Those Miracle Battery Repair Apps - Scam or Real?

Decided tonight to have a quick look at one of those 'Battery Repair' apps on Android because I could not understand how it could possible to repair the chemical make up of a battery. This is what I found and yes I am very sceptical.

I choose Battery Life Repair which was near the top of the list and had good reviews.

It was installed on a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact which is about 1 year and 1 month old (394 days) running Android Lollipop.

Using the scan it found about six not-so-good bits which it 'said it fixed' when I requested it to do so. The re-scan confirmed it was all okay now. Then I went into Settings/Apps and noticed that despite exiting (and confirming I wanted to exit when asked) it was still running in memory! Next I Cleared Data/Cache then Force Stop and Uninstalled. Using CCleaner to remove the junk and empty folder to try and make the next stage appear as a new installation.  Re-installed 'Battery Life Repair' and ran the scan which now found problems in different areas from before. I did not let it 'scan the whole battery' as I stopped it after it found three so far as this confirmed to me that this was not doing what it said.

I would say this is a Scam but by definition a Scam is to make money fraudulently but these products clearly do not do so what is going on apart from the pop-up ads. Scanned for Viruses and Malware but found nothing....

I believe this is nothing more than a battery statistics re-calibrator (removes batterystats.bin system file so the OS can start again) and power management software, hence the positive reviews about improved battery performance. You cannot repair a battery with software otherwise this would have made the news and appear on loads of web sites as a miracle app. From Google search I have not been able to find a single reputable web sites which recommend any of these kind of apps.

If you want improvements then just search for 'better battery life on Andriod' for real practical advice.

Some Android Apps are Unbelievably Big!

Are developers getting code lazy or just trying to cram in far too many features into apps these days. I originally thought about this around three years ago when I decided that an app designed to clean and free up memory on my Kindle Fire HD should not be an elephant (in size) in itself! It might not sound much but Clean Master which is now 11.5Mb.

Recently after seeing Strava reviewed a great app for running and cycling, as I am thinking of trying to get fit but was shock to discover it is 23Mb for my Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. Another example is Evernote which I had been using before they started adding features I did not want  is now 20.82Mb on the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and 23.3Mb for the Kindle Fire HD.  Even Facebook is reported to be around 42.43Mb.

Now individually this may not sound like much but in total this will take a big chuck out of your RAM and storage particularly when you realise the true amount which is really used. For example, Google Calendar app declares to be 23.68Mb (on Sony Xperia Z1 Compact) but under Apps (under Settings) is reports to use 35.84Mb on device (excluding data) which is quite a difference. This is not the only app which uses more than you expect. Android applications have historically been limited to a maximum size of 50MB but according to CNET developers can attach another 4Gb. Perhaps we will need Terra Bytes of storage soon with longer lasting batteries just to keep up.


Android Lollipop has arrived for Sony Xperia Z1 Compact

Though Lollipop 5.0 is here I am going to wait about a week just to see if anyone out there is having issues with the update from KitKat to Lollipop on the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact.

Best to let someone else break their phone first. I always prefer not to rush and upgrade as soon as one arrives, I would rather wait a little and see how things settle down.

The only issue I have seen with other devices (not Sony) is that some are having battery issues and some WiFi.

UPDATE (23rd December 2015)

I thought it was about time I left an update. I did upgrade about a month later and have been very happy with Lollipop. There is now talk of Marshmallow coming soon to newer Sony Xperia model.