NOTE - some of these tips and applications require ROOT privileges.
These days mobile phones are pretty damn powerful, with the latest processors, great software, fast ram & storage, and whatnot. But, There exists a group of people who can not afford smartphones with all the latest features, flagship processors, and all. and as their smartphones get older their performance drops even more, which is a big problem. So, today we'll be sharing a few applications & ticks that can help you get that extra bit of juice out of your phone.
Battery Drain management.
Always on Battery & Data Saver. It may sound redundant but think about it... The battery & Data saver's main goal is to limit background activity & certain processes which helps in increasing battery life, Which means:-
1. Battery discharges slower, So longer battery life.
2. No need to charge as frequently, which results in lesser charging cycles. It prolongs battery lifespan by reducing battery degradation.
3. Additionally it also means less data/analytics collected. So a step ahead in privacy.
4. Lesser apps use our precious data in the background thus saving our precious data from exhaustion.
Disable GPS, Location Services & Sync. GPS/Location Services consume a lot of battery & also allow apps to collect location data. Not everything needs to be instantly synchronized. Enable it at certain hours of the day to still stay synced, probably when charging.
When not in use turn off mobile data, wifi & Bluetooth. Keeping these connections alive requires power & drains the battery. Bluetooth low energy is still a connectivity and it will consume some juice.
The screen makes up the biggest amount of battery consumption of any device. Instead of keeping auto-brightness always enabled, I enable it and adjust the display only when the ambient brightness changes. This way auto-brightness won't consume the battery in constantly adapting to ambient brightness.
Keep your sensors off. this setting can be found in developer options.
When we charge/discharge our device to its limits it stresses the battery, For charging/discharging limits, you can limit charging at around 80% which many users assume safe upper limit. While I extend it to 85 & 90% at times. Also obviously get it 100% on days when heavy usage is expected. And limit your discharging limit to 15% though you can set it to 20% as a safe side. For thermal limits, I limit usage when the phone feels hot & uncomfortable to hold. Users claim 45-50°C as a safe upper limit. And try not to use your phone while charging.
You can reduce the animation scale of your phone to reduce some drain too. But animations are a big part of a good user experience, so keep it as your last resort.
Network and internet performance.
Internet connectivity can be a big concern for some of us. especially for those who are completely dependent on cellular data and don't have a wifi connection. Slow internet is one of the most annoying things for everyone. here's how I leverage my network speed and latency
Private DNS is a great tool to increase your speed and latency by a bit, here's how to use it:-
1. Look up the latencies of all the DNS servers available via any DNS speed test app.
2. Do latency checks a few times for the one with the least latency, search online for its DNS address.
3. Add that DNS address in Private DNS in Network & Internet.
Device security
If possible & ROM supports I prefer using the device as encrypted.
Don't use cracked/modded apps try to find authentic alternatives if possible. And if in case you download any software from any non trusted platform check for security using this Site/TGBot. Be sure to have a security check done on your such files as well. Some may include malware/trojan/spyware/etc. Stay safe.
Also, stay away from antivirus apps. They are just useless. They consume battery, bad for privacy, affect performance, etc. As long as you install apps from trusted sources/have play protect enabled/scan with the provided link/bot/don't click on malicious ads/sites. YOU ARE SAFE.
Also, stay away from antivirus apps. They are just useless. They consume battery, bad for privacy, affect performance, etc. As long as you install apps from trusted sources/have play protect enabled/scan with the provided link/bot/don't click on malicious ads/sites. YOU ARE SAFE.
Now that we have made sure that our battery performance is good, we get good network connectivity and our device is safe and protected. let's move on to the last and most fun part, the ROOT magic and more.
Kernel managers
kernel managers are the software that gives you complete control over your system's kernel and all the functionality around it. Like changing CPU clock speeds, the number of active CPU cores, and the CPU profile governor. But these settings are very risky to play around with and using them without the proper knowledge can harm your device, so don't play around with them unless you know what you're doing.
HERE is a basic guide about how things work at the kernel level, do check it out before doing any changes in kernel managers.
Overclock/Undervoltage
Only overclock when you actually need that higher performance. NO! Gaming is not an excuse!
Don't overclock your display. Unlike CPUs/GPUs/RAM, the Display is not something to be overclocked.
Overclock has a safe limit too. 10-20% overclock is regarded as safe. More than that requires extensive benchmarking, and thermal optimization & it may also damage your motherboard!
Undervoltage luckily has no value to change for the users. So if you have any UV kernel you may use it though there is no definite answer to how much beneficial it is.
In all of this always keep device thermals within the safe limit.
Advanced Charging Control
Using this app & magisk module wisely you can set the perfect charging environment, limits, values & conditions to optimize your charging/battery health ratio.
Miscellaneous
1. TRIM- (LSpeed has the option within the app, FDE.AI does it automatically, and all ROMs do it when certain conditions are met.) (Additionally there are apps available on the play store to get it done.) mFSTRIM app.
2. Calibrate Battery: Just changed ROM/feel battery percentage/stats out of place? Do this from any app. I use Rootify.
4. Tap Tap: If you have a gyroscope then why not have an additional gesture?
6. Back cover: I handle my device carefully, so to aid in heat dissipation I use my device without a back cover. Makes a lot of difference. Though be careful not to damage your device!
7. F2FS: I personally use F2FS for /data & /cache as it has better write speeds than ext4 & has TRIM auto-enabled.
8. Launchers/Icon Packs/Substratum/Overlays/QS & Volume Panel customizers/etc: we don't recommend using them. They consume more processing power some consume more battery while some just slow down the device.
9. Battery Monitor/Saving apps: They are useless. Use them only to get the battery stats you need then just get rid of them. The only ones worth mentioning are the apps named Greenify & Buoy. The doze enabling apps, you can try those but if the idle drain doesn't decrease get rid of them too.
10. Cleaner apps: They are useless. Only the ones mentioned above are worth it. Also cleaning RAM is not a good practice. Consumed RAM is always better than RAM lying idle & unused. RAM Management & Free RAM are completely different things.
ReFlash Firmware/Cleanup/Format
we recommend routinely cleaning up your entire internal storage with a few fastboot commands:
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase cust
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase userdata
Then flash the entire firmware through the fastboot & MiFlash tool (be careful to only use flash_all.bat don't lock your bootloader). [ This section is exclusively for MI users, don't try it on any other device unless you know the exact process of flashing the stock ROM of your device].
And this concludes our mobile optimization guide. Comment down your experiences with old mobile phones and how you manage to use them. follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for more tech-related news and updates, we will be back with some interesting tech articles, until then, STAY TUNED, STAY SAFE!