Carriers and manufacturers still often recommend the use of task killer apps on Android to speed up your phone and save battery life, but they can actually do more harm than good. PC World does a few real-world tests to show that they are, in fact, useless when it comes to saving battery.
We've talked about why you shouldn't use task killers before: Android memory doesn't work like PC memory, so clearing it out won't help your speed or battery life, and it could even kill processes you want to keep open. PC World actually did some real-world experimentation to back this up, trying out Advanced Task Killer on five different Android phones. They found that at best, it gave a 4.2% increase in battery life, and at worst a 0.5% decrease. If you wanted a bit more experimental evidence against the use of task killers, hit the link to check out their article. And, while you're at it, check out our features on how to actually increase battery life on your phone, speed up a sluggish Android device with a few other tricks, or update your old phone with a custom ROM (since Android 1.6 doesn't manage tasks well enough on its own).
Task-Killer Apps: Will They Help or Hurt Your Battery Life? | PC World
You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
