HTC One Protip: Turn on Power Saver mode for consistently great battery life
I’ve had my HTC One for a little over a week now and like many of you, I’ve fallen completely in love with it. I’ll spare you from me simply gushing over the phone in a post. Instead, I wanted to address something I haven’t been too happy about with the device and even covered it in my review — the One’s sometimes great, sometimes not-so-great battery life.
If you or anyone else has noticed that, on some days, the One’s battery keeps on going and going, while other days it reminds you of some of your previous Android devices, here’s a simple little protip for you. Power saver mode: use it.
I know, it sounds painfully obvious, what, with the ongoing notification always reminding that it’s only a single tap away. But I think many HTC One users are only turning to Power Saver in dire straights or when they know they’ll be away from an outlet for a longer period of time than usual (flying for instance). The thing is, Power saver mode is great for simple everyday use and I’ve found that when enabled, I’ve been consistently pulling “great” battery life, day in. Day out.
Power saver only has 4 options to help conserve battery life: CPU power, display, vibration, and data connection. The options that have the highest impact on the battery are “CPU power” and “Data connection.” Brightness should be turned off with auto-brightness enabled in your normal display settings. Vibration has the smallest impact on battery and should only be turned off when you find yourself walking down a dark alley and need every last second of juice.
I know what some of you are thinking. By “conserving CPU usage,” wont that make the One perform noticeably slower? The answer to that is a resounding no. The phone still feels blazing fast as ever and the included 2GB of RAM definitely helps out in that regard. I doubt anyone out there will notice any change in “speed” what-so-ever and those that do are probably suffering from placebo.
Now when it comes to the Data connection option (turning off data when the screen is off), this is probably going to be the biggest area of concern for some. Missing out on Kiks, Gtalks, WhatsApps, and emails because your data is off sounds like you’re gonna have a bad time but for whatever reason, I’ve noticed these messages still coming through. Not sure if it periodically enables data to let some messages fly through, or if it only turns off data during long hours of screen off time. In any case, it hasn’t inconvenienced me in the slightest and it might even be refreshing for those who don’t want their social networks hounding them while at the dinner table.
So, that’s about it. I challenge each and every one of you with an HTC One to give Power saver mode a spin for a full day and see if you notice a dramatic increase in battery life. The other day I didn’t even have to plug my phone in before bed and woke up to almost them same exact percentage as when I fell asleep. Hopefully you turn out equally great results, and don’t forget to leave your success stories in the comments. Cheers.