Battery statistics in the settings saw a considerable makeover in the developer previews of Android 8.0. In Nougat, the battery usage screen showed everything that had an effect, and screen on time was part of this list. With the Oreo developer previews, this was changed a bit to show more granular statistics showing screen on time per app and separating overall screen time into its own section. This helps you figure out how much an app is doing in the background, and while the change was welcomed by most, some users still wanted the option to view things the more traditional way.
Read MoreAndroid Oreo feature spotlight: More traditional battery stats make a return with 'Show full device usage' setting
Android O feature spotlight: Granular battery usage for system-level items and services is gone
What's the opposite of a feature spotlight? I think we should call this an "Android O feature regression" post, because that's what we're looking at here. If you've installed the first Android O dev preview and you've been monitoring battery usage to see if all that fuss about the improved battery management and new background limits is true, then you may have noticed one thing missing: you can't see granular usage anymore for system-level items.
Previously, on Nougat, when you went to Settings>Battery, you could tap on any item in the list below the graph to see its usage details since the last full charge.
Read MoreAndroid Wear v1.4 Makes Some Minor Changes To The Settings Screen, Prepares For New Wear OS Update [APK Teardown + Download]
Version 1.4 of the Android Wear app started rolling out late Friday. The theme of this update, at least for what's currently live, is a set of changes to the Settings screen. There are a couple of new options, but they come at the expense of the battery stats screen. A look under the hood also shows that a few other features are either live or in the works for the next Wear OS update.
Read MoreGoogle Will Not Allow OEMs To Hide Information From Battery Stats In Marshmallow
Google has implemented some battery saving technologies in Android 6.0, and OEMs will have to use them. That's great, but what about tracking your battery usage? Some device makers are famous for obscuring or completely removing certain stats (eg. HTC doesn't display screen-on time). That won't be allowed in Android 6.0, according to the Marshmallow Compatibility Definition Document (CDD).
Read More
Android Marshmallow Preview 3 Adds Per-App Battery Usage In mAh (Milliamp-Hours) To Battery Use Details Area
While Android's own battery stats have always been quite robust compared to, say, iOS, many have long yearned for even more practical but granular statistics to help them evaluate their device's power consumption. In the third Android 6.0 developer preview, Google has now added a new field to battery stats for individuals apps: usage of battery capacity in mAh.
Milliamp-hours are used (as opposed to milliwatt-hours) because this is how smartphone batteries are rated to consumers, and the unit more or less works if you just want a device-specific measurement of consumption. Of course, because it's a computed usage, it's hard to say how accurate or meaningful the figure really is (if you have any insight on this, feel free to enlighten us in the comments).
Read More
Calibrate Your Battery Stats The Easy Way To Improve Battery Life
If you're a rooted user, chances are that you flash new ROMs fairly often. What you may not know, however, is that your phone saves the battery statistics from old ROMs, and if you've never recalibrated your battery before, then your time away from the charger may not be as good as it could be.
This is for rooted users only.
Resetting battery stats can be an intimidating task for those who don't spend a lot of time in recovery (or who have never even booted into recovery). Fortunately, XDA member marosige has created an app that makes battery calibration a snap.
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