[Xperia Z2 General] stanley08:
When you talk smartphone, you want consistency, you want reliability, you want good battery life. And considering also that the Xperia Z2 doesn't have a swappable battery, at least not easily, you want your mobile to keep going for as long as possible.

So this thread is to help you optimise the battery life of your Xperia Z2. It's not 'Magic', it's just knowing what drains battery and avoiding it. Simple tips most people know and well, many more should. :) I will also use the steps from my Initial thread here - http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2579075 as the steps there are actually helpful to just about any android devices.

Just dat in this thread, i will try to target it at the Xperia Z2 of course.

Xperia Z2 specific tips (Or any other Xperia device)

1. Turn On Stamina Mode: App drawer > Settings > Power Management. Turn it on.

After turning on Stamina mode, remember to add the applications you need active in Standy, these are applications your rely on for notifications, such as Instant messaging apps.

If you do not do this, you will not receive IM messages or email notifications till you turn on your screen.

Example of the apps on my list are: BBM, Email, Gmail, Instagram, Messenger (FB), WhatsApp. So I still get my messages. :)

2. Turn On Extended Stand By: App drawer > Settings > Power Management > Stamina mode. Then tick Extended Standby.

3. Turn On Extended usage: App drawer > Settings > Power Management > Stamina mode. Then tick Extended Usage. (If you notice lag, turn off this feature) - But this has a HUGE effect on extending battery life. I don't get lags, so i leave it on.

4. Turn On Low Battery mode: App drawer > Settings > Power Management. Turn on Low battery mode. Now select Low Battery mode then Unick Mobile Data Off and WiFi Off, as i'm guessing you would still want to use your internet when ur battery is below 20%.

5. Turn On location Based WiFi: As the name implies, it turns on ur WiFi when u are in a certain location (say home or office). Then turns WiFi off when u out of that location. This feature doesn't work in my situation as I have a mobile pocket router. So I keep it turned off, do the same if you you have one of those too.

6. Turn On Queue background data: App drawer > Settings > Power Management. Tick Queue background data.

As the description below it says, what it does is queue the background data and send out background data at intervals, instead of sending randomly and using more battery.

7. Turning Off X-Reality Engine: This can also help you save some battery, but i guess most people will rather have than on. You can find this here Settings > Display. First thing on the list is X-Reality Engine.

8. Freeze Bloat: Bloatware are apps that could be useful but are not neccesary for the effective running of the phone. The more bloat u have running, the more ram your device uses and in turn, battery. I have made a list of Apps that are 'Safe to Freeze' on the Xperia Z2 itself, as I am not yet rooted at the time of this original post, the list is not yet complete.

But I will add alot more to this list when I root and get the option to freeze even more. You can disable these apps by going into Settings > Apps, then swipe to the 'All' tab. Select the app then hit disable.

Here is the list below.

Safe to Freeze Apps

Account Manager

Black Hole

Bubbles

Drive (I have limited data, i don't use it - I reckon it will drain battery too)

Google lyrics extension

Google Play Newsstand

Google Search (Will explain later in this post)

Google+ (Will explain later in this post)

Maps (Will explain later in this post)

Movie Creator (This disables Timeshift Video creation)

News & Weather

Photo Analyser Service

Play Games

Podcast

SensMe slideshow

Sketch

Smart Connect (You will need for Sony accessories)

Social Live

Socialife

Sony Select (You will need enabled to download themes)

Support

Weather Widget

Wikipedia extension

Wireless Emergency Alerts

Xperia Calender Sync

Xperia Music Likes

Xperia Socila Engine Sharing

Xperia Lounge

Xperia with Facebook

YouTube (I almost never use it, if you do.. No need to)

YouTube extension

YouTube karaoke extension

General Tips (Adopted from my first thread)

9. Greenify: ROOT ONLY EVERY rooted user must have Greenify! It's a fantastic app! It hibernates apps that you are not using so they never get to use your battery, yet the apps are available whenever you need them. No stress!

Download Greenify here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify (I bought the paid version as it has more fuctions)

For those who don't know greenify or how to use it, it's simple! Only Greenify those apps you don't rely on for Push Notifications.

For example, don't greenify apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Viber, Twitter, BBM if you expect to get notifications from them in the background.

Feel free to Greenify other apps like your games, adobe reader, dictionary, and the rest of them as you don't receive notifications from.

Note: If you are a NON ROOT Greenify user, you can still select to greenify apps. Go into Greenify and click the '3 dots' at the bottom right corner of the screen and hit 'Create hibernation shortcut'. This will send a shortcut to your home screen which u can use to close all ur supposedly 'greenified' apps by just touching that button. Do this whenever, especially just before u lock ur device. It's very effective. :) However, Greenify works best on Rooted devices. It hibernates automatically. :)

10. Screen/Brightness: As we all know, normally the screen consumes the most power so if you can manage ur screen properly, u can get some extra juice. My advice on brightness is set to Lowest then tick 'Auto', so you won't have to bother about setting screen brightness especially when outdoors. Then you should screen also set timeout to 30s. Try to avoid using live wallpapers as it uses the GPU for the animations.

11. GPS/Maps: Now, GPS is like the Number One drainer of battery and many many people don't know this. Here is what you do, pull down your notification bar with 2 fingers and make sure 'Location' is turned off. Leave turned off 'ALWAYS' unless you need to use GPS.

