SystemPanel Review: Task Managers Reborn

The core feature here is not the task manager as the description page claims, which manages to kill tasks and services unlike other, older tools available on the market with updated OS’s. It conveniently offers the ability to end all tasks if you can’t figure out which one is causing the trouble, even with selectable levels of sensitivity, making the ending of troublesome system processes possible. The highlight we think here is called “System Monitoring.” With it enabled you can monitor CPU time (in minutes and in seconds), RAM usage for specific applications with the ability to watch battery drain both live and and more importantly how quickly it does over time. Also useful in monitoring is the Device Usage graph, which records screen-on time as well as partial-wake usage. It can be reordered to show a list of which apps use the most battery and CPU time, even if those processes have since been closed or reopened. Unfortunately, though system monitoring isn’t something you should run all the time. It uses about 5-10% battery power over the course the day with Snapdragon. It maintains an active notification when active but when your phone is dying faster than normal or lagging out of control it can prove invaluable.

Application archiving is another highlight here, and does so with the existing Android interface, adding somewhat the inconsistency of the interface as a whole. With it, you can back up and store old .apk files (Gameloft games — we’re looking at you) preventing yourself from the burn of bad updates from the Market.

Wrap Up:

With Google thankfully outdating our favorite task managers with Froyo and Gingerbread (hello, Advanced Task Manager) SystemPanel still manages to stay relevant. It’s core functionality, the ability to end tasks has been somewhat outdated by newer OS versions, changing the primary focus of this app, and it doesn’t detract from it in the least. Battery management, bandwidth monitoring and partial-wake times can all prove useful when that one app keeps heating up and killing that several hundred dollar smartphone of yours.