lifehack.guide

Note:
This article is meant for normal users and not for power users (the flagshippers) who use their phone like a desktop and prefer maximum performance even if it means charging their phone every time they find a charging port.

 
Introduction:
I personally have a Moto Z Play that runs for 3 days straight on a single charge with a total screen on time (SOT) of 15  hours (5 hours SOT per day).
Original XDA thread (with proof)
Original Reddit thread (with criticisms)

It can be further understood that in a single day, my phone's screen and processing were active for 5 hours and the doze (sleep with sync) mode was active for (24-5)=19 hours. This doze time is 3.8 times the 5 hours of SOT per day.

This is attained on a 5.5 inch 1080p display with a battery of 3510 mah and a snapdragon 625 processor (14 nm manufacturing).

Software Changes/Tweaks (to get such an amazing battery life):


Further Technical Changes (required to attain a week long battery life):

1. The display is downgraded to an ergonomic 4.7inch 720p display (has the same ppi as an Iphone).
2. The battery capacity is increased to 5000mah.
3. An increase of 20% in the overall hardware operating efficiency is applied:
   A.) As per regular technological advances in 2 years which has already been achieved in the latest series of Snapdragon hardware, and
   B.) As per the decrease in processing of screen elements due to the display bein down-scaled to 60% (720p) of its original resolution (1080p).
4. No increase in overall software operating efficiency is assumed as any increase in efficiency gets used by the increase in processing load as software evolves to be heavier with time.

1. The new screen on time will be:
   15*(1080/720)*(5000/3510)*1.2=~38.5 hours.
   This is equivalent to 5.5 hours of screen on time for all 7 days of the week!
2. But for most *average* users, the average daily SOT is 4 hours.
3. So we have an extra SOT of [38.5 hours - (4 hours*7 days)]=10.5 hours on our hands (remember this number it will come in handy later)
4. Additionally, the doze/sleep mode time is increased to:
   19 hours*3*(5000/3510)*1.2=~97.5 hours.
5. However, our desired doze/sleep mode time is 20 hours*7=140 hours
   Thus it can be seen that our doze/sleep mode time is short by (140 hours - 97.5 hours)=42.5 hours
6. This shortcoming can be achieved by now using the extra 10.46 hours of SOT we have on our hands.
   Since we already know that 1 hour of SOT equals 3.8 hours of sleep/doze,
   10.5 hours of SOT =~40 hours.
7. Thus the doze/sleep mode time is further increased to: 97.5 hours+40 hours= 137.5 hours (this is 2,5 hours short of the desired 140 hours).

1. 28 hours of screen on time = 4 hours*7 days
2. 137.5 hours (2.5 hours short of the required 140 hours) of doze (sleep with sync) time
3. 6.895 days of battery life (1.5% short of the required 7 days)
   
   

Now, I believe, you can imagine only charging your phone once a week!


Some things that still may be difficult to accept:

1. 4 hours of SOT.
2. 20% increase in total hardware efficiency.
3. I only used Wi-Fi for internet and not an LTE connection.
4. I didn't play any games or poorly coded apps (like Facebook's official app).
5. Weight of phone - the weight of your phone will actually stay the same as we are ditching at least ~20% of the weight of the phone by making its screen smaller thus resulting in lesser size (thus weight) of components being used. This decrease in weight of the phone's body will be balanced by the increase in the weight of the battery by ~30%.

Why you should MOD your Android phone?

1. Unlock your device's Bootloader to gain access to the flexibility otherwise unavailable.
2. Install a custom Recovery image for your device to flash aftermarket software packages.
3. Create full backups of the present or a different state of your phone.
4. You can install the latest Android build through a Custom ROM or build a ROM yourself directly from the Android source tree and install it.
5. Install the latest compatible Android ROMS with new features that aren’t even available in the latest stock Android yet. 
6. Create and install custom Kernels for maximum performance and battery life.
7. You can use experimental, high efficiency and high performance applications that require root.
8. Remove all the bloatware you dont want or even run your phone on a bare-to-the-bones ROM.
9. You can increase the battery life of your device using methods which are only applicable if your phone is Rooted.
10. You can install and run a full Linux distribution on your phone.
    (Link for installing Debian on the "first android phone").

Hopefully one or many of these reasons will convince you to mod your phone, Eespecially after your phone's warranty is over because modding your device will void its warranty.

