Device used: Motorola Defy Plus (MB526)
When you buy and Android device, it will run as smooth as velvet, but as time passes, and you install more apps, more background services will run because those apps will synchronize, check for updates etc.
My device have 512 MB of RAM and a 1 GHz Cortex-A8 TI OMAP 3620 processor and things were getting heavy and the device started to move like a slug.
What have i tried:
- I installed Advanced Task Killer Free – the app have a very low footprint, it installs a shortcut on the taskbar and i made a habit to swype down the notification panel, tap on the app and tap on kill processes and boom, RAM freed.
- Things were not getting as smooth as i wanted because i wanted besides a RAM booster, an app that can also clean junk files (and yes, an Android device will get lots of junk files that occupy space) and i searched on the internet ways of how to boost performance of an Android device and i came to 2 apps: NQ Android Booster and Clean Master.
- I enabled first NQ Android Booster, an app that won numerous awards. It has this big and simple Optimize button that can free RAM in a breeze. It also have a data plan watcher that requires you to set in the settings the billing date, maximum traffic and how much have you used by now and it manages all in the background and warns you when you’re about to finish the traffic in your data plan. The second great thing is a battery manager where you can set different presets that are also customizable. What i have found also great is the widget that enables you to do lots of things in one widget: boost the RAM, enable/wi-fi, enable data, dim the brightness of the screen. The thing is, after a few days with NQ Android Booster, my device was working like hell so i tried Clean Master and i am now, the happier Android device owner in terms of performance.
I uninstalled NQ Android booster, because i found it a big memory hog, BUT, and hear me, i say BUT, you guys having those new and powerful quad-core, 1000-core processor devices with tones of RAM, please give NQ Android Booster a shot, the widget is awesome and the simplicity of the Optimize button will save you. It just doesn’t do the trick on my device.
I also uninstalled Advanced Task Killer Free, not because it suck but because Clean Master does what Task Killer is doing.
So my setup for a smooth Android experience:
- Turn OFF, GPS, WI-FI, Data, Bluetooth, if you’re not using them.
- Tap Menu button > Settings > Display > Brightness, uncheck automatic and set the brightness to around 25%. Again, it works ok for my device.
- Go back to Display settings and tap Animation and set it to No animations. You wont get the animations when you navigate to the device screens but you will notice a boost in speed.
- Also on Display settings, go to Screen timeout, and set it to 30 seconds or 15 seconds.
- Exit the Display settings and enter Battery & data manager > check Data saver. It will save you data plan traffic. Beware: on data you will not be able to install apps, the Play Store will wait for a WI-FI connection, so if you want to install an app, make sure to uncheck that.
- Go back to Battery & data manager and go to Battery Mode. Check Maximum battery saver.
- Now setup Clean Master:
- You get those four buttons: Junk files is used to clean those junk files, Standard is for starters, Advanced enables you to chose what to clean and it also scans more stuff then Standard mode so use it it wisely.
I don’t use Privacy and App Manager. Memory boost gives you a list of all open apps and a Clean button to close those apps. Also here, on the upper right corner you have an icon with a house and a plus sign, tap that to place a widget on the screen for a cool Memory boost widget button. That way you don’t have to go in the app to boost the memory, just tap the widget.
- Tap the vertical three points on the upper right of the up and go to Settings. Those are my settings and work great for me.
So to summarize, all i did was play with the Settings of the device (Display, Battery & data manager) and setup Clean Master and that’s it, those are all the apps that keep my device snappy.
Again, i’m not saying other apps are bad, the apps i’m using do the job well on my device. Any suggestions are welcome!
Have fun and enjoy!
KAIGARA Online 