Does a cluttered homescreen affect battery life?

[Nehemiah]

I only use 3 homescreens on my gs3..my main screen is filled with widgets..and the other 2 are less than half full with widgets..i heard somewhere that the more widgets you have on your screen the more your battery will work to load them when you wake your phone up. I dont use any kinda on the go widgets like a facebook widget where i can just update my status automatically since i dont log into facebook unless i need to do something but i then immediately log out..but i've heard that even the regular facebook widget drains the battery..i have normal widgets like facebook, skype, netflix, clock, calendar, im assuming just regular or normal widgets that people use..i also have the google search bar on the top of my screen..nothing dramatic, but does a full screen of widgets drain the battery faster?

 

[funkylogik]

Homescreen, live wallpapers etc, only use power while u look at them bro.
Certain widgets are gona use power in b/ground.
Get "gsam" app to see whats eatin battery, its free n well respected

Ps, bro/sis

 

[lennydude]

Not a pro but in my experience i would say no. Not unless you open somthing or have it opened in the background.
I personally find 2 major things that i can do to keep my battery at top performance. One is 4G/wifi. If the phone ever goes into "search" mode looking for either, it will drain the battery. Also, GPS drains my battery quickly. I keep it shut off. Only turn it on when i need it.

Lenny

 

[funkylogik]

Oh aye GPS or any radio type thing with a bad or no signal will MUNCH battery :thumbup:

 

[Nehemiah]

ok..i never use wifi, gps, or bluetooth..only 4g. I dont use live wallpapers either.

I am using gsam now for the last 8 hours..and still learning how to really read and understand what im seeing..I have a custom rom King Kang build and linaro kernel..which should help my battery..but i also use golauncher ex..which is at the top of the list in draining my battery right now as far as gsam is telling me..which i new..but it is the coolest launcher in the market, and i cant see parting with it..i just wanted to know about the widgets, because i see people with a very limited homescreens..usually just a few apps and maybe time and weather..never understood why people wouldnt put all there apps they would use during the day on the homescreen for quick access throughout the day..i thought maybe it had something to do with the battery

p.s. i'm a longhaired man by the way

 

[john_g]

I think any extra battery drain caused by animated widgets would be minimal, unless you spend hours keeping the screen on so you can look at them! What might have given rise to the idea, though, is that any online syncing that is needed to keep the widgets up to date *will* consume appreciable amounts of power.

 

[Fuzzy13]

Good question.

I assume you are taking this assumption based off of how PC's desktop items tend to use more RAM the more you have? If not................just ignore all that then.


I've always kinda wondered the same thing though so I'm glad I came across this.


Happy New Year

 

[quickaudi]

If the widgets are set to update, like weather or news or email, then yes.

 

[Nehemiah]

Good question.

I assume you are taking this assumption based off of how PC's desktop items tend to use more RAM the more you have? If not................just ignore all that then.


I've always kinda wondered the same thing though so I'm glad I came across this.


Happy New Year

well i wasnt even aware that your pc used more ram the more widgets you have on the screen..good to know..so does that also apply to cellphones?..i also use the kill all feature everytime i lock my phone after using it.

 

[Fuzzy13]

well i wasnt even aware that your pc used more ram the more widgets you have on the screen..good to know..so does that also apply to cellphones?..i also use the kill all feature everytime i lock my phone after using it.

Being that most PC's come with at least 4Gb of RAM now a days, it really doesn't make a difference as to how many icons you have on your desktop. Back in the windows 95 days, yes. Haha

On a phone though, having your normal shortcuts to whatever apps you use often pasted to one of your homescreens doesn't use up any memory. Now something such as a live wallpaper will because obviously it's running constantly. Widgets such as a weather, will use extra memory because they have to update. And if they are animated then they will constantly use more memory because they are always running just like the live wallpaper. Plus aside from the extra memory usage, they are using more battery as well. Live wallpapers to me are pointless. They do nothing for me but they take away battery and memory. Widgets on the other hand I can deal with depending on what they are. I only have the Gsearch widget on my phone as I can just open up whatever app I need instead of putting a battery hogging widget on my homescreen.


There's an app called Android Assistant that has many features such as cache cleaning, battery saving, battery stats, system stats, startup manager, app backup, etc... and allows you to set the app to automatically kill running apps to a certain time frame of your choosing like every 10 minutes, every 30 minutes, hour, etc..... I've been using this app every since I've had a smartphone and that feature is one of the main features I really enjoy. No need to kill apps when you lock your phone because the app will do it for you. Check it out if you haven't already, it's a great little app with a lot of tools.

 

[Nehemiah]

Being that most PC's come with at least 4Gb of RAM now a days, it really doesn't make a difference as to how many icons you have on your desktop. Back in the windows 95 days, yes. Haha

On a phone though, having your normal shortcuts to whatever apps you use often pasted to one of your homescreens doesn't use up any memory. Now something such as a live wallpaper will because obviously it's running constantly. Widgets such as a weather, will use extra memory because they have to update. And if they are animated then they will constantly use more memory because they are always running just like the live wallpaper. Plus aside from the extra memory usage, they are using more battery as well. Live wallpapers to me are pointless. They do nothing for me but they take away battery and memory. Widgets on the other hand I can deal with depending on what they are. I only have the Gsearch widget on my phone as I can just open up whatever app I need instead of putting a battery hogging widget on my homescreen.


There's an app called Android Assistant that has many features such as cache cleaning, battery saving, battery stats, system stats, startup manager, app backup, etc... and allows you to set the app to automatically kill running apps to a certain time frame of your choosing like every 10 minutes, every 30 minutes, hour, etc..... I've been using this app every since I've had a smartphone and that feature is one of the main features I really enjoy. No need to kill apps when you lock your phone because the app will do it for you. Check it out if you haven't already, it's a great little app with a lot of tools.

thx..checking it out right now

 

[Metfanant]

for the record...WiFi uses less battery than the cellular radio

 

[Nehemiah]

for the record...WiFi uses less battery than the cellular radio

im assuming cellular radio is 3g/4g/lte?..i read that in a thread also..but i dont get to use wifi at all during the day..only 4g..i stream music and use netflix for a few hours everyday..and still manage to get around 20 hours on a single charge...i do turn off data when im not using it though which is the majority of the day..i turn it on only to check emails maybe twice a day..but i want to get maximum battery without sacrificing losing to many features of this awesome phone..i ordered an extended battery a few days ago so ik i will easily get 2 days on a charge...but i want a week..it will never stop..lol

 

[Gmash]

I know it's been said many, many times, but killing apps is counter productive on Android.

 

[quickaudi]

im assuming cellular radio is 3g/4g/lte?..i read that in a thread also..but i dont get to use wifi at all during the day..only 4g..i stream music and use netflix for a few hours everyday..and still manage to get around 20 hours on a single charge

not surprising - the radios themselves aren't nearly the battery hog that the 4.8" 720p luminous wonder is.