Have you noticed that your Xiaomi screen goes out too quickly or your phone runs out of power when you’re using it?Screen On Time (SOT) is a problem that many smartphone owners know. Unlike other brands’ flagships, where 8-10 screen hours is the norm, budget and mid-budget models Redmi or POCO often show a modest 4-6 hours.
In this article, we will discuss 5 working methods to increase the clock on the Xiaomi screen — from basic MIUI settings to little-known firmware tricks. It is important to understand that screen life depends not only on battery capacity, but also on the optimization of software, application background, brightness and even CPU temperature. We tested each method on the Redmi Note 12 Pro+, POCO F5 and Xiaomi 13T models — the results are shown in the table below.
Spoiler: The most effective method (increase) SOT on 30-40%) It's about manually tuning the CPU core through an engineering menu, but if you're not ready to experiment, just optimize the standard system settings!
1. Optimize MIUI settings for maximum SOT
The first thing you need to do is turn off unnecessary background processes and adjust the energy savings. Even if you're using a smartphone in "normal" mode, the MIUI factory settings are often geared toward performance rather than autonomy. Here are the key parameters that you should change:
- 🔋 Battery Mode: Go to Settings → Battery. → Battery mode and select Balanced or Charge Saving. Performance mode increases SOT maximum 5%, reduces the total working time by 15-20%.
- 🌙 Dark subject. + AMOLED-screen: if you have a model with AMOLED-display (e.g. Xiaomi) 13 Ultra or Redmi K60), Include a dark theme in Settings → Screen. → Dark subject. Black pixels on AMOLED They don't consume energy, which gives them energy. +10-15% ce SOT.
- ⚡ Adaptive Brightness: Turn it off in Settings → Screen. → Brightness and set a fixed value at the level 40-50%. Adaptive Brightness often overstates brightness, spending extra 5-7% charge-hour.
- 📱 Screen refresh rate: if you have a display with 120 Hz, switch to the next one. 60 Hz in Settings → Screen. → Update frequency. In practice, it gives you a boost. +20-25% by the time of operation (tests on POCO F4 GT showed SOT s 5.5 before 7 hours).
Also check Settings → Battery → Battery Use. This shows the apps that use up the most. If you see messengers (Telegram, WhatsApp) or social media in the top, limit their background activity through Settings → Apps → App Management → Auto Run.
⚠️ Warning: Do not disable auto-run for system applications (e.g. com.miui.securitycenter). MIUI Increased battery consumption due to constant restarts.
2. Adjust autobrightness and screen timeouts
One of the biggest holes in autonomy is the suboptimal screen timeouts and the inflated brightness. By default, in MIUI, the screen goes out after 30 seconds of inactivity, but this is often not enough.
- ⏱️ Time to turn off the screen: set 2 minutes in Settings → Screen. → Sleep mode. It's the optimal balance between convenience and savings. On models with Always-On Display (like the Xiaomi 13 Pro), this setting does not affect the main screen.
- 🔦 Hand-held brightness: As mentioned earlier, adaptive brightness is often wrong. Measure the comfortable level of light in the room (usually a scalp). 30-40%) You can use quick settings for the street (swipe down from the top of the screen).
- 🌞 Nightlight: Turn it on in Settings → Screen. → Night light and set the temperature on 60-70%. A warm shade less strains the eyes and reduces energy consumption 3-5%.
For advanced users, MIUI has a hidden setting for minimum screen brightness. To change it, follow the command in ADB:
adb shell settings put system screen_brightness_dim 10Where 10 is the brightness value in percentage (you can set from 1 to 100), then the minimum brightness when adjusting with a slider will be lower than standard, which saves an additional 2-3% charge per hour.
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If you AMOLED-screen, set black wallpaper without bright elements, which will reduce the energy consumption of the display on the screen. 8-12% compared to the light wallpaper.
3. Limitation of application background activity
Background apps are the main charge thieves, and even if you don't use Facebook or Instagram, they can use up to 15 percent of your battery a day through the background, and MIUI has built-in tools to combat this:
- AutoRun Limit: Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → AutoRun and disable AutoRun for all applications except system (e.g. Phone, Messages).
- Background activity: In the same section, select "Background Limitation" and add instant messengers, social networks and games, which will prevent them from using the Internet and the processor in the background.
