I found a few things that help. No I'm not an IT Geek (no offense, I wish I was).
Before I share helpful things I did think I see here I agree with. The screen is a memory hog. I only use "auto" when outside. But it's lowest manual brightness setting is still pretty bright. If we could decrease brightness without an app I'm guessing battery life would be much better. App called Doze will decrease brightness further, but it's self defeating because your running another app.
Catch 22
I'm not rooted, and on Strait Talk, no I won't use their app.
Here's what's helped, sure many of you have done a lot of this:
*Disabled all bloat that the phone will allow
*Green Power Battery Saver. Not a task killer, or invasive.
Allows sync scheduling choices
Manages Wi-fi when not using
Manages Data
I used Pro, but the free version is what lead me to buy this app.
* Installed Battery Alert 40-80 lite. Prevents over charge and protects battery
*Something New Installed app Doze.
Works on non-root. Keeps selected apps from accessing data via it's own VPN (pretty smart) until you use them. You can select. Unfortunately all apps don't show up in the menu, but most do.
In "aggressive mode" will keep down even some Google apps, like Playstore,Google app app,Hangouts (can manually shut them down and they stay down). Even Kik will stay off. But won't keep What'sapp down, so I uninstalled. (eats too much)
With selected apps that stay up, knocking them down just uses up battery life leave em' alone, but at least they're not drawing data unless I use them. It's helped.
Be careful to no disable stuff you need. You can experiment with this.
*Use very basic free Bitdefender. Lite on resources. (I don't trust CM who has a lite AV as well)
To compensate I run Malwarebytes 2-4 times a month, then manually stop it.
(a resource beast, do it while charging)
Doze will keep it down (free w/ no adds)
-Avoid free/resource heavy apps. Adds suck for battery/privacy.
-load solid black pic (not wallpaper app) off of Google Search
-Killed almost all widgets.
-Keep all "auto" apps, avoid using.
-Occasionally run Wakelock app, see what's keeping it up. Disable if I don't need it.
What didn't Work:
*Tried Greenify twice last year.
For this phone rooted, the phone functions poorly. After uninstall my phone was f-ed up. Had to do a system re-boot.
*? Anyway to decrease screen brightness beyond stock settings, w/out another app?
* As said here, wish Cynagen supported it.
*? Would Nova Launcher, if set properly, decrease juice use
* Afraid to root. Actually love the phone. Dropped multiple times. I can live with 4.1.2.
Hope this helps and hope somebody has better solutions.
Thanks