We've all been there: You played Angry Birds for too long or manually refreshed your Gmail inbox incessantly. Before you knew it, your battery was in the red. Unfortunately, this app won't help that, but for everyone else who uses their phone in moderate-to-heavy amounts without needing to always be on it, I'd suggest Juice Defender Ultimate.
Juice Defender Ultimate is actually a paid upgrade to Latedroid's free add-on, Juice Defender - battery saver. If you want the highest degree of control over your battery, though, you'll want to upgrade to the Ultimate (over 9000?) version.
Upgrading to Juice Defender Ultimate nets you a whole slew of new options, namely in the "customize" and "advanced" menus. It also comes with three fairly comprehensive presets, if you don't want to fiddle with all sorts of choices but still want your battery life to last all day.
I myself used mostly the balanced customizable profiles, and saw great dividends from both. The best part about any of the presets is that they're click-and-go. Regardless if you want balanced or aggressive, take your pick and the app handles the rest.
If you feel like getting a little bit wild, customizing your own plan is relatively simple as well. You gain another menu to poke around on, as well as some neat options for controlling various data networks. You can either grant or deny Juice Defender Ultimate permission to auto-disable 3G and Wifi, as well as enable a feature called "Location," where Juice Defender Ultimate learns where the networks are that you connect to, and enables Wifi whenever you're in range.
Perhaps my favorite feature, though, is the scheduling feature. With this choice, you can let the app periodically enable data connectivity so everything still has an opportunity so sync. The intervals range from five minutes to two hours, and even using the five minute one (which I used exclusively), I saw my battery life increase exponentially.
To anyone whose battery life leaves a bit to be desired, I'd recommend Juice Defender Ultimate wholeheartedly. It's a one-time fee of $7.13, but it definitely works. And hey, think about how much you're saving compared to an extended battery!
Pictures of my average battery use, more app screenshots, and download links are all after the break.
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20 Comments
JD is one of the best Android applications available. I have used this application for a long time on the EVO 4G and it was the first install on my new EVO 3D! Saves loads of battery!!! Worth every penny of the $7 cost for the ultimate version!!
I've found this app, while useful, can cause more annoyances than what its worth. I started missing phone calls and text messages after I used this, and when I managed to configure it to allow these things through, the battery advantage was gone.
That should never happen because it's really only controlling data radios and should have no impact on phone calls or texting since those use no data (unless of course you are using google voice for your texting).
Does the 3G disabling with JD work on Gingerbread? I ask because I had Green Power on CM7 and found out that it could not disable 3G because Gingerbread did not allow an app to control that.
I might have to give this a try, my HTC Desire Z, was actually pretty good with the battery life. But lately it's been running down really quickly. It's probably an app that's been updated that's the culprit, I just can't figure out which one it is.
This is one of the most important apps on my Evo 4G. Battery life is useless for me without it (I use the balanced option myself). The only thing I find is that it doesn't always turn Wifi on immediately when you turn your screen on even though it's set to come on. A couple of clicks to turn it on manually for the battery savings I get though is definitely worth it.
I used this for a while and loved it on my stock evo. When i went to cm7 i stopped cause 3g toggle wasnt available for gb. They have since updated thank god and i could once again ditch the extended battery!
You have an unfortunate bug if you are missing calls and text since niether require data to work. You can turn off all radios and still get calls and text. Its not airplane mode.
I highly recommend this. Its common to get 24+ hours with the stock battery and cm7.
I use the plus version of this on my EVO 4G and it has increased my battery life x2.54! So I definitely recommend this app. I will probably upgrade to the ultimate version of jd soon! Definitely a must have app!
Used it for awhile, but noticed that it somehow turns off my data after 10-15 mins. Streamed music would stop, missed messages, FB comments.... It did extend battery life tho.
when i bought it a few months back the price said $7 or so but when I checked out it was $4.49. wonder if its still doing that.
Yep, it's still that way.
FYI - I just bought it for $4.99 U.S.
I have been using the free version and it has increased my battery life for about x1.80 in avg. It is great if you don't need your email notification right away or facebook status updated every so often.
So, plus and ultimate will give better results? Is it because of the finer control?
I really like JD Ultimate and have been using it for a couple of months. But, today, when I tried to add the icon to my homescreen, it triggered a Force Close to Sense. After several attempts, restarts, turning off and on, and a battery pull, I gave up. What up with that?
I have to ask...i have my droid x on lowest screen brightness, and it is still the largest user of battery. I rake from these screen shots that the phone in test wasn't really used much. I get that this app can improve battery life, but not if you use the phone. Yes, I've tried it out. Just saying.
i still use the free one. rooted inspire 4g. i think its the rom that helps me more then JD. going on 2 days 16 hours 32m and still have 28%.
As much as I want to believe these types of products actually cross the threshold of "time to initialize & diddle vs. benefits accrued" ratio - it's basically a time waster.
And they want you to pay $7+ for it?
Cmon already. Just plug your smartphone in everyday and get some work done.
I have tried these and to me all they do is adjust your setting which I am already smart enough to do. I can hit a button to turn wifi on and off myself. I do not see the point of the free version let alone a paid version.
Juice Defender - Free version - increases my battery life 50-60% or more. A spare OEM battery costs $8 and change. So, for about the cost of Juice Defender Ultimate I have three times more battery life than without any version of Juice Defender running.
Really like the program and bought the Ultimate version. The greatest savings seems to be when you are on WiFi. BUT the disadvantage is that you get NO PHONE SERVICE.
What setup for the Photon 4G would give the big bang for the buck but also allow the phone to receive calls.
No matter what we call these things..........they still are PHONES with extras. I do not want to keep missing calls just to save the battery.
So what is the best option on this phone to be able to still get calls during the day?