One of the most common complaints for all mobile users
is the battery never seems to last as long as promised. Just when you need to
send that critical email or make that important call, you get an obnoxious low
battery warning. If you don't want to succumb to walking around with an adapter
and looking for an outlet to recharge, try some of these tips to prolong your
phone's battery life and combat the biggest causes of cell phone battery life
drain.
01
Turn Off Features You Don't Use, Especially: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS are some of the biggest battery killers on cell
phones, because they are constantly looking for possible connections, networks,
or information. Turn off these features (look in your phone's settings) except
when you need them to save power. Some phones--for example, Android
smartphones, have widgets that offer toggles to quickly turn these features on
or off so you can switch on Bluetooth when you're in the car for hands-free
driving or GPS
navigation and then turn it off to save your phone's battery life.
02
Turn on Wi-Fi When You Can Connect to a Wi-Fi Network
Having Wi-Fi on drains your battery--if you're not
using it. But if you're on a wireless network, it's much more power-efficient
to use Wi-Fi than to use cellular data, so switch to Wi-Fi instead of 3G or 4G
when you can, to save your phone's battery life. (E.g., when you're at your house,
use Wi-Fi but when you aren't near any Wi-Fi networks, turn Wi-Fi off to keep
your phone running longer.)
03
Adjust Your Display Screen Brightness and Screen Timeout
As with laptops and TVs, the screen on your cell phone
drains a lot of its battery life. Your phone probably auto-adjusts its
brightness level, but if your battery starts dipping to levels that make you
anxious, you can adjust the screen brightness even lower to conserve more
battery life. If you like, you can go to your phone's display settings and set
the brightness to as low as you are comfortable with. The lower the better for
your phone's battery.
Another setting to look at is the screen timeout.
That's the setting for when your phone's screen automatically goes to sleep (1
minute, for example or 15 seconds after not getting any input from you). The
lower the timeframe, the better the battery life. Adjust to your level of
patience.
04
Turn Off Push Notifications and Data-Fetching
One of the conveniences of modern technology is having
everything delivered to us instantly, as they happen. Emails, news, the
weather, celebrity tweets--we are constantly being updated. Besides being bad
for our sanity, the constant data checking keeps our phones from lasting very
long. Adjust your data-fetching intervals and push notifications in your
phone's settings and in individual apps themselves (news apps, for example, and
social apps are notorious for constantly checking in the background for new
information. Set those to checking manually or hourly if you must). If you
don't need to know the second every email comes in, changing your email push
notifications to manual can make a huge difference in your phone's battery life.
05
Don't Waste Battery Life Searching for a Signal
Your poor phone is dying and it's trying to find a
signal. If you're in an area with a weak 4G signal, turn the 4G off and go with
3G to extend the battery life. If there's no cellular coverage at all, turn
cellular data off altogether by going into Airplane mode (look in your phone's
settings). Airplane mode will turn the cellular and data radio off but leave
Wi-Fi access on, for most devices.
06
Buy Apps Instead of the Free, Ad-Supported Android Versions
If battery life is really important to you and you're
an Android smartphone owner, shelling out a couple of bucks for apps you use
may be worth it, since research suggests free, ad-supported apps drain battery
life. In one case, 75% of an app's energy consumption was used just to power
the ads! (Yes, even in the case of beloved Angry Birds, only 20% of the app's
energy use may go to actual gameplay.)
07
Keep Your Phone Cool
Heat is the enemy of all batteries, whether your
phone's battery or your laptop's. You might be able to eke out a bit more life
out of your phone if you take it out of a hot case or your pocket, don't leave
it overheating in a hot car, and can manage to find other ways to keep it cool.
Of course, as a last resort, turning your phone off
when not in use can also cool it down and conserve the battery.
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