If you want to know how to make the mobile go faster, either because the performance has dropped since you bought it or because you want to squeeze it a little more, then here you can find the keys explained to know what can be done to be able to extract every last resource from your hardware and make your mobile run like never before .Of course, do not expect miracles, since sometimes there is not much to do for that, and you just have to buy a new more powerful smartphone.
1 – Be careful with the temperature of your Android mobile and the battery
Something that goes unnoticed by many is temperature and battery. Two factors that influence more than what is believed in the performance of the mobile. So, if you want to know how to make the mobile go faster, the first thing is to start by controlling these two parameters:
- Temperature: If the temperature increases, the device's power management system will initiate what is known as throttling, causing essential parts such as the CPU or GPU to work at a lower clock frequency to try to reduce the temperature. For example, if they can work at 2 Ghz, the scaler will likely drop it down to 1.8 Ghz, 1.5 Ghz, etc., depending on the temperature. That means less performance. So you should keep the temperature as low as possible with these tips. You can too use external cooling if your mobile gets too hot.
- Battery: as you well know, if the battery has a decent percentage of charge, it will work at full capacity, but as soon as a minimum percentage passes, it will go into saving mode if you have it configured that way, and that will also imply subtracting power. To get the most out of it, make sure the battery is always charged or buy an external battery as a supplement.
2 – Keep the system updated
El operating system and apps should be up to date with the latest patches. Furthermore, updating the operating system also implies updates to the firmware of the device. This is also essential to improve performance, since some of the patches applied are usually aimed at optimizing performance, improving the behavior of some driver, etc.
To update your android system by OTA (if supported):
- Go to the Settings app.
- Find the system updater (may vary in name depending on the customization UI layer).
- Check for available updates.
- Download and install the updates.
En the case of apps:
- Go to the Google Play.
- Then click on your account to access the configuration menu.
- Go to Manage apps and devices.
- Then go to the Manage tab.
- And update the apps in the list that have pending updates.
3 – Uninstall apps you don't use and bloatware or crapware
Keep the Android OS as clean as possible is also important. To do this, limit yourself to having only the essential apps that you need. Sometimes some are installed that were only used occasionally and are not uninstalled, so they will be occupying resources, especially storage, and this also harms performance.
On the other hand, many mobile brands add crapware or bloatware, those annoying apps that you don't use but that come pre-installed. Some you may not be able to remove, but all those that it allows you to uninstall, do so.
4 – Manage apps in the background that consume resources
android is a multitasking system, and all the apps that we are opening, even if we have left, they have not been completely closed, they stay in the background. And that means processes will be kept in main system memory, another issue that also affects performance. Therefore, it is always best to delete all the background apps you have so that the system can devote all its resources to what you are doing now.
To release the resources “hijacked” by these apps in the background, you just have to:
- Click on the left button of the screen (square – circle – triangle) of the three that appear in the form of a floating menu in the lower area.
- Then you will see that all the apps that are currently in the background will be displayed. You can slide one by one to the sides or press the X button (cross) to close them all at once.
5 – Choose the memory card well
Many Android phones have a microSD card slot. If that is the case, and you are going to use the SD card to store your apps or you will use it more frequently, another way to gain performance is choosing a good microSD card. The faster it is, as long as it is supported by the mobile, the faster the accesses (reading and writing) will be in this secondary storage medium. One of the fastest and best is without a doubt Sandisk Extreme Pro Series.
6 – Widgets out
Widgets are practical, they can show you a real-time clock, the weather in your area, etc. However, these small programs are constantly running, so they will be consuming resources that you may need for other tasks. The best is remove all widgets you don't care about and leave the main screen with only the icons. You already know that for that, you just have to press on the widget on your screen for a while and the options to remove it will appear.
7 – Do not use live or dynamic wallpapers, and animations
Most users have static wallpapers. However, some people use live or dynamic backgrounds. These backgrounds generally require a third-party app, which will not only be using resources to run in the background, but will also be overloading the CPU and GPU to move the graphics and the wallpapers to change. It is best to forget about these funds if you want to maximize the performance of your mobile.
8 – For synchronization
If you have apps like GMAIL, Outlook, GDrive, Dropbox, Whatsapp, OneDrive, etc., you should know that all these services have synchronization functions to backup, download or check if there are new messages, etc. You should go to the settings of these apps and configure synchronization so that it is not so frequent. Some may be configured to be done every two to three, every hour, etc. The lower the frequency, the less resources they will be consuming in the background and stealing these resources from other apps. And if you don't need sync, turn it off. For example, if GDrive is trying to sync Calendar and you don't use it at all, or photos, and you don't want to upload them to the cloud, stop these processes.
9 – Use apps as light as possible
Obviously, you can't choose too much, because when you need a specific app, the alternatives either don't exist or they don't satisfy you. However, whenever you want to install an app and there are several options, you should always install the lightest, as well as the one that needs the least permissions. To do this, you can see the information provided in Google Play. This will also save hardware resources and help you not to slow down the mobile as much. For example, imagine you need to install a flashlight app. App A may only have an on/off button and nothing else, and only need access to your camera to turn on the flash. Another app I'll call B needs additional permissions, and has other features added that you may not even use. In this case, A would be the best alternative.
10 – Use a process manager
Beware of alleged apps that promise to speed up your Android system, not all of them are really useful, and some can even be counterproductive. The best thing is that you use a good process manager and nothing else. Although Android integrates this function built-in, these third-party managers usually have more functions that can be useful for system administration and tuning. Two good examples are the paid Advanced Task Manager, and the free Taskmanager.
Lastly, I would like to add something. Sometimes, the cache is so dirty, the applications are so numerous, and the problems are such (for example, when there is malware that is consuming resources and is hidden,...), that the best option to return the lost performance to your mobile is perform a hard reset, that is, return it to its factory parameters. To do this, you can follow these steps:
- Switch off the mobile phone.
- Now press the power button and the volume down button at the same time.
- Hold down those buttons for a few seconds. You will notice that the mobile vibrates and a black screen with some letters lights up.
- Release the buttons.
- You will see that you enter a menu called Recovery Mode.
- Use the volume -/+ button to move down and up respectively and press the power button to select the option.
- Select Wipe data/Factory Reset. Accept and wait for it to finish and restart.
- You will have the mobile as when it was released.
EXTRA BONUS: Know the limitations of your hardware
Lastly, it is important to know your hardware well and not ask for pears from the elm tree. If you have a SoC with a given performance ceiling, you won't be able to go higher than that. If you need more, you should think about changing your mobile and buying a model with superior hardware.
The same goes for the network.. Some apps that need to work online or online multiplayer games will make heavy use of the connection. If your data coverage is not good, or the WiFi network you are connected to is very saturated or slow, there is little you can do. Although, with WiFi 6 and fiber optic connections, as well as 5G, you should not have any kind of problem in this regard.
