All About Battery Optimisation😎

HOW DO ANDROID BATTERIES WORK

Most todays mobile devices have either alithium-ion battery or a lithium-polymerbattery. Both are actually lithium-ion though, and the have no "memory effect": In the past, mobile devices used batteries that required you to drain them completely and charge them to full, in order to maintain their full capacity. This is known as the "memory effect" and only relevant to Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) and Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMh) batteries.
Modern batteries do not need to be charged or depleted fully. In fact, most Li-ion batteries perform better if you don’t drain them and they suffer from low voltage problems, so it's actually better to partially charge them (say, from 20 percent to 90 percent).
To our displeasure, more and more smartphones don't have removable batteries and so we always have to care about their consumption.

How a lithium-ion battery charges & discharges

Like any other battery, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery is made of one or more power-generating compartments calledcells. Each cell has essentially three components: a positive electrode(connected tothe battery's positive or +terminal), a negative electrode(connected to the negative or− terminal), and a chemical called an electrolyte in between them.
All lithium-ion batteries work in broadly the same way. When the battery is charging up, the lithium-cobalt oxide, positive electrode gives up some of its lithium ions, which move through the electrolyte to the negative, graphite electrode and remain there. The battery takes in and stores energy during this process. When the battery is discharging, the lithium ions move back across the electrolyte to the positive electrode, producing the energy that powers the battery. In both cases, electrons flow in the opposite direction to the ions around the outer circuit. Electrons do not flow through the electrolyte: it's effectively an insulating barrier, so far as electrons are concerned.

WHAT IS DRAINING THE CELLS BATTERY?

So first let us explore step by step, what is draining your battery:

• Screen: the component that uses the most energy on your smartphone, by a considerable margin, is the screen. The more you using your device, (the more you using your screen as well) - for checking Facebook or  QQ, streaming Netflix or simply videos, texting with friends, mapping while using GPS - the faster your battery will drain. Of course, lot of the things that you purchased a smartphone for do require the screen. Finally, we all have smartphones to do exactly these things with it. But keep in that in mind!
• Vibrating motor: In contrast, the vibration motor rotates a small weight to make your whole phone shake. That process       takes also power.
• Radios: all available radios (GPS, Wi-FI, Bluetooth...) are using a certain amount of your battery life. In low-signal areas with poor Wi-Fi or cellular coverage, the power usage is significant because your device is constantly searching for a signal. Also, your mobiles GPS hardware, which it uses (along with Wi-Fi e.g.) to figure out your geographic location for mapping, sports -tracking, and other  location-based features, consumes a lot of battery life.
• Apps: all popular and for the most users essential apps, like WhatsApp Messenger, Facebook and other Messengers, Snapchat, Netflix are draining the batteries very intensive and fast. Also, different services such as Google Play Services are expected to kill battery life. Further nice & popular games like Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft, Clash of Clans, etc. are known as battery killers as well. Or are you using Clean Master? Cleaning apps promise to clean up your phone to boost performance, but Clean Master and similar apps often require a lot of battery power. The same is true for battery savers & optimizers, antivirus apps.
• Notifications:  it seems as though almost every app today polls the internet for searching updates, messages or news, and many other infos. When it finds something, the app may chime, light up your screen and display a message, make your LED blink, or do all of the above. All of these things consume energy.

• Push Services: having your phone constantly check if there's new email or other message (Twitter, Reddit, Facebook or simply your calendar) is a waste of power. Also, Auto-Syncing your Accounts, especially the Google Account will drain your battery heavily!
• Accessibility 24/7: is your phone constantly switched on? Are your GPS, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth and mobile data always enabled? Do you need this for real?

As we can see, there are lot of things inside the modern mobile devices consuming energy and draining the battery. Sometimes this fact will let us suffer or get angry! But it need not be. There a lot of tips and tricks to do something about it!

