Phenquestions
It is rather surprising that previous versions of the Android operating system did not ship with a battery saver mode that you could enable on the device to make sure the battery of the device lasts longer before it needs to be charged.
That's probably the core reason why battery apps are popular for Android. Most third-party manufacturers of devices have added their custom solutions to Android.
Google added a battery saver mode to Android 5 which you can enable to extend the time between charges on the device.
There are a couple of drawbacks to the mode which need to be mentioned. First, it reduces the performance of the device, limits vibration and most background data.
The background data limitation affects most email, messaging and notification applications that rely on syncing data as they won't update automatically anymore.
Information are updated in this case only when you open the affected applications. Depending on how you use the phone, this may be a severe limitation or none at all.
Since there is no whitelist available, it is an all or nothing approach which does not work if you rely on one or more apps to sync data automatically and inform you about updates.
Enabling Battery Saver mode on Android 5
The following guide walks you through the steps of enabling Android 5's battery saver mode.
1. Unlock your phone and swipe from the top to the bottom to display notifications.
2. Tap on the settings icon in the top right corner of the screen.
3. Tap on battery on that screen.
4. This opens a projection of the battery time that is left and which apps have used the most battery in that time.
5. Tap on the three dots in the upper right corner and select battery saver from the context menu.
6. Move the slider from off to on to enable battery saver mode.
7. Instead of enabling it permanently, it is possible to enable it automatically if battery is at 15% or 5%.
Android indicates if the saving mode is enabled by painting the borders of the interface in orange.
If you want to disable the mode again display the notifications on your device and tap on the turn off battery saver option displayed there. This takes you to the menu in the Android preferences where you can turn it off.
