With all the extra time we all spend on our phones, the batteries are becoming more and more efficient. However, more often than not, once it hits 3:00 in the afternoon, I find myself reaching for my charger. If you’re in the same boat, here are some tips to help your battery last longer.Turn down the screen brightness. The screen is the biggest power sucker on your phone. Keep the brightness low whenever you can and set the auto-lock so the screen turns off when you aren’t using it. The iPhone and Android phones also have auto-brightness settings, but you’re still best keeping the screen in the 30 to 50 percent range if you can.
Avoid battery-draining wallpaper. Stay away from live or video wallpaper. Even choosing a darker image instead of a bright white image will help save on battery power.
Close unused apps or widgets. iOS and Android phones do a decent job of not allowing all open apps to suck your battery, but keeping more than 10 open isn’t a good idea. On an Android phone, kill the widgets you don’t use; even if they look pretty. They’re constantly updating and draining your battery.
Don’t use vibrate. Unless you need it, try to not use vibrate. Making the phone shake uses considerably more power than the small speaker. Truly silence the phone instead of switching from ring to vibrate.
Manage your notifications. Turn off or limit the notifications you receive. Some may be useful, but most, like Yelp or your favorite recipe app, are more of a nuisance.
Turn off unused features. This includes GPS and other locators. GPS and locators will ping or track when the phone is not in use. Leaving on the WiFi and Bluetooth still uses power, even when not in use. Typically, you will want to keep the cell service on, but if you’re in an area with no service, switch the phone to airplane mode.
Keep your phone out of the heat. Heat sucks the battery life right out of your phone. Leaving it near something hot or in a hot car puts strain on your phone and it has to work harder to function under the temperature. Heat also permanently shortens your battery life if it happens too often. If you have to leave your phone in the car, place it under the seat, or in the glove compartment; somewhere that it won’t overheat and cause permanent damage to your battery.
Check signal strength. When you have a low or no signal, your phone is constantly looking for a signal. This drains the battery faster than when you have full reception.
Turn off voice control. Apple’s Siri or Samsung’s S Voice is hard on your battery. Turn them off, or at least minimize their use.
Don’t charge to full. Some experts claim that you should only charge your battery to 80% full, then use the phone until the battery life is at 40%. While this may not be very feasible for some, if you can, it may be worthwhile. Unlike nickel-based batteries (such as the NiCd or NiMH rechargeable AA batteries seen in most supermarkets), lithium-based batteries are designed to be charged early and often, and letting them get too low can damage the battery. With Lithium batteries, doing shallow discharges and frequent charging prolongs battery life.