- Battery Optimization: In Settings → Battery → Battery Optimization, turn on the mode for all applications except mission-critical ones (e.g. Google Play Services).
To check the effectiveness, go to Settings → Battery → Battery Use and see the flow chart. If the background activity of the applications does not exceed 10-15% of the total consumption after optimization, you are on the right track.
| Annex | Non-optimization (8 hours) | Consumption after optimization (per 8 hours) |
|---|---|---|
| 22% | 8% | |
| Telegram | 18% | 5% |
| Google Play Services | 15% | 12% |
| MIUI System | 10% | 9% |
⚠️ Please note: Do not limit background activity for Google Play Services and MIUI Security.This can lead to problems with system updates, notifications and security.
4.Using an engineering menu for fine-tuning
If standard methods don’t increase SOT enough, you can turn to the Engineering Mode, which hides parameters that Xiaomi doesn’t disclose in the usual settings.
To open the engineering menu, enter the phone code in the application:
##4636##Next, go to the "Information Battery" section and pay attention to the following parameters:
- 🔋 Battery health: If the value is below 85%, the battery is worn out and needs to be replaced.
- 📊 Battery use by app: detailed statistics of application consumption, including system processes.
- ⚙️ CPU usage: if the processor is constantly running at high frequencies (for example, due to background tasks), this reduces the number of times the processor is running. SOT. In this case, it will help to limit productivity through Settings. → Battery. → Battery mode.
For advanced users, you can change the power-saving parameters of the CPU core in the engineering menu, for example, on smartphones with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor (for example, Xiaomi 13 Pro), you can limit the maximum frequency of a small cluster of cores to 1.8 GHz, which will give +15% of autonomy without noticeable loss of performance.
How to return the standard settings of the engineering menu?
5.Alternative firmware and cores for maximum SOT
If you're ready for experimentation, custom firmware and cores can increase screen life by 30-50%.For example, Pixel Experience or LineageOS firmware are often optimized better than standard MIUI. However, this method is only suitable for advanced users, as it requires:
- 🔓 Unlock the bootloader, which resets all data.
- 🛠️ Custom recovery installations (TWRP Or OrangeFox).
- 📱 Manual firmware selection for your model (for example, for Redmi Note 11 Pro)+ 5G It'll be veux).
Advantages of custom firmware:
- ✅ Absence of bloatware (pre-installed Xiaomi apps that cannot be removed).
- ✅ More aggressive processor and battery management.
- ✅ Possibility of installation of kernels with improved energy saving (for example, FrancoKernel).
The downsides are possible loss of camera features (on some firmware), lack of official security updates, and the risk of “bricking” the device. Before installing, be sure to check the firmware reviews for your model on the XDA Developers or 4PDA forums.
Unlock bootloader (officially via Mi Unlock Tool)|
Make a backup of data (via TWRP or Xiaomi Cloud) |
Download firmware and GApps (if you need Google services)|
Check compatibility with the smartphone model |
Charge your phone at least 70 times%-->
Hardware methods: battery replacement and cooling
If the software methods are exhausted and the SOT is still unsatisfactory, the problem may be in the hardware.
- 🔋 Battery wear: if the phone is older 2 In the years since, the battery capacity has decreased. 20-30%. You can check the wear through the AccuBattery app (Health section). 80%, rechargeable.
- 🌡️ Overheating: High temperatures (above 40)°C) speed up discharge. Use heat sink covers or avoid intense loads (games, video editing) when charging.
- 🔌 Charger quality: Cheap cables and power supplies can lead to unstable charging, which shortens battery life.Use original Xiaomi accessories or certified ones USB-IF.
The cost of replacing the battery in the service center Xiaomi is 1,500-3,500 rubles (depending on the model). Self-replacement is possible, but requires care - damage to the screen plume or motherboard can put the phone out of order.
⚠️ Note: When replacing the battery with Xiaomi with Fast Charging (e.g. Redmi Note 12 Pro)+ s 120W) Uncertified batteries may not support fast charging or even ignite.
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Replacing a battery with a new one increases SOT by 20-40% (depending on the wear and tear of the old one), which is the most reliable way to return autonomy to factory performance.