The smartphone may be one of the most ground-breaking tech inventions in history, but it’s still weighed down by the archaic need for battery life. After all, if your smartphone battery dies, it doesn’t matter how fancy your screen, camera or apps are.
With people using their smartphones more than ever and wireless charging technology still establishing its footing, poor smartphone battery life has become a daily challenge.
Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to make sure your smartphone lasts all day.
Simple Ways to Boost Your Smartphone Battery
If you’ve ever checked the battery usage numbers on your smartphone, you may have spotted your display is the biggest drain. Fortunately, there are a number of helpful tips that can make sure your screen isn’t depleting your battery too much throughout the day.
Auto-Brightness
Adjusting the brightness of your smartphone to match the time of day can be a pretty big hassle, particularly when your battery keeps dying on you. Fortunately, most modern devices have an “auto-brightness” setting, that will adjust your screen appropriately. Additionally, this can cut back on battery usage when you’re in darker areas without the need for a bright screen.
Avoid Flash Photography
Considering the advancements in modern smartphone cameras, taking a good picture no longer requires a flash. Still, most camera apps default to using the flash, which can take a lot of battery power. By turning off this feature, you’ll get a few extra minutes on your phone to snap a few more pictures.
Use Dark Wallpaper
The background wallpaper of your smartphone has a lot more to do with saving battery than you might think. In short, lighter colors drain your smartphone battery a lot faster than dark colors. That means that having a darker background wallpaper could make all the difference when it comes to keep your smartphone alive.
Avoid Direct Sunlight
In addition to the sun draining your battery by making you brighten your screen, it also ruins your battery by heating up your phone. The sun doesn’t necessarily drain your battery, but it damages it permanently, particularly if its fully charged. Keep your phone out of the sun to enjoy just a little bit longer.
Use Blackl
Don’t forget, the dark background wallpaper rule also applies to search engines. Google, everyone’s favorite search engine, has a white background, a real killer of batteries. Fortunately, there is a dark alternative called “Blackl.” Make it your default search engine, and you’ll see your battery life flourish before your very eyes.
Extra Tricks for a Battery Boost
Without the internet, your smartphone would be pretty useless. Unfortunately, the way you connect to the web could leave you with a dead smartphone battery before you know it. Fortunately, there are some tricks to help avoid the worst of this battery drain.
Use WiFi, Not Data
Not only will it save you a few bucks on your monthly bill, but connecting to WiFi rather than 4G or 3G networks can save you a boatload when it comes to battery life. Just make sure you turn it off when there’s none to be utilized, otherwise it could drain your battery worse than data!
Disable Location Services
Yes, having your GPS always enabled can save you a lot of time when you need directions. But, most of the time, you don’t need it. So if you’re trying to save battery, turn off this costly feature until you’re really desperate to find out where you’re going.
Turn Off Bluetooth
Everything we just said about location services rings doubly true for Bluetooth. Put simply, turn off your Bluetooth unless you’re actually using it. Yes, it’s faster to connect your headphones when you don’t have to press that tiny button at the top of your screen. But is it really worth the added stress of carrying around an external battery at all times? Of course not!
Use Airplane Mode
Putting your smartphone on airplane mode is hardly a practical solution for day-to-day life. But, in a pinch, it can save you a full day’s worth of smartphone battery if you’re willing to go a few hours without any connectivity at all.
Avoid Overcharging
It can be tempting to plug your phone in before bed to make sure you wake up with a full charge. However, overcharging your device (that is charging it when its already at 100 percent) can irreparably damage your battery. So while you’re setting yourself up for a single day with a full battery, you’ll be damning yourself to a lifetime of looking for a wall outlet.
Apps and Battery Life
Without apps, smartphones would be nothing more than expensive paper weights. Unfortunately, when it comes to keeping your device alive, these handy applications can be the downfall of your connected life. That is, unless, you heed these helpful tips on how to manage them.
Monitor Your Apps
Keeping track of which apps are using the most power is a great way to improve performance. Not only will you be able to close out of apps that use the most, you’ll also be able to get rid of those pesky apps you don’t use that are draining your battery.
Use Fewer Apps
When it comes to the relationship between apps and battery life, less is more. That is to say that the fewer apps you have downloaded on your phone, the more battery life you’ll have to use the ones you actually care about down the road. Uninstall a few apps, and you’ll be on your way to seamless scrolling.
Disable Notifications & Auto-Updates
What many people don’t realize is that, even when you aren’t using an app, it can still drain your battery. Features such as notifications and auto-updates can take a serious toll on your battery, particularly for busy apps you don’t actually open very often. Make sure to turns these features off to save a little power.
Battery Saving Apps
Saving battery? Yes, there’s an app for that. In fact, there are hundreds of apps for that, with clever names such as Defender, Protector, or even Doctor. These apps claim to optimize processes and other apps in hopes of calming down their draining ways.
Features and Settings
Smartphones come with a lot of extra features that, let’s be honest, don’t serve much of a purpose. Fortunately, most of these features can be disabled, saving you enough smartphone battery to last all day long.
No Vibrations
The vibrate setting has saved you in more than one meeting with your boss. Unfortunately, this handy feature is a surprisingly significant drain on your battery, particularly when its set to go off every time someone texts you. Turn off vibrations and you’ll be surprised at how much longer your smartphone battery lasts.
Shorter Screen-Lock Time
There are few things more annoying than trying to read something on your smartphone when your screen goes black. But, if you really want to curb your battery usage throughout the day, shortening the screen lock time on your phone can make all the difference, especially when display remains the biggest drain.
Low Power Mode
While it may seem like a significant downgrade, using the low power mode found in newer phones can do wonders when it comes to saving battery. Sure, the grey background isn’t much too look at, but it’s a lot better than a dead phone.
Forget Voice Controls
Siri and Google Assistant are great, but the innovative technology running these artificially intelligent virtual assistants takes up a lot of battery. There’s a battery drain as they listen out for spoken commands, and a further one as they tax the processor coming up with an answer for you. If you want to keep your phone alive all day, you need to forego these techie helpers, despite how cool they can be.
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