Hello Pierre Hébert
I was wanting to ask some battery drain questions for various elements. I can’t find the answers online.
1.
How does scale of icons affect battery? Larger drains more battery, but does smaller drain less? There is still the option to zoom, so does scale only matter based on current display – based on zoom?
2.
How much more drain is on an object of it is stretched to fit a screen width and height? Even if the scaling is still 1:1? So the icon is still small, but the size is much larger.
3.
Widgets drain battery based on update interval and size. Does it matter how many elements are inside of a widget if only one element is being updated and the rest are aesthetics? How much more battery does a widget consume based on its size?
4.
How much more battery does it take to place items in a folder instead of on the desktop? Is there a way to keep widgets from updating if they are inside of an unopened folder? Like the way pop up widget or action launcher works to conserve battery? How about all of those questions for panels too?
5.
I know that extra homescreens take up more battery, but llx isn’t like other launchers in that respect. How much more battery drain is there per screen width in use? How much more battery is it for a second or third desktop entirely? Do extra desktops consume full battery if they are not being used? Do widgets on extra desktops update even if not swiped to those desktops?
6.
What are the biggest scripting battery drains? Does an event such as the wheel circling desktop on position event cause heavy drain? Events such as that which are constantly activated by script.
7.
Referring to the landscape of the desktop, does a larger amount of rows and columns on each page consume more battery?
8.
If i want to use a transparent icon over my other icons, what is the best way to create it? Is it best to make a shortcut and strip it, an app and strip it, or a folder and strip it?
9.
Is it faster to use the llx all apps shortcut or the app in the drawer?
10.
Do shortcuts from some apps use less memory? Are they faster? Is it better to use those or launch the app directly?
11.
Cache from llx and other apps can build up. There are cleaners for that, but I’ve heard they are rather unnecessary. However, i notice an increase in performance in llx after cleaning all of my cache. Why is that?
12.
What are some of the biggest reduceable or avoidable battery drains in llx?
Thank you for reading. I can’t seem to find definitive answers online to these questions.
As always, you’re the best Pierre Hébert
Jacob
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You must be joking, right? Please don’t expect much or even detailed answers to every one of your questions. I did not read all in full, some I don’t understand, some don’t make sense. Anyway…
Do. Not. Care. About. Battery.
Honestly. LLx is lightning fast, optimized and itself has VERY little battery usage. There are factors of course. Scaling icons from 100% costs CPU of course. And it does not matter whether made smaller or bigger. Even if you stick with 100%, depending on screen size and DPI there’s almost always scaling applied. But I bet LL uses pretty good caching. Also the GPU might be used to help the CPU.
App shortcuts on screen or in folders (that was the only interesting question) might save battery compared to opening since it does not require loading the complete app-list.
Widgets can consume lots of battery when i.e. are often updated, use network or data. Even if they are tiny. And a large widget might consume zero to none if it’s rendered only once or update only every few hours.
Widgets if placed no matter where propably consume some battery, since there’s a process required in memory.
What to avoid? You can even use interactive 3D live wallpapers. If properly written it only consumes CPU when screen is on and desktop visible. Static wallpaper is better of course, but in the end you’ll probably won’t even notice much a difference.
If you really care about battery, just use a static wallpaper (if any), not a single widget, only shortcuts without icon for apps. And leave your screen switched off 😉
Hell, a launcher is a launcher! Every other app launched will I swear use more battery per minute used then LLx per hour. Really.
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Lutz Linke
Sorry if i offended you with my post. I have no expectations. I had messaged pierre and he said i could make a long post here about it.
Honestly, i just had no idea where else to find the answers.
Thank you for pitching in. I’m just a very curious person. If anyone knows where i can find more detailed information, please share.
Again, I have no illusion of what i have asked, but i like to get discussion going on this board when i can, and if pierre never posts here (or any of my threads), it wouldn’t offend me in the least.
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I just tell you what I think, no absolute true answers.
1.scaling does only affect memory noticeable if you scale a lot icons often.
2.stretching doesn’t affect battery nor memory
3.widgets drain battery because of their backgroundprocess, so position is unimportant and if you really care don’t use widgets
5.of course more items need more memory, but I don’t think, that the desktop size really matters.
Using different desktops might be efficient, because they only use memory, when they are loaded.
6.if scripts drain battery, always running scripts drain the most
7.No
8.not a folder. Shortcut and app are basically the same.
11.there are containers cached, which, if not loading instantly (like the homescreen), won’t take memory/cache until they are loaded.
