MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Which saves battery more: turning off background data or autosync?

lorken · 02-06-2012, 02:43 PM

Like others, I'm attempting to find ways to make my battery last longer. Now that I've finished my "new toy, lets play around with everything on it" phase, I find I use my vox primarily as an ereader, particularly on long commutes.

In order to conserve battery life, I always leave my vox in Airplane Mode and only turn on wireless when I want to use it (then I turn it off as soon as I'm finished).

I never use Sleep Mode; I always turn the vox off completely.

In addition to these habits, I have developed a routine every time I turn it on: I immediately go to running apps (I have a widget on my home screen so I don't have to go through the menu) and I force stop the following:

- Rdio
- Globe2Go
- Kobo Update Check
- System Update

The only apps I leave running are Settings and Android keyboard. (Every few days I will let the Kobo update check and system update programs run for a few minutes to let them do their updates, but mostly I leave them off.)

I also know from reading this forum that turning off Background Data and Auto-Sync will save on battery life. However, the vox only allows me to turn off one or the other -- it wont let me turn off both at the same time. (When I uncheck one, the other checks itself on automatically. I cannot figure out a way to uncheck both at the same time.)

So I'm trying to figure out which one will save me the most battery juice. Does anyone know? I will probably do a test by leaving it in one mode for a while, then the other, and then look at the battery life graph to see which has the slower drain...unless someone has done that already and can say which is better.

Or has anyone found a way to turn them both off?

Any feedback would be much appreciated, thanks!

ETA: Oh, forgot to add that going through all the above gets me about 5 hours per charge...sometimes up to 5 hours 15 minutes.

02-06-2012, 02:43 PM	#1
lorken Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 110 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Vox	Which saves battery more: turning off background data or autosync? Like others, I'm attempting to find ways to make my battery last longer. Now that I've finished my "new toy, lets play around with everything on it" phase, I find I use my vox primarily as an ereader, particularly on long commutes. In order to conserve battery life, I always leave my vox in Airplane Mode and only turn on wireless when I want to use it (then I turn it off as soon as I'm finished). I never use Sleep Mode; I always turn the vox off completely. In addition to these habits, I have developed a routine every time I turn it on: I immediately go to running apps (I have a widget on my home screen so I don't have to go through the menu) and I force stop the following: - Rdio - Globe2Go - Kobo Update Check - System Update The only apps I leave running are Settings and Android keyboard. (Every few days I will let the Kobo update check and system update programs run for a few minutes to let them do their updates, but mostly I leave them off.) I also know from reading this forum that turning off Background Data and Auto-Sync will save on battery life. However, the vox only allows me to turn off one or the other -- it wont let me turn off both at the same time. (When I uncheck one, the other checks itself on automatically. I cannot figure out a way to uncheck both at the same time.) So I'm trying to figure out which one will save me the most battery juice. Does anyone know? I will probably do a test by leaving it in one mode for a while, then the other, and then look at the battery life graph to see which has the slower drain...unless someone has done that already and can say which is better. Or has anyone found a way to turn them both off? Any feedback would be much appreciated, thanks! ETA: Oh, forgot to add that going through all the above gets me about 5 hours per charge...sometimes up to 5 hours 15 minutes. Last edited by lorken; 02-06-2012 at 02:47 PM.