The Xperia Z1 and Z2 and the phones that may follow are known for their battery life. But at the end of the day, they are smartphones and battery drain is a common problem. Here are some ways in which you can maximize the battery power of the Xperia smartphones
- Close background apps – The background apps take in a lot of battery power, it makes more sense to close them as you do not use them. The three buttons at the bottom of the phone screen are ‘back’ ‘home’ and ‘apps’ button. Choose the third one on the right and it will open up the apps that are running on the background. Swipe them to the right to close them. Alternatively, you can go to Settings –Applications- Manage applications and shut down the ones that you are not using.
- Turn off the GPS, Bluetooth and WIFI – These are the ones that are known to search for the network and eat up the battery life. On the top of the screen, you will see quick options for Bluetooth, WIFI, GPS etc. Turn them off.
- Lower the brightness of the screen. You can do this by hitting the ‘brightness’ option on the quick menu-bar on the top and reduce it to less or click the checkmark on ‘adapt to lighting conditions’
- Keep it off heat– Do not leave your phone in places that are hot, like the bonnet of the car, this can affect the battery.
- Reduce the screen-time out – Set the ‘timeout’ option to the shortest time-window so that the phone goes into sleep mode when idle
- Turn the Stamina Mode on – This is a good feature of the Xperia phones that puts the lid on battery wastage. Just go to Settings-Power Management-Stamina Mode. Alternatively, you can also use the quick-menu at the top of the phone to access the feature.
- Remove apps that eat battery – If you like the app and it is a popular one, make sure that you have updated it to the latest version. Else, if the app is causing crashes, it is possible that it is affecting the battery too, so it is better to get rid of it.
OP, that likely isn’t the cause of the issues. KitKat is to blame for a majority of these issues, specifically Google Play Services. If your phone is draining like crazy, open up Power Management and then Battery Usage. I bet ya dimes over nickels that Google Play Services is on top eating about 70% + of your battery. This was the solution I finally got from Sony Mobile and it worked. I amazed at the lack of understanding for this huge problem, not to mention all the experts with snake-oil solutions.
1- Settings -> Apps -> All -> Google Play Services
2- Clear cache
3- Click Manage Space, then Clear all data
4- Back, disable, it will ask you to revert to older version, say YES
If you have Uninstall Updates, do it.
If it says you can’t disable because of administrators, click manage administrators and deselect the softwares (there were 3, one of them is Sony My Xperia, disabled it)
5- Once disabled, restart Xperia phone
6- You may notice errors etc…, its ok, its only temporary
7- Once rebooted, go again to apps, and enable Google Play Services
8- If the phone says you need to update Google Play Services, Update and you are good to go, if not, open Hangouts, and it will tell you to update…
9- Once the update is complete, you are done.
10- Make sure you have your location service enabled (because you may have disabled it in the past to preserve battery)