HOW TO SAVE BATTERY LIFE ON YOUR ANDROID DEVICE? THE EASIEST SOLUTIONS

First thing's first.
We must learn the behavior of our battery to locate the issue and to find a proper  solution. If you want to understand what makes your battery tick, go to (for MIUI users) Settings > Battery & Performance > Battery Use > Apps or > Hardware.
Tap on a app and you will get a detailed information about the usage in the “CPU total”and “CPU foreground” counters & timers. The “foreground” figure refers to how much time you had the app open; subtract “foreground” from “total,” and you’ll know how much time the app has been busy in the background. Using this records, you can quickly see which apps are the biggest battery suckers.
On Hardware you can check the biggest hardware consumers.
Also you can check the running apps under Settings > Installed apps> Running.

4 examples of battery usage (APPS) on different Xiaomi devices


  

Hardware usage & running apps

Further you can check the running apps under Settings> Installed apps > Running.If you want to go into more detail about your devices's battery usage, you'll find lot of apps in the Play Store that provide statistics and more detailed information on battery consumption.

The easiest solutions and basic rules for battery optimization and saving juice:

SCREEN

• the hardware component which uses the most energy on your device is your screen. So if you need to extend your battery life, first tweak your screen settings
• shorten your screen timeout! The "screen-timeout" or "sleep" setting determines how long your display will stay awake for after it has been engaged with; if your screen remains on while you aren't looking at it, it's wasting precious battery life. You can set it to the lowest value you are comfortable with in regular use: Settings > Lock screen & password

Screen timeout settings

• switch off Automatic Brightness! Most phones include an auto-brightness feature that automatically adjusts the screen's brightness to suit ambient lighting levels. It is usually sophisticated enough to produce a comfortable viewing setting for each individual, but sometimes it is not the best setting. You will get better results by turning your screens brightness down to the lowest settings which you can tolerate in terms of comfort. Go toSettings> Display > Brightness Level and turn off the "Automatic Brightness".

RADIOS

• it's a huge thing, that today's smartphones have LTE, NFC, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, but do you really need all of them  activated 24 hours continuously, the whole day through?
• GPS: unfortunately Android keep location-based apps resident in the background, and that will constantly  drain your battery.Turn off GPS, when you don't need it. When you're not actively using navigation, swipe down  to access Quick Settings, and toggle it off. You'll be prompted to re-enable it when you use any app which needs location services. Alternatively, if you're using apps that require your location, you can  go to toSettings > Additional Settings > Privacy > Location and change the setting to “Battery saving” (where Wi-Fi and mobile networks are used to determine your location).

• Bluetooth: do you love using Bluetooth with your hands-free headset, your wireless speaker or activity tracker or in your car hi-fi? Yes, this is nice and very convenient, but the Bluetooth module in your device is constantly listening for signals from the outside. The latest phones have Bluetooth 4.1, otherwise known as Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE. And while BLE uses a lot less power than earlier versions of Bluetooth it still takes up power needlessly when you leave it on and don’t intent on connecting to any Bluetooth devices. Turning off the Bluetooth when not needed, can add a good amount of time to  your batteries life.
• Wi-Fi: as with Bluetooth, your phone's Wi-Fi radio is in some circumstances a  serious battery drainer. While you will at times need to use your home or office Wi-Fi connection rather than mobile data for internet access and other data services,       there's  small point in leaving the Wi-Fi radio on when you're outside about. Toggle it off when you go out the door, and turn it back on only when you plan to use data services within range of your Wi-Fi network. But only switching  your Wi-Fi will not save lot of battery.
  Most users think that when it comes to saving battery life  by switching Wi-Fi setting there are two options:enabled  and disabled. But,there’s a third option. You can leave WiFi enabled, so that you can still connect to a Wi-Fi network, but disable your phone’s tendency to be always-scanning for new networks.
  It’s this automatic scanning that does the real battery draining, and you can stretch your time between charging a decent amount by turning off the automatic scanning: go to Settings > WLAN > Advanced Settings > Scanning always available and switch it off. If you see a option called Network Notification in your settings, disable it as well. That will stop those annoying notifications or sound  and vibrations every time a free available Wi-Fi network is in your range. If you do not downloading something or need to be accessible while your phone is in stand-by mode, you can disable the option Keep       WLAN on during sleep. If the optionWLAN Optimization is available on your phone (under Advanced WLAN settings) and your MIUI/Android version turn it on!
• don't forget: if you have terrible cell coverage, but Wi-Fi is great, disabling cellular connectivity will prevent your phone from wasting energy trying to get a cellular connection while still letting you connect to the Internet over Wi-Fi; conversely, if your phone struggles to stay connected to your home Wi-Fi network when you’re in the backyard, you should disable Wi-Fi and use cellular data instead.