1. Turn off Location by default, and turn it on only if and when required. If you need to use it 24x7, use the "Battery saving" or "Device only" location modes instead of "High accuracy".
2. Turn off NFC permanently if you don't use it at all or don't know what it is.
3. Remember to always turn off Bluetooth after you are done using it.
4. Choose the "Preferred network type" to be "2G" instead of 3G/4G.
5. Turn on your phone's data service only when you need it, also prefer to use 4G over 3G for data services as 4G is more power efficient.
6. Prefer to use Wi-Fi over wireless data services as the latter tends to eat up a lot of battery life.
7. If you have a data plan, turn off Wi-Fi when your screen is off. Go to Wi-Fi settings and in the "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" menu, choose "Never". 
8. In the "Accessibility" menu, turn on "high contrast text" for a greater visual difference between colors (especially blacks and whites).
9. Use a black background and blacked out themes/layers along with white text.
10. Keep the brightness levels at auto-adjust (by turning on "adaptive brightness") and then scroll the brightness bar to its minimum possible value.
    OR
    Keep the brightness levels at manual (by turning off "adaptive brightness") and then scroll the brightness bar to a custom required value.
11. Turn off auto-sync and choose "auto-sync over Wi-Fi only" option if needed.
12. Turn off background data if are OK with/don't want apps to load information from the web when they are running in the background.
13. Turn off "Auto-rotation" as it is activated automatically as per requirement when playing videos.
14. Turn on "Sleep after 30s or 1min of activity" as per your requirement.
15. Turn off "Daydream" if you don't find it useful or if your phone doesn't have an AMOLED display.
16. Choose a customized Notification alert system, utilizing both Vibration and Ringing to make you aware of any notification at its earliest.
17. Customize your home-screen layout, soft-touch buttons layout, and hardware-button controls as per your comfort to allow for faster interaction between the user and the phone.
18. Replace the stock Home Launcher app with a custom aftermarket app which is faster and more battery friendly.
19. Customize your status bar to display the information you often need to see so that you don't need to waste battery life in opening and closing apps.
20. Install custom aftermarket alternatives to stock apps that allow higher performance and more efficient resource usage.
21. Delete/disable "Google Now" and any other speech recognition services you may be running in the background.
22. Disable unwanted and overrated Visual Effects which provide aesthetics at the cost of battery life. Example: In the "Developer options" menu, disable "Windows animation scale", "Transition animation scale" and "Animator duration scale".
23. Use a firewall to disallow Internet access to non-server and ad-based apps.
24. Disable Unwanted Startup of Applications and only allow the most essential apps &/or services to start automatically.
25. Turn on Android's default "Battery-Saving" option if you don't have a problem with running a slower phone.
26. Use your phone's manufacturer tuned "Extreme/Ultra/STAMINA Power Saving" modes when you need them.
27. Use a junk-cleaning app regularly to clear your storage space(s) of unwanted files and folders.
28. Use a smaller sized Sd-Card &/or keep a lesser number of files in the external storage, or if possible don't use an SD card as using one keeps the "Media (Indexing) service" alive and running. 
29. Delete unwanted files & folders from the phone memory and external storage..
30. Enable the "Doze" option if you disabled it, it allows your device to enter hibernation mode when it has been sat unused for a prolonged period of time.
31. Get a phone with an AMOLED/SUPER AMOLED display as these screens only illuminate the pixels that need to be colored. No power is used to display the black color, as the pixels are simply shut off by default to present no (black) color.
32. Use the application "Greenify" to put apps that arent being used into hibernation, thus preventing resource allocation to them in the background.
33. Turn off vibration and haptic feedback in whichever apps and settings possible.
34. If you don't use smart features like gestures on a regular basis then turn them off.
35. Replace your stock battery with a 3rd party battery which packs more power in the same volume.
36. Use an external battery enclosure as a protective cover for the phone.
37. Turn on Airplane-Mode whenever you don't need to be connected to receive calls or use the Internet. Example: while sleeping, resting and in airplanes.
38. Don't use widgets, especially the ones which need regular updates from the Internet. Opt for automatic notifications or open the app(s) manually to stay updated.
39. Only manually update your Apps and ROM, turn off auto-updates for everything.
40. Change your phone's carrier and choose the one which shall provide the maximum standby times for your phone in your particular area of work &/or residence.
41. Turn off activity &/or sleep tracking and instead use a more accurate specific-purpose oriented device for this.
42. Learn to only access your phone on a "need" basis to cancel out random checks to look for any possible updates.
    
    

Applicable only if your phone is Rooted -

1. Install or Upgrade to the latest version(s) of Apps, Android ROM and Kernel available for your phone (Official OEM or Aftermarket Custom).
2. Delete unwanted files & folders from the system partition after every fresh ROM installation.
3. Don't install the Gapps package at all and run your phone free from the resource heavy Google services.
4. Delete/disable all bloatware, unrequired apps and google apps which you don't use.
5. Underclock (UC) & Undervolt (UV) your phone to only allow the adequate/minimum amount of power that is needed by the CPU and the GPU of the phone to function.
6. Turn off "Autorun on Boot" for Apps which have an open-to-run one-time usage and arent to be used regularly or in the background.