Improve Android Battery Life by Changing The Way You Charge

With the introduction of smart phones we quickly saw battery life drop to only a day long if you're lucky.  Having your phone die halfway through the day has quickly become the norm.  Good news is there's something you can do about it. 

After doing some research in to the way Android phones charge I found an interesting quirk.  It's has to do with the way the phone tracks the charge level.  I've had my phone shut off several times claiming to be dead only to find out when I plug it in it claims to have a 50% or more charge.  Research revealed that the phone tracks the battery level in two ways.

1. Part of the Android OS.
2. The phones internal systems.

It appears that the Android OS(At least Android 2.2 in my case) fails on a regular basis to correctly calculate the charge level, in many cases by up to 50%-60% less than it actually is.  The good news is there's a charging method that will allow you to get that extra charge.


1. Power down the phone and charge it to 100%(tip: a quick press on the power button while off with show this screen.

2. Don't make the mistake of unplugging at this point.  Pulling the plug while the phone is still off results in the shortest battery life possible.

3. Power on the phone and wait.  Letting it sit for about 15-30min allows everything to boot and appears to allow the phone to sync the battery level.  I like to power it up when I first wake up and let it sit while I have breakfast, shower, etc.

4. Once the phone is all powered up and ready to go it's safe to unplug and enjoy the charge!

How to get peak performance out of the Samsung Intercept

If you've owned the Samsung Intercept for more than a couple of weeks you have probably seen it. Slow load times, apps freezing, missed calls because the screen didn't come up, and more. Well, I'm here to help make those problems a thing of the past.  Originally released back in July of 2010 for Sprint, the Samsung Intercept is definitely not the newest phone on the market.  Even at the time of release, it was considered a low end Android phone, but it's not done fighting yet.

Step 1 - Accept it for what it is

The Samsung Intercept is not a high end smart phone, it's not going to knock your socks off, have all the fancy 3D widgets, or play HD movies at 720p like the new HTC Thunderbolt.  But when it comes down to it at the end of the day, it will get the job done.  The Samsung Intercept is a low end Android Phone.  By accepting it for what it is, you will not demand more from it than it can handle.  

Step 2 - Assess your needs

Keeping step one in consideration, we move on to what you need it to do.  The following screen shot is my home screen.  That's right "home" screen, as in just one.  Other than one widget, it is simply icons, some would say boring, dare I say almost iOS like (may I reiterate the fact that this is a low end phone).  The apps located on my home screen are my daily use apps.  Anything beyond that I just open my tray.  Android must load in to memory any apps or widgets on the home screen.  This can take time and cause it to be slow returning to the screen.  By reducing the gadgets on the home screen, you will speed up the response time.

Step 3 - Strip it down

Now, as I said reducing your home screens down to just what you need will speed up overall responsiveness.   To do this I recommend a new launcher app called Launcher Pro.  This launcher is fully customizable and will really smooth things out.  For starters, it allows you to reduce the number of home screens.  In my case, I went to just one, but going down to just two will help as well.  It also has features like making the background image stick so it doesn't move when switching the home screens(iOS?).  The Samsung Intercept does not have a dedicated graphics chip so any fancy graphical move it does will slow it down.  So stick to the basics and your Intercept will treat you well.

Step 4 - Widgets

Widgets are what make Android great.  But widgets take memory, processor time, and most importantly battery life.  Widgets are there to save you time, so finding the ones that will show you what you need on a daily basis without having to open the app will be a big time saver.  This is a delicate balance between what widgets you need, and what you can live without.  Again, less is more in this case, so pick your widgets wisely.

Step 5 - Clean House

Now, moving on to your apps.  To get peak performance out of the Samsung Intercept, keeping an eye on what you have installed is very important.  Going to Settings>SD card & Phone Storage will show you how much space your phone has left.  As of this post the Virgin Mobile Samsung Intercept is running Android 2.1, so it doesn't have the ability to install apps to the SD card.  So sadly you must ignore that nice big GB number at the top.  Instead take a look at the "Internal Phone Storage".  This is the space allocated by your phone for app storage.  Any app installed on your phone will use this space as well as the cache for the app itself.  I have found if this fills up, bad things happen.  So I highly recommend keeping an eye on it and making sure it doesn't go below 20MB.  Uninstalling apps and clearing cache will keep this at bay.

Step 6 - Clearing your cache

As I stated in step 5, clearing your cache helps alleviate internal phone storage problems.  There are two ways you can go about doing this.  First is to clear one application at a time.  This of course will take a fair amount of time if you have many applications.  The other option is to download an app to do it for you.  One such application is called 1TapCacheCleaner.  It's simple, easy to use, and lives up to it's name, allowing one click to clear all application cache.

Step 7 - Memory boost

My final recommendation is an application called MemoryBooster, which is designed to tackle the difficult yet crucial problem of memory management.  MemoryBooster reclaims lost memory by defragmenting and recovering memory caused by leaks from poorly behaved applications. As shown in step two, I have the MemoryBooster widget on my home screen.  Anytime I find the phone acting sluggish, I just hit the button.      

Closing Thoughts

To get peak performance out of the Samsung Intercept requires a little care and maintenance, but by doing so the Intercept will serve you well.  Many of these steps can also be applied to other Android phones, so if you find yourself in the same boat as the Intercept, feel free to try it yourself.