How Sony’s Battery STAMINA Mode works

With Sony’s power management setting called Battery STAMINA Mode, you can extend the standby time of your Xperia™ device by more than four times. With Battery STAMINA Mode turned on, the background activities of most applications are reduced when you turn off the screen. Read more on how it works after the jump!

Battery life is a very important factor for many consumers, and this is something Sony has been working hard to improve. We found out that a lot of the battery power on a smartphone or tablet is consumed by background activities in apps and games when the device is not in use. Now with the new Battery STAMINA Mode enabled, apps are not allowed to synchronise and check for notifications and incoming messages when the screen is off, something that normally consumes quite a lot of power while your phone is resting in your pocket.

Battery STAMINA Mode builds on the same technology as Extended Standby Mode, which is available in some Sony smartphones released last year. Starting one minute after the screen has been turned off, data traffic is automatically blocked and background activities are prevented from waking up the system. And then when you turn on the screen, the activities will resume again instantly. And as the IP address for your phone is kept, you will immediately have network access.  This all makes it possible to bring you notifications when you need them and have time to look at the screen, and not while the phone is tucked away.

When Battery STAMINA Mode is on, you will still receive phone calls, SMS text messages and MMS notifications at all times. The preinstalled Calendar app and Alarm notifications will also work as normal, while the LED will only illuminate to indicate low battery.

Battery STAMINA Mode is turned off by default, but you can easily turn it on in the Power management settings.

Power management settings.

When Battery STAMINA Mode is running, you will also get power management tips to help you save even more energy, and keep your device going even longer. For example, if Battery STAMINA Mode is turned off and you leave your device with the screen turned off for six hours or more, you will get a recommendation in the notification bar to turn on Battery STAMINA Mode. You will also be notified about apps that consume a lot of power.

Customise Battery STAMINA Mode – white list your important apps
Another really useful functionality, is that you can actually choose to white list your most important apps, allowing them to run in the background even when Battery STAMINA Mode is turned on. This way you will get notifications even when your phone rests in your bag or pocket. This is handy if you still want to be able to receive instant messages or IP calls at any time. So, for example, if you want to have Google Talk running continuously even though you are Battery STAMINA Mode, it’s no problem. Just white list Google Talk and it will work as normal.

You can also set a battery threshold, so that Battery STAMINA Mode kicks in below a certain battery level that you define yourself.

Customise Battery STAMINA Mode to suit your needs by white listing applications.

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If you have any questions about Battery STAMINA Mode, drop us a line below! And if you’re interested in how it affects you as an app developer, stay tuned to Developer World as we will post some hands-on coding tips here soon.

Battery STAMINA Mode is currently available on Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia SP and Xperia L.