Cenesys
Developer: kisler
Download from Google Play
Price: $2.17
There is a plethora of system managing apps that let you squeeze some extra juice out of your device’s battery. Cenesys is a paid indie app that works with both rooted and non-rooted Android devices and lets you toy with the settings many other apps don’t. Without much fanfare, this little app lets you tweak the tiniest activities of your device to automate the way you want your device to act without you having to attend to it manually every now and then. Set it up once and see how it saves you the power by turning the pre-set features and apps automatically.
Cenesys has a very neat UI and a modern material design, which makes it easy to navigate and straightforward in use. Even the non-savvy users will understand which options do what. Even without the root access, you will be able to automate quite extensive behaviors your Android will resort to when you define.
There are several modules that let you tweak the app’s actions – Basic Options, Advanced, Display, Quiet Hours, Known WiFis, and My Car. The basic options let you define the lowest battery level that will trigger Cenessys and define what the app should do to minimize the battery consumption. You can choose to see the estimated time left till the complete discharge, and select which services will be disabled – WiFi, data, 2G/3G, Brightness, Bluetooth, Location, Sync, Sound, LED, Screen Time.
The Advanced options take the above a step further. For example, you can set your device to detect when you are in the range of a known WiFi network and activate WiFi automatically. Whereas when you leave the “known WiFi” area, the app will disable WiFi automatically. Likewise, the app will activate Bluetooth automatically when it detects you enter the area where you parked your car, and disable Bluetooth when you leave this area.
The app cleans cache automatically, provided you enable this option in the advanced settings. It can also reduce the CPU usage and prevent the battery overheating automatically – these, too, are advanced options you will need to check to have them applied automatically. You can also trust it to clean the apps you haven’t been using for a long time. You can even set a network interval, at which the app will activate the network to receive notifications and data, and then disable it again.
The app also leverages the sensors of your device to automate some of the battery saving tasks. For example, the Pocket option lets you set your phone to turn the screen on every time you take it out of your pocket. One feature I personally like is the app removes the lock screen when the device is connected to WiFi. Provided I only connect to WiFi at home, and I do not need a lock screen at home, the app does exactly what I need and where I need it. The app also does a few nifty tricks based on whether you take the device off the table, double tap the screen or if you like it to adjust the screen brightness based on your ambiance.
Quiet Hours lets you create time-based profiles that will limit the connections to the network and WiFi when you need some peace of mind. You can have the app enable the connections when the screen is on. This way, you will not receive any nagging notifications, but the moment you turn on the screen, Cenessys will activate the WiFi and network and you get your messages and chats in a bundle. A perfect weekend “let the world wait” solution.
Overall, the app is quite robust and impressive. Of course, the root users will be able to use more of the features, but so far from what I have seen it works pretty well for my no-root Samsung. The rooted devices will need a reboot after the installation. Other than that, it is worth mentioning the “Known WiFis” feature seems to work on rooted devices only. The app seems to be compatible with Android Marshmallow already, as well as a variety of custom ROMs.
The Good
- robust battery saving functionality
- works with root and no-root devices
- lets you tweak the services on/off based on time, location, battery percentage and a variety of other scenarios
- lets you create scenarios based on your device’s sensors
The Bad
- No Demo version
- No comprehensive guide or explanation for the non-techies about which features are root-only
Check Cenessys, it’s a really neat Android app that lets you fine-tune the settings of your device and extend your battery life. Keep in mind, though, that running it alongside another battery management app that taps into the same settings may result in the two conflicting. All things considered, it’s a worthy investment if saving the power is your concern.
