Battery life is a daily problem for all smartphone users. As smartphones have become more powerful our batteries struggle to last 24 hours without running dry. Phone batteries can inadvertently get damaged and require a repair. The surprising thing is, most of us are all doing things to kill our batteries, without even realizing it. This guide covers 9 things you can do to help.
Don’t plug your phone into a computer that’s asleep!
You might think that a laptop or PC is a convenient place to top up to your battery’s charge. Surprisingly you could be doing more damage than good! If your device is plugged into a laptop or PC that is off or asleep you could be damaging your battery. This is called battery drain. To avoid it make sure the computer it is attached to is awake and connected to the mains.
Don’t leave your phone in the car in the sun (or any other hot places)!
Exposing a smartphone battery to excessive heat can cause serious battery problems. If your battery gets too hot it will impair its capacity. This means that the battery will not last as long as it should after a full charge.
Turn the Facebook app OFF
A leading UK newspaper, The Guardian, tested the impact of the Facebook app on battery performance. Amazingly phones using the app ran out of power 15% faster than phones that were not using the app. As an alternative, use Facebook through your mobile browser.
Refusing to enable “low power mode”
Typically “low power mode” is offered as an option if your phone reaches 20% of power left in the battery. If you choose not to enable this setting, your phone will continue to operate on full brightness, your apps will keep synching and Bluetooth will drain power. To avoid killing the last 20% of your phone’s battery enable “low power mode”.
Not activating airplane mode
Most of us activate airplane mode on the flights we take. Interestingly there are other situations where activating airplane mode can help extend battery life. If you are a commuter listen up! Your phone is always searching for the best signal. If you continually pass through an area with poor or no signal e.g. subway. Your phone searches whilst no signal is available. This is a significant drain on your battery. Turn on airplane mode in areas with no or low service, to avoid this issue.
Reduce the number of apps that allow notifications
When you receive a notification from an app it triggers phone usage. The screen lights up, using battery power. You swipe the notification and open/dismiss the app. All these actions drain battery. If you have a lot of apps sending you a lot of notifications this can be a big drain on your battery. To avoid this reduce the number of apps authorized to send you notifications.
Refusing to utilize auto-brightness
Your phone screen is a significant user of battery power. Reducing the amount of battery consumption your screen utilizes is a great way to stop killing your phone battery. If you have a brightness setting turn it to a lower setting. Some phones have auto-brightness. Enable this which means your phone will automatically adjust screen brightness to its ambient lighting environment.
Don’t allow your phone to fully de-charge
It’s a common myth that fully de-charging and then fully recharging a modern lithium phone battery is good practice. Modern lithium-ion batteries don’t need to be “trained” in this way. In fact, long de-charge and long charge cycles actually reduce lithium-ion battery life. It is far more efficient to recharge your cell phone battery when it reaches 50% charge.
Disable location services unless absolutely necessary
Location services is an out and out battery killer. Location services constantly use GPS to report to an app where your device is located. This is a massive battery drain. Turn off location services on all apps unless you specifically need this service.
Summary
If you follow all of these tips you’ll have a much healthier cell phone battery. You probably won’t need a phone repair. Your battery life day-to-day will be longer. Your battery health with be higher. The quality of your cell phone battery will deteriorate much slower, which means you’ll have to replace your cell phone less often.
I have forgotten way too many times to disable my location services after using them, and that has drained my battery so fast. Great information, thanks for sharing!
Hi Bro,
It’s fantastic and glad to know these tips 🙂 Very helpful to survive my Android’s Battery.
Many Many Thanks
Yes! I agree with the first tip, Mostly my brother does it he has a laptop and he charges his phone using his laptop. Now he replaced his battery, so please don’t charge your phone using a laptop. Use inbox or official charger claimed by the respective company.