• if your  Wi-FI or cellular signal is completely terrible, rather turn on theAirplane Mode
• turn of Tethering and Hotspost, when not in use!
• restrict data usage for apps & system apps: not every app need a connection outside. If many apps are permanently online, you will experience a higher data usage on the one hand and a bigger energy consumption on the other.

 

Wi-Fi settings on my Mi2a with MIUI 7 (4.4.4 KK) and my Mi4w with MIUI 8 MM

HAPTIC FEEDBACK ~ VIBRATION ~ NOTIFICATIONS ~ AUTO SYNC

• turn off vibration. Unless you really need that added alertness, switch off vibration alerts for incoming calls. It actually takes more power to vibrate your phone than it does to ring it. 
• disable haptic feedback too (that buzzing  you get from typing on the keyboard). It may feels cool and comfortable for you, but it doesn't really add anything to your experience, and it's another slight  battery drainer. You can also disable different sounds like; dial pad touch tones, touch sounds, screen locking sounds....
• as mentioned before, notifications are consuming battery juice as well. Check which notifications are essential for you and which not. Manage it wisely.
• Mobile devices provide push notifications, which allow apps to provide new information, sound alarms, display reminders, and more, instantly. Push notifications are usually very comfortable—they’re part of what makes a smartphone great. But every notification uses a bit of energy, as it requires your phone to wake up for a few seconds, including turning on the screen, to show you a message, vibrate  and give you a chance to act on it. If you get a lot of notifications, that energy use can add up. 
• Push email: In addition to push notifications, push email is also available - but it is a battery consumer for sure. Isyour phone constantly checking for new emails, you can expect  an additional  waste of power. Instead of allowing email to be pushed to your phone at any time, rather change the  setting to check your emails maybe 15 or 30 minutes if you don't need to respond immediately.
• change the options in Settings > Notifications & status bar > App notifications
• turn off Auto Sync off, especially for Google Accounts. If you don't need every single Google account updated every 15 minutes, just go into Settings and Google account and turn off auto-sync for those apps you don't need constantly updated. 
  The same applies for other social networking apps like Twitter, Reddit and co. Unless you need constant updates or push notifications (like for Facebook or your calendar) rather sync when you actually use the app.
• rather sync manually

  

Notifications and haptic feedback

POWER SAVING MODES

• If you are using any MIUI ROM, you have very good options and in-built power saving modes - see for example theBattery Saver app. Proper configured and used in right time the Battery Saver is a mighty tool for saving juice.
  Enabling a battery-saving mode manages the phone's various battery-saving features for you. It might, for example, prevent apps from updating in the background, or from accessing the location services and many more. Often this mode usually turns on when your battery level drops to 20 percent, but you can set it to kick earlier. And the sooner the phone switches to this power-saving mode, the longer its battery will last. 
  Battery saver measures are manual, including turning the brightness on your screen down, turning off mobile data when you’re not using it,accurate battery information, monitor of system app activities. 
• In MIUI 8 Power Saving settings you can choose any app or system´which you like to optimize: Settings > Battery & performance > Manage apps' battery usage > choose apps. Here you can choose, whether you need to restrict background apps, background activities or simply no restriction. In the Power Saving Modes you can choose between Off and On. After tapping 3-4 times to On, you will activate the Ultimate Mode, which can help you to save energy extremely, because it's freezing apps in the background! But keep in mind that radios, network connections, timers and more can be affected by setting this mode. It will restrict strongly your background activities, but when your battery is very low and your need your phone, this feature could be very helpful
• you can access these features also from the Security App
• In MIUI 7 the settings are a bit different, but very helpful as well
  

