Batteries continue to grow in capacity, yet our phones often still don't last a full day as the hardware and apps demand ever more power. These Android apps monitor and improve battery life.

There are some things that you just can't change and making calls and talking on your phone uses a lot of power, but what can you do? Not call anyone? That is not really a solution.

Playing games uses a lot of battery power and if you like games apps on your phone, there isn't any way to reduce battery drain apart from not using them. There is no fun in that though.

The screen uses a lot of power but some savings can be made by making it as dim as you can bear, but why pay for a top-end phone and run the screen so dim it looks awful? You want the colours to pop and to see every glorious pixel.

Saving battery power is not hopeless and there are some things you can do, like stopping apps running in the background. Several of these battery saver apps can do that and it can be a big help. This would not be needed if all apps were well written and bug free, but some are not and they can use battery power in the background when they shouldn't.

Some apps automatically restart seconds after you stop them and there is not much you can do about it. However, some apps do stay closed once they are shut and battery power is saved.

Here are five apps that reduce battery drain on Android.

Related: Explore advanced battery savings and settings on Android phones

Power Battery - Battery Life Saver & Health Test

Price: Free | By: LIONMOBI | Size: 8.6MB | Android: 4.1 and up

Power Battery claims to extend your battery life up to 60% although the results obtained will obviously vary from phone to phone.

The app starts up with an advert that occupies most of the screen and when it is closed, it goes to the main screen which has a video advert that uses half the screen. (An ad appeared a millisecond after I grabbed the screenshot.) The app can pop up when the phone is unlocked in order to close running apps too.

The ads and the pop-ups really irritated me and unlike some free apps, this one does not have a paid upgrade option to remove the ads, so you are stuck with them. For this reason, I ended up uninstalling the app.

However, if you can somehow ignore all the adverts, the app itself is actually very good and it contains plenty of power saving features that make the battery last longer. An Optimize button on the home screen shuts down apps running in the background and there is a choice of power-saving modes, such as a Sleep mode for night time, a Prolong mode that shuts off all unnecessary items like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and so on.

A calendar records the number of times the phone has been charged and there are more than a dozen tools like Battery Cooler, CPU Cooler, Junk Clean, Power Protection and so on. It can show notifications and battery status, monitor charging and discharging and more.

This is a good app with lots of great features, but I could not bear the adverts.

Super Battery -Battery Doctor & Battery Life Saver

Price: Free | By: Hawk App | Size: 11MB | Android: 4.03 and up

There are a lot of similarities between Super Battery and the previous app, such as the full screen ad when the app starts up. Close it and go to the home screen and there is a very large and distracting ad bang in the centre of the screen. The app also sometimes appears when the phone is unlocked and must be dismissed to get to whatever you want to do.

Like the last app, this one irritated me with its adverts and popping up on unlock. There does not appear to be a way to remove them, such as with a paid upgrade and you are stuck with the ads.

If you can ignore the adverts, Super Battery has a good range of features for monitoring and extending battery life. On the home screen is an Optimise button that closes unused apps running in the background. The Battery Cooler does pretty much the same thing and it closes background apps.

There are battery saving modes, such as Prolong, General, Sleep and Default and they disable various features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and so on, to cut down on the power usage. A Smart Mode enables you to schedule modes that enable and disable at set times, such as night time.

This is another useful app with good features, but I found the ads too irritating.

Battery Widget Reborn (Free)

Price: Free | By: Tomas Hubalek | Size: Varies | Android: Varies

Battery Widget Reborn is more than just a widget and there is an app too. The widget referred to in the name is quite interesting and I have not seen one quite like it. It is a large 4 x 2 sized graph that shows the battery charge over time. Basically the chart from the screenshot as a widget. It is live and frequently updates so you can see the fall in charge level over the day. After an activity like playing a game, which uses a lot of battery power, you can see it reflected in the chart as a sharp drop.

It isn't the only widget and there is another simple battery level percentage, but the live chart is the main reason why you might want this app.

The main screen of the app itself shows the battery level, the remaining time and the temperature. It also tells you how fast the battery is discharging, such as 1% every 10 minutes. There are a series of buttons to turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sound and so on, or adjust the screen brightness.

There are few battery saving features and this app is designed more for monitoring the battery than for extending its life. However, it does have an automatic night mode. A series of on/off switches enable you to disable the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, background sync, and sounds.

The app is ad-supported, but unlike some of the others, the ads do not get in the way. There is also a paid Pro version that gets rid of them and adds a few extra features.

Battery Widget Reborn is quite good, but it does not have enough power saving features for my liking.

AccuBattery

Price: Free | By: Digibites | Size: 3.9MB | Android: 5.0 and up

Accubattery is not really a battery saving app and it is more of a battery monitor. It provides very detailed information about the state of the battery and the power usage of the phone, but beyond that it does not do anything.

This is an app for battery geeks and there is more technical information than most people want or need to know. Some people will love it, but others will be bored.

For example, it shows the amount of power used in mAh when the screen is on and when it is off, and it shows the per-app power usage in mAh . It shows the discharging speed as a percentage per hour and in mA when the screen is on and off.

There is also average battery use figures, combined use, battery time estimates for screen on, off and combined use. It tracks the battery health and wear, the charging cycles, charging current, temperature and voltage.

AccuBattery is packed with technical information about the battery and the phone's power usage and it is a great utility. However, it will not reduce battery drain, which is probably what most people install these apps for.

Kaspersky Battery Life: Saver & Booster

Price: Free | By: Kaspersky | Size: 7.4mB | Android: 4.1 and up

Kaspersky Battery Life is probably the simplest app here and there are few features, yet it is the one I like the best and the one I will be keeping on my phone.

One of things I like about the app is that it does not get in the way and it will not pop up when the phone is unlocked like Power Battery and Super Battery. It does not fill the screen with adverts like those two apps, although you will see links to other Kaspersky products occasionally.

The app does three things and one is it monitors the battery level and shows the life left in terms of hours. There is a lovely graphic on the app's home screen and a nice widget to put on the home screen.

The second thing it does is to stop apps running in the background when you are not using them. Power Battery and Super Battery do this, but I like the ad-free display here and the manual mode. There is a button on the home screen widget to stop background apps too.

The app allows you to create a list of apps that will never be closed, an ignore list. It automatically adds some apps, like messaging apps, but you can add your own or remove ones that you want to keep running.

The third thing the app does is to warn you with a notification if an app begins using too much battery power. I have not yet seen this on my phone, but it should be useful.

Built in power saving

It depends on your phone make and model, but power saving features may be built into your phone and you might not need a battery saver app. My Samsung phone for example, has three power saving modes in Settings > Device Maintenance > Battery.

• Off = Normal mode with no power savings
• Mid = Limit CPU speed, dim the screen, limit background network usage
• Max: Limit CPU speed, decrease screen brightness, stop background network usage

The Mid setting is excellent and the phone lasts several hours longer when it is turned on. It is as good as any of the battery savers here for extending battery life but it can be used in addition to a battery saver app because it works in a different way. None of the other battery savers limit the CPU speed for example.

Slowing the CPU a little is barely noticeable with most activities like sending messages, checking Facebook and Twitter, and browsing the web. If your phone has a battery saving feature, use it!

Start on Boot

Many apps automatically run when the phone is started and they cannot be stopped without rooting the phone. However, you can see which apps auto-start with:

1. Go to Settings
2. Press Apps
3. Press an app
4. Press App Permissions
5. Press the three dots menu and select All permissions
6. Look for run at startup

Press it and an explanation is displayed, but it cannot be changed without root access. The only option is to uninstall the app and look for another that does not run at startup. You won't know until you install it though.