Over the decades, the cellphone has evolved to become a VERY essential device. We are constantly glued to our cellphones browsing through the internet, posting on social media and capturing thousands of precious moments through our state of the art cameras. With all this constant usage of our cellphones, it has become cardinal that our cellphones’ battery lasts as possible.
The question is then: “How can we squeeze the most juice out of our cellphone’s batteries?” We at TheTechMart will provide you with our personal Top 7 Best tips on extending your battery life to the absolute MAXIMUM! With these tips we guarantee you an extended battery life of at least an hour or more, whilst preserving most of your cellphone’s operational capabilities:
1. Decrease your screen brightness:
The backlight of your cellphone that illuminates your screen, consumes a large amount of battery power. Extend your battery power, by ensuring that you minimize your screen brightness to a functionally lower level. On your android device, the screen brightness can be decreased in Settings>Display>Brightness. On your iOS device, the screen brightness can be decreased in Settings> Display&Brightness.
Another way to preserve your battery life, is to switch on auto-brightness on your Andriod device or true-tone on your iOS device. This setting allows your device to adjust the screen brightness to match your current ambient lightning. With auto-brightness on, your cellphone will also optimize its battery usage whilst adjusting the brightness. For your android device turn on auto-brightness in Settings> Display>Brightness>Auto-brightness. For your iOs device you can enable true tone in Settings>Display&Brightness>True Tone.
Lastly, another way to extend your battery life is to switch to “Dark Mode” on your cellphone. In this mode, the backlight will be dimmer and decrease the cellphone’s battery consumption. This will give you a little extra juice from your battery.
2. Utilise power saving modes
Enable power saving mode on your cellphone. Turn on power saving mode on your Android device in Settings>Battery>Power Saving Mode. On Androids you can further extend the cellphone’s battery by selecting Maximum Power Saving or Adaptive Power Saving. On Adaptive Power Saving, the cellphone alters the CPU and screen backlight based on your current usage.
In your iOs device select “low power mode” in Settings>Battery>Low Power Mode. The power saving modes on cellphones are perfect tools to reduce battery drainage on your phone. Power saving mode on both iOS and Android devices only allows the phone to perform essential/critical functions. On this mode the cellphone’s screen refresh rate decreases, the screen brightness decreases and also app downloads, refreshing and syncing are limited.
Power saving mode usually gets activated on phones when the battery life reaches 20%, but you can always manually enable the power saving mode ” in Settings>Battery. Manually activating power saving is important for those long road trips and flights when your charger and power bank is MIA!
3. Reduce your screen on time
Reducing your screen on time ensures that your cellphone utilises its screen backlight only when it is in use. Under Display&Brightness in the Settings menu you can reduce the screen on duration (standby time?) to the shortest possible time. This will minimize unnecessary usage of the screen backlight when the cellphone is resting and not in use.
Also ensure to TURN-OFF the always on display option in Settings>Display for your Android device. Always-on display will keep your cellphone on and display the time and date on the screen. Make sure to turn it off and save on your battery usage.
4. Close apps running in the background
Even after closing apps, they will keep refreshing and searching for updates in the background. Apps running in the background tend to also have a major impact on your battery life. Ensure to always close apps running and refreshing in the background. To close background apps on your android device, go to battery settings and choose battery usage limits. Under battery usage limits, select to put unused apps to sleep. This will prohibit background apps from draining your cellphone’s battery.
On your android device you can also manually close all the background apps by long pressing your home button on older devices. In the case of newer Android devices press the overview button (usually has 3 lines) on the bottom of your screen These actions will show all the apps that are running in the background and consuming your cellphone’s battery. Just swipe up on the apps and close them or use the close all button .
In the case of your iOS device, for iPhone 5s to 8 you can close all background apps by long pressing your home button. All background apps will then pop-up. Close these apps by swiping them up. For iPhone X to 13 range, close background apps by swiping up from the bottom of your screen. All the background apps will then appear on your screen. Close these apps by swiping up on them up.
Also on your iOS device, you can select to stop background apps from refreshing in Settings>General>Background App Refresh. Turn off the background app refresh option on apps you’re currently not utilising, to stop them from updating their content over Wi-Fi/Mobile Data.
5. Turn off push notifications
To extend your cellphone’s battery, turn off push notifications in settings under the Apps. Push notifications are frequent updates that your cellphone gives you on new emails, messages, social media posts and many more online updates like articles, stock quotes, etc. These constant updates require your phone to have continuous connectivity to the servers and internet of the companies where the notification is coming off. This continuous connectivity to outside servers and internet drains your battery.
Ensure to turn off push notifications and extend your battery life. Disable push notifications under Settings>Notifications for you Android. For your iOS device, switch off push notifications under Settings>Notifications.
6. Disable Bluetooth and WiFi
Extend your battery life, by limiting your cellphone’s connectivity and wireless features. If you are not using your cellphone at the moment, ensure to switch of its Bluetooth, WiFi and mobile data. When your cellphone’s Wi-Fi is on, it will constantly search for new Wi-Fi networks to connect to. This constant searching utilises your cellphone’s battery, draining its power faster. This is also the same in the case of your Bluetooth, which is always trying to search and connect to new Bluetooth connections.
7. Turn off location services
Location services are used by various apps to monitor and track your current location. Apps utilise this location information to provide you with current, localised information and data. The location services on apps simultaneously use your GPS and data connectivity (WiFi and mobile data) to track your current movement and pin-point your location. The utilisation of all these cellphone functions deplete your cellphone’s battery. Extend your phone’s battery life by limiting the usage of location services on mobile apps. On your android device, location services on apps can be switched off in Settings>Location. For your iOs device location services can easily be turned off in Settings>Privacy>Location.
Also you can initially prohibit apps from using location services, by selecting “Not Allow” when apps prompt you to allow access to location services.
And there you have it! By following these top 7 tips, you can squeeze the most juice out of your phone's battery and avoid those dreaded low-battery anxiety attacks. Remember, a little effort goes a long way –– so put these proven strategies into practice and enjoy uninterrupted mobile freedom for longer! For even more tech tips and tricks, be sure to subscribe to our blog!