8 easy ways to extend your phone’s battery life
If your smartphone is a little older, you know what it’s like when your battery dies unexpectedly. It’s the side effect of having a powerful yet tiny computer in your pocket.
But a draining battery is not usually your fault. The lithium-ion batteries in most smartphones charge in cycles, and their capacity diminishes slightly after each one, which slowly decreases battery life over time.
Luckily, there are some easy ways to preserve and extend the battery life of your smartphone. Here are 8 tips to keep your phone running a little longer.
Update your phone’s operating system
It’s always a good idea to keep your phone’s operating system up-to-date. Most updates include patches and fixes, some of which could help save energy and keep your battery running longer or more efficiently.
If you have a much older phone, check with your manufacturer to ensure your phone is able to run the latest operating system, or else you may run into unexpected issues.
Here’s how to update the iOS on your Apple device or check and update your Android system.
Avoid extreme temperatures
According to Apple, your phone is designed to perform its best when the ambient temperature is between 62° to 72° F. Samsung, a leading Android phone manufacturer, also suggests that you do not expose your phone to extreme temperatures to keep your device running smoothly.
When it comes to extreme temperatures, cold will temporarily affect battery life, but extreme heat could permanently damage battery capacity. You may have noticed that when you leave your phone in the sun, your device may warn you or automatically turn off when it’s too hot, but be advised that storing your phone in extreme heat could also damage the battery. That’s why phone manufacturers recommend keeping your device in a comfort zone between 32° to 95° for best performance and battery life.
Try low power or power-saving mode
The low power or power saving mode on your phone will use less power when your battery reaches low levels by dimming your display, checking for incoming mail less often and turning off certain functions, like “Hey Siri” or “Hey Google,” automatic downloads and background app refresh.
Most phones by default may have this function enabled when your phone battery falls to 20%, but you can also enable this feature manually to save battery life. Here’s how to enable Low Power Mode on your iPhone, and Power Saving Mode on a Samsung device (these steps may be similar for other Android devices, too.)
Dim your screen
Keeping your screen at full brightness all the time can really drain your battery, so it’s a good idea to turn your screen brightness down to a level that allows you to comfortably use your phone while preserving your battery.
Your device may already adaptively adjust your screen brightness level depending on your usage or the amount of available light, but you can override those features in your phone’s settings. Here’s how you can adjust the brightness on your Apple or Android device.
Turn off location services & GPS
Location services are a very convenient feature of most smartphones. They are essential to navigation and maps, and they provide apps with your location to make it easier to order food, hail a cab or countless other functions. However, your GPS can eat up a lot of battery life, too.
You have a couple options when it comes to saving battery life and using GPS. If you don’t use any apps that use location services, you can turn the feature completely off. But, some apps require it, like Google Maps, so you can disable GPS for apps that don’t need it (which can also help keep apps from tracking your location).
On an Apple device, go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and toggle which apps you don’t want using location services.
On an Android device, go to Settings > Security & Location > Location.
Turn on dark mode
We love dark mode, but we know it’s not for everyone. Dark mode essentially flips the whites to black and blacks to white on your phone, reducing all that white space on your screen that requires more power and light and, in turn, drains your battery.
Both Apple and Android support dark mode in their operating systems, and many developers include dark mode within their apps.
Here’s how to enable Dark Mode on your Apple device, or switch to the dark theme on Android (versions 11.0 and above).
Shorten the timeout or auto-lock feature
Does your screen stay bright for a long time after you put it down? Unfortunately, that’s draining your battery too. You can shorten the time the screen stays illuminated — and save your battery — by heading over to your settings and adjusting the timeout or screen lock feature to turn off your screen a little faster.
On an Apple device, go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock and choose the time.
On an Android device, go to Settings > Display > Screen timeout.
Upgrade your phone
If all else fails and your phone’s battery just isn’t holding a charge for very long, you could have your device repaired — or you could upgrade to a newer phone.
Right now, we have a lot of great offers available for the newest phones with great battery life! Visit CREDOMobile.com to see which phone is right for you.
