Android Magazine Issue 54 - 2015 UK.pdf

Feature
» 101 hacks to upgrade your Android
HACKS
TO UPGRADE
YOUR ANDROID
Revamp your old device with a new look and features
12
We’ve got some good news – you don’t need
the very latest Android smartphone to get a
great Android experience! With some time and
effort, you can upgrade any Android device so
that it runs smoother, consumes less battery,
looks nicer, and is generally far more enjoyable
to use. Whether you have a phone that’s starting
to show its age, a newer device that isn’t quite
living up to expectations, or you simply want to
get the most out of your smartphone, then there
are plenty of apps, hacks and tricks that can
improve your Android experience.
In this guide, we’ve highlighted 101 ways to
improve your device. This will include
customising the user interface, from making
drastic design overhauls using launchers and
custom ROMs, to smaller tweaks such as
changing the icons of individual apps and the
shade of your status bar. You’ll also learn how
to get a performance boost by tweaking the
kernel, removing bloatware, and taking
advantage of multitasking apps. During the
course of writing this feature, after carrying out
all these tweaks on a Nexus 5, we found that
they added an extra eight hours onto our
device’s battery life and performance was
70 per cent faster.
This guide covers an essential mix of hacks,
apps and built-in features buried in the Settings.
While there is plenty here for power users that
have rooted their Android, unless stated
the next eight pages on Google Play.