If I had a pound for every battery widget or battery monitoring app on the Google Play Store I would have a couple of hundred pounds. If I had a pound for every one of those apps that actually did any good or showed you any sort of useful information I would have about twenty quid.
So what is this one and what does it do? Well, it all depends what version of Android you are running. I’ll start with Jellybean as more and more devices are getting updated.
You get the following features to the app, a status bar percentage gauge. A drop down notification percentage gauge, which is expandable with a two finger swipe. A stand alone app that shows the same info and lets you configure the widgets. You also get a homescreen widget which is resizeable.
The status bar part works in Ice Cream Sandwich as well, so if you want a battery percentage displaying on your top bar then this app is for you.
The drop down part under Jelly Bean is configurable so that it appears exppanded constantly, some of the time or never, the expanded view shows you a graph of usage and also has wifi and bluetooth toggles. Under Ice Cream Sandwich the dropdown only shows three elements which you can change. You can display remaining capacity, remaining time, time when completed, voltage, temperature and health.
The time remaining part of the app needs to learn how your battery works so it will take a few days to calibrate properly. Bear with it.
The stand alone part of the app basically pulls all the elements into one area, it’s nicely Holo themed and provides shortcuts to wifi, bluetooth, data sync, airplace mode, battery usage, battery history chart, current charge cycle stats, long term stats, settings for the notification area and drop down and some advanced settings handling airplane mode at night scehduling and a fahrenheit or celsius toggle for the temperature part.
Overall it is a really useful app that on the outset just looks like a status bar percentage. Little things like the fact it recognises the second battery in the Asus Transformer range and the expandable notification in Jelly Bean really make it a useful app. Being able to see approximately how many hours remaining my battery has is quite a useful thing. Especially if I won’t be near a charger in a while.
The Beta version is free on the Play Store so you can try it out, if you like it and appreciate the developers hard work on this app then go for the Pro Version.
Play Store Link – Battery Widget Reborn Beta – Pro Version
Here is a qr code for the beta version.
Best battery widget ever!…. love the fact it will put the device in Airplane mode over night!