    

Battery saver / Power saving modes. Different options in MIUI

WALLPAPERS, WIDGETS, APPS, BATTERY HYGIENE

• remove unnecessary widgets from the home screen. 
  Many Android apps, including weather apps and news apps and of course social networks (i.e. Twitter, reddit, weather, Gmail and the like), come with widgets which can be placed on the home screen for instant updates. However, widgets are battery drainers due to their constant syncing with the mothership or power-sucking animations. Consider the frequency with which you want your widgets and background apps to update. You could potentially set your weather app to update every hour, but the more frequently it updates, the more power it requires. If you only check your weather twice per day, try setting the refresh interval to every 12 hours instead. If you don't need a permanent window into Twitter, or regular updates on the weather, remove them . Maybe you will suffer some comfort - but it can help you saving energy.
• remove live wallpaper, because lot of them are like videos constantly playing in the background even if you are on the launcher or not. 
  Further it depends on what sensors the live wallpapers require. A live wallpaper needs to be configured and developed properly to not suck on the battery.
• watch for apps background activities: explore which apps and services are constantly running in the background. Remember that apps like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Netflix, Spotify or simply Google Play Services are the main battery suckers. Consider well which you must have and which you can restrict. You can configure it easily under Settings > Battery & performance > Manage apps' battery usage > choose apps.
• Save your music locally (internal storage or external SD-Card): 
  Most of us are using streaming services such as Apple Music or Spotify to get our tunes. However, streaming requires your phone to maintain an active wireless connection—Wi-Fi or cellular—to the service you’re using to stream music. This active connection consumes a significant amount of power in comparison with playing that same music if it were stored on your phone. Try to store your playlists and your music locally, if possible.
• uninstall useless apps
• prevent apps from starting automatically
• KEEP YOUR PHONE COOL
• charge between 40% and 80%: the best way to maintain smartphone batteries is to keep your phone battery more than 40% charged. Constantly allowing the battery to go from completely full to completely empty can damage it and decrease its capacity over time. Best practice? Keep your battery between 40% and 80% charged

WHAT YOU SHOULD NOT DO / MYTHS ABOUT SAVING BATTERY

• I am pretty sure you’ve seen this “tip” for extending battery life more than once :close (or force-quit, as it’s commonly called) apps that you aren’t currently using. Force closing apps doesn't always help: an app which is running in the background maybe don't use very much battery power at all, but if you force-close it, that purges maybe  all of its code from your device’s RAM, and that  means that the next time you open the same app, the phone has to reload all of that code—and this  of course, requires energy. 
  A much better idea is to use your phone’s battery-usage screen (see text above), and find the  huge battery-usage applications. If you see an app listed there as a huge consumer of battery power, and it isn’t an app you’ve been actively using or one that you’ve given permission to perform actions  in the background, force-quitting it is a safe approach.
• along with the previous tip, you have heard about task killers or memory managers, battery savers and doctors, etc...
  Task managers and task killer apps are believed by many to both free up system memory and improve battery life. This misconception couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only are they not necessary, but they can also ruin performance in many ways. 
  Your  system will always correctly allocate resources to the apps as they are needed, because it's designed to be efficient when it comes to allocating available resources to background applications and tools. If Android needs more memory, it will force-quit an app that you haven’t used in a while – this all happens automatically, without installing any task killers. Restarting applications repeatedly will probably cost you more battery life than leaving them alone. Furthermore many such "helping apps" are consuming lot of power itself, leeching your data, opening annoying pop-ups and ads. Please don't use it!

CONCLUSION

Here comes the end today's lesson. We could discuss all night long about batteries and i would provide you more informations and suggestions. Don't forget,  this was an overview about some basics regarding the battery optimization. There is many more you can do to save battery: using the Doze Mode if you are on Marshmallow, installing the Greenify Appor an Wakelock Blocker App. You could freeze unwanted apps or uninstallbloatware. Further you could tweak your Kernel and your CPU and related settings.  But the most deeper configurations do require a rooted device