How To: Supercharge your Android Smartphone

Since Android handsets can be heavily tweaked with third-party ROMs and kernels, many might agree that either the ROM has good eye-candy and great features but is slightly sluggish or maybe it's the other way around. A developer named ‘Zeppelirox’ has studied the behavior and written a script which helps tweak the Android operating system to gain performance in terms of graphical speed. What this actually does is try to clear useless memory space (RAM management) by clearing unwanted memory hogging apps and decreasing the graphical lag which helps improve the performance of the home launcher, certain games and the UI responsiveness. It is similar to automatic memory management software but does it by running a script in the boot sequence and making it a default in the operating system. It also makes the home launcher ‘hard-to-kill’ saving it from reloading and straining the memory. 

Step 1

Android puts each running app into OOM (Out Of Memory) groups and each is based on their priority from 1 to 6. These are as follows:

1. Foreground Applications: These are apps that are presently running on the screen which you see. It also includes system and phone apps running in the background and are necessary at all times.
2. Visible Applications: Apps that are visible to the user but are not running in the foreground.
3. Secondary Server: These are applications and services that run in the background all the time. For example SenseUI or Launcher Home.
4. Hidden Applications: Similar to visible apps but still running in the background.
5. Content Provider: These are processes such as contacts content provider and calendar content provider.
6. Empty Applications: Apps that are running in standby and are not needed or are dormant in the background which can be safely shut down.

Hence by adjusting these app priorities, one can take control of the memory usage and shut them down thus keeping the memory free and keeping your phone running faster and smoother.  

Step 2

Note: The V6 Supercharger script can be safely run on all Android phones; be it stock ROMs or third-party ROMs. It has presently been tested with Android Gingerbread and the effect will purely depend on the type of phone specs (GPU type, CPU speed and RAM capacity) and definitely on the kernel type. It will also depend on the amount of TSR (terminate and stay resident) apps such as alarms, live wallpapers, etc, that you may have installed which cause additional memory strain. Those using ICS-based ROMs can also try the similar method, but the script will be different. You can get the scripts on the XDA forums.

Step 3

Requirements: 

• The V6 Supercharger Script Update 8 or higher (from the XDA forums)
• Scrip Manager app (free from the Android Market)
• BusyBox version v1.18.2 or lower (free from the Android Market)
• A rooted Android phone.

Begin by rooting your phone if you haven’t already done so. You can find the procedure to do so for your Android handset on the XDA forums.

Step 4