How to Save Battery Life in Android Tablet

You probably know that it’s the screen that consumes battery the most in your Android device (whether it’s a phone or a tablet). The math is simple: the bigger the screen of your device, the greater the battery consumption. There is no workaround here.

The fact that devices with larger screens (like Android tablets) usually have greater battery capacity unfortunately does not mean that their battery life is especially long (or even significantly longer).

Until some ground-breaking technology is invented, we must rely on a set of good practices that will help you improve the battery life of your Android tablet at least a bit. Let’s explore each one of them!

1. Turn on the airplane mode when you are not using your Android tablet.

The airplane mode puts your Android tablet in a totally offline mode where no communication is possible. Your device will not scan for other devices or Wi-Fi networks.

You will only be able to play offline games and browse the existing content of your device (like books or listen to music you previously downloaded).

Of course, whether you want to turn the airplane mode on while your Android tablet is not in use depends on how you use your Android tablet most of the time (for work, education, fun or something else).

In my case it’s a great idea which lets me save battery of my Android tablet so much that I can charge it only once in a couple of days.

That is because I use my tablet mainly for education, browsing the web and reading before going to sleep (usually when I am extremely exhausted).

I have all my accounts like Facebook or Gmail added on my tablet but I also have them on my laptop computer and my Android phone so it doesn’t really make any difference for me if my tablet is offline (and I don’t receive duplicate notifications).

2. Turn Wi-Fi off if you are not using it.

We all know that the Wi-Fi feature is probably the most important feature of all Android tablets and the one that is used most often.

However, if you are a geek who won’t connect to some unknown (or worse unsecured) network, you can turn it off when you know you won’t be using it (e.g. during travel).

Your Android tablet will consume much more battery when constantly searching for available networks. The battery use will be even greater than when you are connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi and  sending data back and forth.

The piece of advice here is thus very simple: turn Wi-Fi off if you aren’t actively using it.

3. Adjust screen settings accordingly.

You remember that I told you in the beginning of this tutorial that it’s the screen which consumes the battery of your Android tablet the most, don’t you?

Well, this is why you should take care of adjusting its settings accordingly. There are basically two things you need to take care of:

  • Screen brightness. The brighter the screen, the more battery it will consume. I suggest that you set brightness to be as dim as it’s still comfortable for you. For me setting it somewhere in the middle is just ideal.
  • Screen timeout. Here the rule is quite similar. The longer the screen is on, the more battery it will consume. Again, how you adjust the screen timeout depends on what you use your Android tablet mostly. I suggest setting it to be 30 seconds (and certainly not more than one minute).

4. Uninstall or disable the apps you don’t use.

Almost every app that is installed on your Android tablet consumes some of its CPU resources (even when you are not using in) and thus drains its battery (more or less).

That’s why one of the most important practices if you want to save battery on your Android tablet is to either uninstall or disable any apps you don’t use or need. Here is what you need to do:

  • The easiest thing is to install the Easy Uninstaller app and batch uninstall the unneeded apps. All you need to do is select the apps you want to get rid of and then click UNINSTALL.
  • Some of the built-in apps cannot be uninstalled without rooting your phone so here I suggest you simply disable (or turn off). To do that go to Settings > Application manager and switch to the ALL tab where you will be able to browse all the apps installed on your device.
  • Click on the app you want to disable (or turn off in Samsung devices) and simply click on Turn off.
  • The app will remain in the memory but it will be turned off, which means it will disappear from the app grid and won’t consume any CPU resources.

5. Use some battery saving app.

There are really tons of battery-saving apps which promise they will do wonders to your battery life. I still haven’t finished a major test comparing the most popular battery saving apps and measuring how effective they really are (the test and its results will soon be available).

For now I can recommend at least trying one of such apps as they really give you tons of very useful information about battery usage and ways to save power.

You can try one of the following apps (you can download each of them directly from Google Play).

6. Keep your Android tablet up to date.

If there are some bugs in the software  of your Android tablet (and there always are), they may cause your device to misbehave or increase its battery consumption.

The manufacturers of your device regularly release updates to fix these bugs and your task is to install them as soon as they are available.

What I suggest here is to regularly check for updates and make sure that Auto update is enabled in your Android tablet.

7. Control battery consumption of your Android tablet.

The above mentioned battery-saving apps, of course, let you analyze your battery consumption in a lots of ways. However, remember that these apps are only an addition and the data they often  offer are simply a rough estimate of what’s really happening inside of your device.

That’s why I suggest you make use of the built-in feature of Android tablets which lets you analyze their battery consumption in detail. All you need to do is go to Settings > Battery and you will see for how long your device has been running (without charging) and what has been consuming its battery the most.

As you can see in the case of my Android tablet it’s the screen and YouTube app, which is a very true reflection of how I use my tablet (to mainly watch YouTube videos).

Did these ways really helped you save battery of your Android tablet? Do you know any other methods? Feel free to leave me comments in the comment box below or contact me directly. I would love to hear from you (as always).


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