How Android batteries work

First, some background: most smartphones have either a Lithium Ion battery or a Lithium Polymer battery. Both are Lithium Ion though, and as such, do not have a 'memory', which means you don't have to fully charge or discharge them at the beginning, and partial charging is fine throughout their life.

In fact, these types of batteries suffer from low voltage problems, so it's actually better to partially charge them (say, from 20 percent to 90 percent) than to fully charge and fully drain them. Battery care is always open for debate though, so for every accepted tip there will be someone that says it makes no difference. Just find the ones that work for you.

1. Black wallpaper can save battery

If your phone has an AMOLED screen (like most Samsung devices), use a dark-colored background.Black wallpaper can save your battery because AMOLED screens only illuminate the colored pixels. Black pixels are unlit, so the more black pixels you have, or the more darker pixels, the less power is needed to light them up.

2. Doze

With the arrival of Marshmallow comes a new feature called Doze, which helps you get more out of your device's battery. Along with Google Now on Tap, Doze is the most notable addition to Marshmallow. It is enabled by default and essentially allows your device to enter hibernation mode when it has been sat unused for a prolonged period of time.

The effect of this is that your phone now sleeps when you sleep, and will lose just 3-5 percent of its battery power during and average night, rather than up to a quarter, as it would have done without Doze. 

Apps are not obliged to use Doze, and you can view which ones use it and which don't in Settings and edit the list if you want to.

In addition, Sony has said it's planning to incorporate its own enhanced stamina mode into Marshmallow for its Xperia range.

3. Use Greenify

Unlike many Android apps that claim to optimize performance and improve battery life, Greenify actually works. Greenify allows you to put other apps into hibernation when they aren't in use, preventing them from operating in the background.  

This frees up system resources and boosts battery performance, but requires a bit of thought. For Greenify to be effective you can't just hibernate every installed app. But since there are a lot of Android apps that perform actions you don't know about, or necessarily want, this is a useful tool.

4. Don't use adaptive/auto brightness

Don't use display auto-brightness. It may sound useful, but auto-brightness is usually way brighter than you really need. It's better to manually set the brightness to a level that is low but comfortable, and bump it up when necessary. This is one of the best ways to improve your battery life, because the screen is one of the biggest battery suckers.

5. A shorter screen timeout setting saves battery

Set your display's screen timeout to as short a time as is practical for you. Just think, if your screen timeout is set to a minute, it'll use four times more power than if it were set to 15 seconds.

Studies report the average smartphone user turns their smartphone on 150 times a day, so the difference between a long screen timeout and short one soon adds up. Reducing it will help keep your battery running for longer.

Avoid adaptive/auto brightness (left) and shorten your screen timeout/sleep setting.  / © ANDROIDPIT

6. Your phone doesn't have to be smart all the time

Turn off smart features like air gestures and smart scrolling, especially if you have a Samsung. Unless you really use these features every day, they're just using battery power for no reason.

7. Turn off vibrate and haptic feedback to save battery

Switch off vibrate. Unless you really need that added awareness, turn off vibration alerts for incoming calls. It actually takes more power to vibrate your phone than it does to ring it. Turn off haptic feedback too (that buzz you get from typing on the keyboard). Sure it feels cool, but it doesn't really add anything to your experience, and it's another battery drainer.

You won't even notice that vibration and haptic feedback are gone after a few days.

8. Use lock screen notifications

Lock screen notifications can also help save you battery life, especially if your phone has an AMOLED screen. This is because you can see your notifications at a glance without having to turn your whole screen on. This is especially useful if you get lots of notifications that aren't worth following up on immediately. Lock screen notifications come standard on Android Lollipop.

If you're using Android KitKat, try using lock screen widgets or notifications if your ROM supports them, or install an app that does it for you like Dynamic Notifications. You'll be able to get basically all your content without having to unlock your phone fully and navigating around. You'll still need to light your whole screen up, but you'll have it on for much less time than normal.

9. Only use original batteries

Only use original batteries or respected third party manufacturer batteries. Saving a few bucks on a battery that might damage your beloved smartphone is a poor choice indeed, and may also deliver sub-standard battery performance.

Stick with OEM or respected third party batteries rather than dodgy cheap ones. / © ANDROIDPIT

10. Set your 'Do Not Disturb' or 'sleep' schedule 

Set sleep times or blocking mode to switch off Wi-Fi and mobile data when you don't need them. If your phone is basically off limits at work, set your device to not ring, vibrate or connect to the internet while you're at work. Many phones have a Do Not Disturb setting for just this purpose.

Likewise, you can set your phone to airplane mode when you're asleep or use sleep or blocking modes to set up limits for what your phone does during certain times of the day, whether that's while you're asleep, at work or in a meeting. Cool apps such as IFTTT let you create rules that can help you save battery life too.