How to optimise Google Nexus 6 battery life

Google's Nexus 6 comes with noteworthy hardware and software features, as well as a robust battery life. It uses a huge 3220mAh battery, which offers up to 24 hours talk time, up to 10 hours of video playback, and internet use of up to 9.5 hours on Wi-Fi and 10 hours on LTE connectivity.

The new Nexus smartphone supports wireless charging, the Motorola Turbo charger which provides a quick burst of power, and Project Volta introduced in Android 5.0 Lollipop, all of which emphasise battery life improvements.

However, if you still want to get the best out of the Nexus 6 battery, check out the following tweaks and customisation.

Disable Ambient Display

The new Android Lollipop Google has introduced a new feature called Ambient Display, which displays notifications even when the screen is locked. While it is a very useful feature to view notifications, waking the device up several times could amount to wastage of battery life.

Besides, the Nexus 6 product page notes two standby times depending on the use of Ambient Display; the battery runs up to 250 hours when the feature is turned on and 330 hours without it.

If you want to save some power, head over to Settings>> Display and turn the Ambient Display off.

Adjust screen brightness

The 6in QHD AMOLED display of Nexus 6 offers better viewing of content, games and videos, but keep in mind this consumes the maximum amount of power.

Navigate to Settings>> Brightness and check whether the automatic brightness, also known as Adaptive brightness, which is turned on by default, is still on.

You can also set the brightness according to your choice using the brightness control from the quick settings panel. For this, pull down the notification shade from the top of the screen then tap anywhere on the grey panel at the top. You should see the brightness slider located on top of other quick settings.

Turn off location based services

Another tweak to save power is by disabling the location based features, especially the GPS system. Go to Settings>> Location to check which apps are using location services and how much battery they are gobbling. You can set those features off if they are not in use. Also note that apps like Twitter come with location settings built into the app.

Use Android Wear devices

If you feel that you are missing out important notifications as the Ambient Display is disabled, you can always use the Android Wear powered smartwatch that will keep you updated with the notifications.

Delete power hungry apps

Disable the background apps which are not in use. Go to Settings>> Battery to get a complete breakdown of battery usage of each app. You can disable the ones which are consuming the maximum amount of charge. Apps including video streaming services and games drain out battery quickly.

Also, you can check the battery usage page in your Nexus 6 by tapping the battery percentage under the quick settings panel.

Perform factory reset

Resetting your Android devices back to its out of box status could help you resolve the battery issues. Hard reset is the best solution for this. But ensure that you have backed up your Android device properly. Head over to Settings>> Backup and reset.

[Source: Android Central]