The HD battery app has four pages of screens (you can switch between them by clicking on four dots on the bottom of the page) as well as 4 pages of settings (you can locate them by clicking on 4 icons at the top of any page).
Page 1:
The first page shows a large graphic of the battery with the remaining charge percentage. It also shows an estimate of much you can do on that charge: standby time, music playback, video playback, internet browsing, talk time. This information is based on community data, and you can calibrate it for your own device (under gear icon).
Page 2:
It shows you
- how much time it would take to fully recharge the battery using AC charge source or using USB charge source.
- how much time you can use GPS without recharging or play Games (2D or 3D separately)
- how much time you can use the device as a flashlight
- how much time you can use the device for reading
Page 3:
Show you how much you can use
- video chat
- take photos
- record video
- listen to on-line radio
- do voice recordings
Page 4:
This page shows battery health, technology of the battery, temperature of the battery, voltage, and time since last charge.
Settings Icon:
Show the percentage of power used by each of the currently run applications (this is a short-cut to the same info as what you see under Settings of the device)
Graph Icon:
Shows the chart of your power usage on the grid that has percentage on y-axis and time of the day on x-axis.
Gear icon:
- You can select battery color from a color wheel
- You can select to show the charge level in the Notification Bar (for me this shows when I hit settings not on always visible notification bar)
- You can set how and when you are notified about charge levels. You can choose a ding or you can choose a human voice to tell you the level. My tablet emits lots of dings and sometimes I am not sure what it is trying to tell me, so having a voice tell me my battery is low is quite nice.
- You can choose to have the app automatically open when you start charging.
- You can run a set of tests which calibrate your tablet power usage rather than using the generic community data. This is a very extensive test - be prepared to give up the use of your tablet for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
- This is also where you can choose to upgrade to a pro version of the apps to avoid seeing ads (which are discretely displayed at the bottom of the page).
SOURCE of Charge:
I frequently use various battery apps to determine how my tablet sees the source of the charge (AC or USB). My favorite app for this is Battery App by Elvison. Elvison app shows AC, USB or discharging status. 'AC' status means the charging is at full charging rate. 'USB' status indicates charging at a lower charging rate. 'Discharging' status means that the charging rate is below the power that the device is consuming so it slows down the discharge rate but does not re-charge. It also shows me the time when it began charging.
Battery HD app shows this information by displaying a graphic on the battery AC plug or USB connection. It does not show when the device is attached to the power source but is discharging because it cannot draw enough power to charge. HD battery does not show when the charging began.
COMPARISON of results with the Battery App by Elvison.
I decided to test this app using PowerGen PGMPP8400 8400mAh and PowerGen PGMPP9000 9000mAh external power packs whose performance I extensively tested with Galaxy 7.7. These external power packs have two USB ports labeled A (Apple) and NA (non Apple).
Why are no all connections equal? Android devices use a USB Battery Charging Standard where as Apple devices use a proprietary USB connector. Because of this difference USB connections wired for Apple devices do not provide AC power to Android devices even when a charging cable (rather than the data cable) is used.
Test Notes:
- I kept the display powered on to make sure that powering display was the same in all tests as it is the biggest power hog.
- I am using a charging cable rather than the data cable during the tests.
Elvison Battery App: PowerGen PGMPP8400 8400mAh with Samsung Galaxy Tablet 7.7
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Regular cable -- 0.6 AMP outlet -- AC
Regular cable -- 2 AMP outlet -- discharging
HD Battery App: PowerGen PGMPP8400 8400mAh with Samsung Galaxy Tablet 7.7
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Regular cable -- 0.6 AMP outlet -- AC icon
Regular cable -- 2 AMP outlet -- AC icon (graph shows a flat line, no charge)
Elvison Battery App: PowerGen PGMPP9000 Samsung Galaxy Tablet 7.7
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2Amp outlet ..... generic cable .... discharging .... 1% discharge in 10 minutes
.06Amp outlet ... generic cable .... AC source ...... 1% charge in 10 minutes
HD Battery App: PowerGen PGMPP9000 Samsung Galaxy Tablet 7.7
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2Amp outlet ..... generic cable .... AC icon ...... 0% charge in 10 minutes (graph shows a flat line, no charge)
.06Amp outlet ... generic cable .... AC icon ...... 1% charge in 10 minutes
OBSERVATIONS:
Battery App by Elvison has three modes (USB, AC, discharging). HD Battery app shows USB or AC and then you need to look at graph to determine if the device is drawing enough power to charge. You will also notice this when the charged percentage does not go up.
I am attaching a few screen shot that I thought might be interesting.
- #1. A screenshot with permissions requested by this app
- #2. A chart showing the power usage, note the flat lines which correspond to charging Galaxy 7.7 on Apple USB port.
This app works well on my Samsung Galaxy 7.7 Tablet (my Galaxy 7.7 review) running Android HoneyComb 3.2. I had no technical problems and the app scales to my screen size very nicely.
Overall, HD Battery app makes it a bit harder to see when am Android device is accidentally plugged into an Apple USB port and is not getting enough power. However the app provides a lot of other interesting information, I found this app a useful one to have on my tablet.
You can find this app on Amazon by following this link.
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Ali Julia review ★★★★☆
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