25 Apr 2015

How to extend the Samsung Galaxy S6's battery life



The Samsung Galaxy S6 excels at many things, but amazing battery life isn't among them. Thankfully, the situation is anything but critical, and there is a good number of ways to ensure your Galaxy S6 gets you through the day or provides you precious minutes of functionality when the battery percentage hits single digits.



Probably the best among them is the Galaxy S6's quick charging ability which, provided you have the original charger or any Qualcomm Quick Charge-compatible launcher around, can give you plenty of fuel in just 10 minute bursts of charging. But if that's not the case, here are five things you should consider in order to improve the flagship's battery life.



1. Keep apps' batery usage in check

Apps are not created equal, and they are not optimized equal either. Some eat more energy than others, and the smart thing to do is to keep their battery usage in check. We can recommend two ways to handle this. The easy option is to install Greenify, a terrific software that stops misbehaving apps from lagging your device and leeching battery.

The do-it-yourself path is to use Android's built in Battery Monitor and Application Manager. Go to Settings, Battery and tap Battery Usage. Here, you will learn which apps suck in the most electricity.

Then, you can stop them from the application manager in the Settings, Applications menu. Go there, tap Application manager. Scroll to the Running tab, then tap on the problematic app, and hit Stop (or Force Stop). If your Galaxy S6 is rooted, you can also use an app for freezing and disabling services. The danger of the do-it-yourself approach is you may tend to over-analyse app behavior, which will ultimately take away from the joy of using your phone. So give Greenify a chance before you go manual.


2. Get rid of factory apps and features you aren't using

Unless your carrier generously garnished your new Galaxy S6 with bloatware apps, the phone ships pretty clean out of the factory - which doesn't mean you'll be using every app Samsung packed in. So go back to your Application manager (found in the Settings, Applications menu), scroll to the "All" tab, tap on an app you don't need, and hit Disable.

You can always enable the app later, so no worries. Also, users recommend turning off Wi-Fi calling, VoLTE, Samsung Lock, and S-Voice if you aren't using them. The Facebook app is a huge battery drain too, so consider replacing it with Facebook Lite.


3. Use the Power Saving features

The Galaxy S6 comes with Power saving and Ultra power saving modes that could help you squeeze precious minutes of functionality when your battery percentage goes dangerously low. The modes are found in the Settings, Battery menu.

Power saving mode limits the CPU frequency, reduces screen brightness and frame rate, turns off touch key light and vibration feedback, and reduces the time before the screen turns off upon receiving a notification.

Ultra power saving mode limits the smartphone further by changing the display colors to grayscale, restricting app usage, and turning off Wi-Fi & Bluetooth.



4. Manage the on-screen brightness with Lux

The display remains the biggest battery drain of any smartphone. The brighter you keep it, the more battery withers away. If you want to get a real handle on brightness adjustment, the stock automatic brightness control doesn't quite cut it.

Consider installing Lux - a highly customizable brightness calibration app which tweaks your display's illumination and color temperature according to the ambient lighting. What makes Lux better than the stock algorithm is the ability to teach it yourself. If it gets the screen brightness wrong, just move the slider where you like it. Lux will remember this value and link it to the current ambient lighting readings.


5. Uninstall Google Fit

Users from the XDA Developers board have spotted a problem between the Samsung health app and Google Fit. In addition, owners of other smartphones such as the Nexus 5 have been complaining of Google Fit creating constant wakelocks in Android Lollipop. A working solution for both problems is to uninstall Google Fit from the Application Manager - that is, return Fit to the oldest version, as the app is a system service and can't be uninstalled. Then restart your Galaxy S6 and see if things get any better.


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