and restart the phone.

[Q] Which launcher consumes less battery?

Hello xda members!
Well I saw many threads about most popular launchers,about battery tweaks about ROMs and about kernels.
I believe all of us are trying to make the battery of our beloved Samsung Galaxy S II last longer.Some of us we are tweaking the kernels and/or flashing new ROMs all the time and/or changing to a bigger battery.Well I was wondering myself about launchers.Which launcher should we choose...
So I came up with 3 (at the moment) questions.
All the launchers consumes the same battery and RAM?.And If not,
1st...as the title says,which launcher is consuming less battery?
and 2nd which Launcher consumes less RAM?
This thread is about comparing and sharing our experience and our results.
Of course every device is different.
Thanks anyway guys.
Touchwiz 4
xD
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
Whatever the stock launcher is for the rom you're using (Touchwiz for stock, Trebuchet for CM9, etc, etc). Any other launcher you use will be effectively run over the top of that, and naturally carry some kind of battery penalty compared with using the stock launcher.
MistahBungle said:
Whatever the stock launcher is for the rom you're using (Touchwiz for stock, Trebuchet for CM9, etc, etc). Any other launcher you use will be effectively run over the top of that, and naturally carry some kind of battery penalty compared with using the stock launcher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or you can disable the stock launcher with Gemini App Manager and the stock launcher will not run in background. At least thats what I did...
Sent from my CyanogenMod 10 powered GT-I9100 using xda premium
You'll still have system processes associated with the stock launcher running. There's no way around that. And obsessing about every last 0.0001% of battery drain becomes exactly that. Enjoy your phone, and use whatever launcher has the features you want (and get a bigger/more batteries)
krayndr said:
Or you can disable the stock launcher with Gemini App Manager and the stock launcher will not run in background. At least thats what I did...
Sent from my CyanogenMod 10 powered GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LaumcherPro for sure.
•Samsung Galaxy S II
•RR 3.1.2
•Dorimanx 7.18
•Just Awesome.
theotheoth said:
Hello xda members!
Well I saw many threads about most popular launchers,about battery tweaks about ROMs and about kernels.
I believe all of us are trying to make the battery of our beloved Samsung Galaxy S II last longer.Some of us we are tweaking the kernels and/or flashing new ROMs all the time and/or changing to a bigger battery.Well I was wondering myself about launchers.Which launcher should we choose...
So I came up with 3 (at the moment) questions.
All the launchers consumes the same battery and RAM?.And If not,
1st...as the title says,which launcher is consuming less battery?
and 2nd which Launcher consumes less RAM?
This thread is about comparing and sharing our experience and our results.
Of course every device is different.
Thanks anyway guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried Go Launcher EX and its my personal favorite launcher, however that consumed a lot of power for me, so now i am using apex launcher which seems to a little less than Go Launcher EX however i would definitely say stock launcher uses the least battery.
What i wanted to know was, if you decide to integrate a third party launcher into the ROM as a system app via titanium backup for example, and then freezing the stock launcher, would this consume less power as then it will be running from the system ROM rather than internal/external sd? any thoughts on that?
I find Nova Launcher doesn't use much battery when i check the battery stats
I see many of you have different opinions...Well here are mine
I've tried Touchwiz,for some reason is not working properly. :/
I've tried Zeam Launcher which I liked it best but also for some reason made my phone runs more slower which I guess it means that consumes more RAM.
I've also tried ADW Launcher which is good(for my opinion) but I had some problems with freezing sometimes.
Xperia Home Launcher is the one that I found that is running always smoothly,at least to my device,never freezing and about the battery...says 3% after 2 days and 7 hours of normal using the phone without charging(If anyone wants my ex tweaks settings let me know).
theotheoth said:
I see many of you have different opinions...Well here are mine
I've tried Touchwiz,for some reason is not working properly. :/
I've tried Zeam Launcher which I liked it best but also for some reason made my phone runs more slower which I guess it means that consumes more RAM.
I've also tried ADW Launcher which is good(for my opinion) but I had some problems with freezing sometimes.
Xperia Home Launcher is the one that I found that is running always smoothly,at least to my device,never freezing and about the battery...says 3% after 2 days and 7 hours of normal using the phone without charging(If anyone wants my ex tweaks settings let me know).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3% in 2 days without using??? What kind of battery are you using? Are you sure on what your saying about the xperia home?

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