T-Mobile MyTouch with Google: How to Maximize Battery Life

The MyTouch with Google is Google's second attempt at a smartphone and is available from T-Mobile exclusively. It was launched in the Summer of 2009 and features 3G technology.

With any smartphone, shorter battery life is almost expected due to all the web browsing, application use, and technology crammed into the small handheld devices. Google overcame severe battery life issues from the G1 phone and the second generation Google phone gets more than double the battery life based on normal use.

But with a day full of texting, web surfing, and making phone calls you may find that you have to plug in your smartphone nightly for a recharge. I've been able to make the MyTouch with Google phone last around 2-3 days without needing a recharge based on some small tweaks and adjustments. Of course I still have days where I'm lucky to get through an afternoon before needing a recharge due to high use, but with normal use I've been able to go 2-3 days before needing to charge up.

Some tips to maximize battery life on the MyTouch with Google.

Adjust the settings down.

By default the phone sets the brightness at just 50% which I have found is more than sufficient for daily use. You might even be able to get away with setting it to 30 or 40 percent. Press "Menu" and go to "Settings" to tweak it.

You can also adjust the screen backlight timeout. I'd recommend setting it to a minute or less, otherwise you are wasting valuable battery life. If you are actively using the screen, it will stay lit anyways. Google did adjust it so that the screen blacks out when on a call which saves some battery power. Turn off vibrate and set the phone to ring or silent.

Track battery usage.

The Android operating system features a cool "Battery Use" menu under "Menu" and "Settings." This was included in the operating system update that came in early October 2009. This nice little feature lets you see what has been using the battery during the time since the phone was last plugged in.

Why is this useful?

I discovered that one application I downloaded from Marketplace was using a whopping 46% of my battery power during one recent day. The program was a game that was paused and was running somewhere in the background!

These applications and games can be useful and fun but sometimes they don't work as efficiently as they should. After deleting the one game, I noticed longer battery life and the rest of the battery use percentages actually seemed reasonable. For example my operating system rarely uses more than 4% of battery power at any given time.

Check the "Battery Use" feature regularly; if you see programs running and using a high percentage of battery life even when not being actively or recently used, you'll want to consider deleting those applications. You'll save battery life for when you actually need.

Exit out of applications.

Going along with the battery use meter checking, you should always close out of programs you aren't using. For example, pausing a game will leave it running in the background; a potential battery drain. Also if you exit out of a program by hitting the Home button, the program may still be running. Always exit the program from the "exit" or "end" option within the program.

These simple tips can help you get more battery life out of your Google phone.