Users have some aversions to Android, including the pre installed software. People often say, "I really ™ I hate those junk software preinstalled on my phone! " Or "why do those manufacturers want to pre install these hot chicken software on my mobile phone?" What is junk software? What impact will it have on mobile phones? More importantly, will these hot chicken software shorten the battery life? Next, let's verify it.

This article is a test made by the foreign media Android Authority on the impact of pre installed software on power consumption.

*Translator's note: The problem of abuse of permissions by foreign Android applications is much lighter than that of domestic applications. If foreign applications also kneel down, domestic applications are expected to be even worse.

Define junk software

The first thing we need to do is to define what is junk software. Every Android phone has different "levels" of apps. The bottom layer is the default software of the system, such as clock, calculator, dial-up software and SMS. Usually every mobile phone has these software, but sometimes manufacturers also customize such software. The next "level" is Google App (domestic users say they don't have one), which uses Google services such as Play Store YouTube、 Google Maps, Gmail, etc.

If an Android phone only has the above two "levels" of apps, it proves that it does not have any pre installed software. The next "level" is the customized software of mobile phone manufacturers, which is also called "pre installed software". Usually, such pre installed software is not downloaded in Google's Play Store, such as Samsung's S-Health or S-Voice. These software are specially used with manufacturers' mobile phones. If a mobile phone manufacturer forces its own mobile phone to pre install some apps with poor experience and no practical use, this kind of software is called junk software.

(All kinds of useless junk software in mobile phones)

Another "level" is the partner's app. If a software company cooperates with a mobile phone manufacturer, the software company's own app will be pre installed in the manufacturer's mobile phone. It's very simple. Sometimes the mobile phone you buy may be pre installed with JD Mall, QQ browser or WPS office software, but it's hard to define whether they are junk software, because some people may need them. For example, I prefer to read with QQ browser Love to play computer games I will not reject them, but I seldom use office software on my mobile phone, so when WPS appears on my mobile phone, I will be more disgusted.

The last "level" is the software of operators, such as the software of the three major operators, which is usually pre installed on their customized mobile phones. For example, you bought a Samsung from China Mobile Galaxy S7 edge There will be not only the logo of China Mobile on the mobile phone, but also many home apps, which may only be used once a thousand years.

Disadvantages

Application crash, stuck - Any software will crash or freeze the interface. There is no doubt that the pre installed app increases these chances. When you download a piece of software in the Play Store, you find that it often crashes, and you can choose to uninstall it and stop using it. However, many pre installed software you neither want to use nor can uninstall.

Advertising and spam - Usually the pre installed software will have many advertisements, or pop up notification messages to remind you to purchase "Full Experience" or "Pro", or even sometimes these junk messages will occupy the space of your entire notification center.

Program backdoor and privacy collection - I believe you have heard it It will secretly collect your privacy information. Although current mobile phone manufacturers and Google have claimed that they will protect your privacy from disclosure, it is still difficult to guarantee this because Android is an open source system.

Shorten endurance - An application with very hot programming can shorten the battery life of your mobile phone to a certain extent. Whether the application is from Google, mobile phone manufacturers or operators, if the developer's level is poor, their app will affect the battery life. On the contrary, if an App is programmed well enough, there will be no problem even if it runs in the background for a long time.

Impact on endurance

In this regard, there are two questions: "Can the pre installed software affect the endurance?" and "Will the pre installed software affect the endurance?". The answer to the first question is obvious, of course, as I mentioned above, a poorly programmed software will definitely affect the endurance level, and our focus is "will it" rather than "can it".

To verify this problem, I took a Verizon version of the Galaxy S7 for testing. This Verizon S7 has three types of pre installed software, including mobile phone manufacturers (Samsung Gear, S-Health and S-Voice), Amazon partners (Kindle and Amazon Music) and operators (Voice Mail, go90, Verizon Cloud and VZ Protect).

The Samsung Galaxy S7 has a battery consumption monitoring software, which can be found by opening Settings>Applications>Application Management. This statistical software can tell you how much power each app has consumed since it was last fully charged. The biggest power consumption is the screen and Android OS itself. Next, let's see if the pre installed software will consume a lot of power.

In order to test better, I set that each app can call any system resources and permissions, so that they can run in the background. After 24 hours of use, the power of my phone has dropped below 25%. Then I went to the application management to check the power consumption of the pre installed software, and the result was that the power consumption of each pre installed app was... 0%。 what!? 0%? How is it possible? The Galaxy S7 has a 3000 mAh battery. Calculate it. On average, there should be 30 mAh of power for every 1%. Even if the consumption calculated by the statistical software is 0%, it does not mean that there is really no power consumption. It may consume 1-29 mAh of power. We cannot be sure. Assume that under the worst use case, each of the 18 pre installed software consumes less than 1% of electricity, and they may consume 500 milliampere hours (28 milliampere hours for each pre installed software on average). Of course, this is only a hypothetical case.

I guess that only 4 or 5 pre installed software will run in the background in the test, and they may consume about 5% of the power in total. So, will poorly programmed software shorten your endurance? Of course, well programmed pre installed software will not affect your endurance. It means that software developed by large companies such as Samsung, Amazon or Microsoft will not have a bad impact on mobile phones. However, if there are some apps on your mobile phone that you have never heard of, you may need to pay attention. Small companies usually have more bugs in their apps.

Uninstall and Disable

If you don't want to have any pre installed software on your phone, you can choose to uninstall them. If you encounter pre installed software that cannot be uninstalled, there are also some methods for this situation. In the secondary menu of TouchWiz, long press the application icon and drag it to "Turn off/Disable" at the top of the screen ”, which will force the application to be closed and frozen. Other Android phones can open Settings>Apps>App Management, click the app you don't like, and then click "Disable".

(Disable the pre installed software you don't like)

summary

Will the pre installed software affect the endurance? The answer is probably not, but it depends more on what apps are preinstalled on your phone. If some pre installed software on your phone will shorten the endurance level, please tell us in the message area.

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