Maps is also another app that drains battery in the background, I don't use maps at all, so I keep it frozen/disabled all the time.

But if you use maps always and you are ROOTED, my advice is that you open up TitaniumBackup, look for maps on the list of apps, long press it and then convert to User app. Now u can Greenify it and it will still be available whenever you need it. :)

Note: Latest versions of Titanium Backup doesn't allow you to convert user apps, I can't find it anywhere anyways.. But here is a work-around. Uninstall Maps in Titanium Backup. Then re-install it from Play Store. Now it will install as User app instead of system app and u can freeze it. :)

12. Google Now / Google+: Google now does drain battery, if you don't use Google Now, turn it off. Go into Google now, enter settings and turn off. I keep my Google now frozen as I never use it anyways. If I ever need to, I will unfreeze it. :)

Google+ is one app that drains alot of battery, if you do not use it much or don't need it at all, my advice is that you handle it. Greenify it or better still, Get rid of it. However, if you use Google+ always and you are ROOTED, Greenify it just as I said in the step above.

If you successfully handle numbers 11 and 12, you will not have issues with 'Google Services' drain anymore! :D

13. Sounds/Vibration: Maybe not really a big deal, but those keypad/touch sounds do drain battery. It's fine to leave them on if you 'really' like em, but if you can do without, then do! Especially Haptic Feedback! (Vibrate on touch). Settings > Sound. Now scroll down to System. You will get the option there to turn them off. It's fine to leave Dial pad touch tones and StartUp tone. You don't hear/use then dat often (If that makes any sense to you lol). Also go into ur keyboard settings and turn off any sounds and vibration :)

14. Reception: Believe it or not, reception is VERY IMPORTANT when it comes to battery life saving. If you have good reception, then it's smooth sailing and good battery, but if your reception isn't good then your phone is always always trying to reconnect your apps and services to the internet, over and over and over again! (especially on mobile data). Trust me, this can take a serious Toll on your battery.

Here is how: Well, since i'm always on WiFi (have a pocket router as i said earlier).. I never need '3G/HSPA' reception active (No 4G here), so I set my phone to GSM/2G Only. Go into Settings > More... > Mobile Networks. then change Network mode to GSM Only). If you use LTE, you can set to either just 3G Only as that should still be more stable than 4G/LTE, you can still set as above too, afterall you won't be needing the LTE connection when on WiFi.

Bottomline, setting phone to 'GSM only' saves you a CHUNK of battery :)

However, if this sounds too complicated or something, this App makes it simple. (SADLY it is ROOT ONLY) You can set it to switch your phone to GSM Only when on WiFi and then Back to 4G/3G when disconnected from WiFi. Pretty Neat eh? :D

http://xdaforums.com/nexus-4/themes-apps/app-intelli3g-2g-3g-4g-toggle-battery-t2580234

15. Disable Animation scales: Settings > Developer Options. Then scroll down to 'Drawing' section. And set the following to 'Animation Off'. Window animation scale, Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale. What this does it disable those UI animation helping you save battery, at the same time, making ur phone feel more responsive and fast.

Note: If you can't find 'Developer Options' in your settings menu, Select 'About Phone' instead then scroll down and keep hitting the 'Build number' option as many times till you see message saying 'You are now a developer', now go back and you will find developer options! :)

16. Sync: Of course disabling Auto Sync will extend your battery time, but then your smartphone might as well not be called a 'smart'phone anymore. So, even if you leave Auto-Sync on, be sure to make sure that your phone Auto Syncs stuffs that you actually want it to, things that you really need! Especially under Google Sync. Open Settings, Scroll down to 'Accounts' area then select Google. After you select Google, now select ur main account there which i guess should normally be the first one. Not sure, I only alays have 1 google account on my phone. After you select it, you will see a list of the items it is actively Syncing. For me here, the most important to me are 'Sync Contacts' and 'Sync Gmail' and those are the only two I leave active. I untick all the rest. You should do this according to what you use, or do it like Stanley! :p You can apply same to other google accounts you have on ur phone.

Extra (Unrelated)

I found out that the Whites on the Xperia Z2 is kinda off. Looks 'brownish' if I may. Go into Settings > Display > White balance. Then try R = 5, G = 35, B = 80. :)

Want more tips? Have some questions? Want quicker response?! Or you can actually contribute...

JOIN THE XPERIA Z2 FACEBOOK GROUP HERE

Having said all these, I know some of you will disagree with some things I have written above. But I'm only trying to help Xperia Z2 users get the best out of their Battery.

And hopefully the screenshots below will convince you to try some or all of the tips above. And as I said, I'm not rooted (at the time of this post) so i guess even root is not essential to get the best battery life on the Z2. :)

I had BBM, WhatsApp, 2 Email clients (Stock and Gmail), Instagram, Messenger (FB). Stock Facebook app drains too much battery! I don't use it. :p

First Test

ScreenTime

Battery Graph

For some reason, GSam Battery Monitor Pro did not tally with the phones stats exactly. I think it was because I didn't install the Kitkat battery stat thing it asked me to or maybe its because i'm not rooted. Don't know really. Anyways, it's only about 1 or 2 minutes off and still as credible, you get a better idea of how i used my phone. :)

GSam Battery Monitor Pro

Second Test with Extensive Usage

GSam Battery Monitor Pro

Screentime

Battery Use

I hope this thread really helps you 'Maximize the Battery Life of your Xperia Z2'

CHEERS! :D :D