10 tips and tricks for your Moto G battery
The Moto G is probably one of the most celebrated budget phones to have appeared in the last little while. Inside this little device, Motorola has packed a ton of smartphone goodness without the high cost of a typical smartphone. While right out of the box, the Moto G has a lot going for it, namely how long it lasts with its battery, we’ve always been the type to try and push the envelope just a little bit more. As such, we’ll show you more tips to get the most of your Moto G battery and make sure it powers through your day.
Updated Software
Needless to say, each firmware update brings features and fixes that improve the performance of the device as well as providing better power management systems. The Moto G has been running Android 4.4.2 for some months now and we would imagine that most of Moto G users will have updated to the latest version of Android already. If you haven’t done so, it’s time to go ahead and do it for yourself. Head over to Settings > About Telephone > System Updates to see if you have an outstanding firmware update that needs to be downloaded and installed. Keep this in mind for checking for newer versions of Android, as we could possibly see Android 4.4.3 being rolled out to Motorola devices in a few weeks’ time.
Control Google Now
Google Now is an awesome multitasking app. However, it does tend to eat up data and constantly need an internet connection which is hard on a battery. Instead of having Google Now on by default all the time, you can disable it and just use the standard Google Search option when you need to find something.
When you search for something in Google Search by just typing in your query, you can click on the three dots on the lower right hand side of the screen and go to Settings. You can then disable Google Now by default and then reconfirm your decision when the notification pops up. If you want to enable Google Now again in the future, just repeat these instructions.
Disable the heavy hitters
Applications like Go Launcher, Themer, and other graphically intensive applications use a lot of RAM while running and by proxy, a lot of battery. If you want to avoid draining your battery through using custom launchers, we recommend dumbing it down a bit with other less intensive launchers such as Nova or Apex.
Selectively synchronize your data
Picking and choosing what automatically syncs across your devices is very important when it comes to battery conservation. By default, whenever you take a photo it will be uploaded to your cloud storage for safekeeping and while handy, can suck your battery dry if you’re not careful. As such, it is important to go through your list of Synchronized options and picking and choosing what you want automatically done and what you can do for yourself. To check these settings out, head over toSettings > Accounts > Google > Synchronization. Pick and choose what you’d want automatically synced and uncheck the options that you don’t.
Disable location settings
Some apps use your location settings and GPS coordinates to help track where you’re at or where your device is going. Applications such as those that track weather, navigation services, Google maps, etc, all use this option and just like synchronized data, these can quickly suck your battery dry. In order to turn this off by default, head over to Settings > Location and just turn it off completely.
Disable Bluetooth and WiFi
Despite it being easy to just leave your Bluetooth and WiFi on at all times just in case you run into an open hotspot, having both these options enabled all the will most like consume most of your battery in no time. By having your device constantly search for WiFi or Bluetooth connections, you’re draining the battery faster than you need to be. You can quickly disable/enable both from theQuick Settings panel (swipe down from the right hand corner of your device). As well, you can also enable WiFi Optimisation in your WiFi settings to help reduce the amount of strain on your device when you do have Wifi enabled and searching for hotspots.
Configure automatic brightness
Your display is another area that will suck your battery dry if you’re not careful. The brighter your display is, the less battery time you’ll have and this doesn’t just apply to just the Moto G but all mobile devices in general. You can easily curb the display from eating away at your battery life by either setting the brightness to automatically change with changing light conditions or to manually set the level to something lower. To quickly to this, open up your Quick Settings and choose the brightness option. From there, you can change the level yourself or set it to Auto.
Sleep Timer
When not using your Moto G, how long does it take for it to sleep? If it takes longer than one minute, that means that the display is still using the battery despite the phone being idle and not in use. To change this, head to Settings > Display > Sleep and from there you can configure how long it takes your Moto G to turn its screen off. As we stated before, we advise to choose something that is under a minute to help conserve your battery.
Selective Data Plan
If you are not using the internet, why consume data and your battery alike? You can change your settings so that you are using only 2G networks for calls and then toggle 3G for when you want to use other functions, such as browse the web or your Facebook. To do this, head to Settings > More > Mobile Networks > Network Mode.
Greenify
We’ve touted the merits of this app before in countless of other battery saving threads, but we’ll do it again. Greenify can help you freeze and control apps that are running in the background and put them into “hibernation mode” that stops them from lagging your device and leeching your battery. It can be downloaded for free on the Google Play Store, but does require that you have your Moto G rooted before using it. We show you how to do this in our previous article “How to unlock the bootloader and root the Moto G”.
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