12.if you really want to save battery turn GPS,Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and mobile network off, uninstall all apps and don’t turn your phone on.
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I would say that most of what Lutz Linke said is true. Basically battery consumption is made of screen, cpu, gpu, and other peripherals.
Battery use is a complex topic. Complex because nowadays everything is linked, memory, CPU, GPU, etc.
I can’t reply to all questions, but I can give you some keys to understand how it works, and what should be avoided. Lutz Linke already gave some important hints, I will take another approach below.
When optimizing things, start by optimizing things that takes the most resources. For instance optimizing by 80% something that uses 5% of the CPU could only deliver 5% speed increase, whereas reducing half of something that use 90% would lead in a massive 45% speed increase. When applied to Android, the launcher is probably not used frequently, but apps on the opposite, apps are probably consuming more resources
Memory use has an impact on CPU (on Android, but also on other modern OSes) because it limits the amount of “cached” data (broad sense). Cached data are those data that are loaded to speed up other things, and can be cleared from time to time. If you have a lot of free memory, there is plenty of space for cached data, and they don’t have to be loaded frequently, hence this saves CPU. On the opposite, if you have little free memory, there is no room to store cached data, and the system always need to load and unload things. When applied to Android, it might mean that apps are constantly started then destroyed, instead of being simply resumed and paused.
In LLX (and lot of other apps) what is using memory is: image. Because the memory used by images grows as the square of their size. If the app need to display a lot of images, it will consume more memory and in the end, it may put more pressure on the overall system and force the framework (or even the Linux kernel) to stop (and restart) things (apps, process).
But that’s unfortunately much more complex than that, because some data are shared by apps, some are impacting the GPU, and so on…
1) scale means more memory, and falls in the case “more memory limits data caching”
2) generally the more pixels are drawn, the more cpu/gpu is used, but this tends to not be so true on nowadays hardware, so stretching is relatively cheap
3) it all depends on what is involved to compute the widget view. Its visual structure is not so important (but bigger widget means bigger RAM because more pixels need to be drawn and kept in memory…).
4) desktop, folders and panels are loaded when they need to be displayed. Hence if you never open a folder, never navigate to a desktop, they won’t be loaded into memory. Widgets are a special case because the Android Widget Manager sends update for all widgets, it does not know whether a LL folder is open or not. But at least there won’t be RAM used to display the widget if the folder is never displayed.
5) Extra desktops only use persistent storage if never displayed, but as for 4) widgets are still partly updated in the background
6) scripting is relatively cheap, but redrawing items and changing their configuration is expensive.
7) no (but it depends a bit on the number of items drawn, and the number of pixels refreshed…)
8) apps and shortcuts are 100% same, folders allocated a “sub desktop”, so use a shortcut “LL action / Do nothing”, or any other app.
9) app shortcut, because you don’t have to load the app drawer, and icons from all apps
10) no
11) as for LL(X) it shouldn’t make a difference, but that is another complex area…
12) loading the app drawer, because it usually need to load a lot of icons, which uses both a lot of cpu and a lot of ram !
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Jacob Lavender , as Lutz Linke said, I am also sure, other launchers are consuming much more battery, as Lightning Launcher.
If you are editing, it will consume, sure. But if you use it without extreme refresh times, you will not notice the battery drain of this launcher.
Probably you can save more battery if you dimm your screen a bit, as this launcher is consuming overall. Mine is sure below 2%, it is not listed under the settings->Battery usage… and zooper widgets also not.
If you set up your launcher with care (scaling, refresh, etc) you will not notice any battery drain from this.
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Jacob Lavender Hope I did not offend you, it was merely meant ironically. Totally agree with previous comments. And I just checked: screen is 41% battery, Zooper (did not edit today much) is rank 8 with 5%, LL not even listed; mostly max of 1-2%.
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Lutz Linke if someone does not have display as highest value does either not use his display often, or does something wrong
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my screen by itself sits between 88 and 92% battery. just my damn screen alone can you believe that? i dont think ive seen the usage for the screen go any lower than that in the time ive had my device.
LLX has recently been clocked at taking up a mere 6% usage. why? no clue and i dont give a rats ass either. i never noticed llx to use any battery at all until yesterday but then again i never looked either. all i looked at was how much the screen is using anything that followed wasnt even worth the concern.
all this on a old 10 inch toshiba that has been performing well as long as theres no play store updates. this device used to take updates well but it got dropped 7 months ago and when i got it back from the shop it got sluggish. then again mine was used when i got it and had other problems too.
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