How to extend battery life would be the one thing mobile phone users (and most other gadgets, in fact) would agree that they just can’t seem to figure out most times. Even manufacturers keep struggling to improve the battery life of their devices.
Even with the steadily increasing battery capacities, the equally steady increase in features and screen size, resolution and refresh rate has effectively ensured that the battery autonomy of most mobile gadgets has almost stagnated.
Despite all of that, there are still measures the users can take to ensure they get the most autonomy possible from their smartphone batteries, and also ensure the battery lifespan of their device(s) is maximized;
Figure Out The Cause(s) of The Battery Drain
In order to fix any apparent battery drain issues, you first have to figure out what and what could possibly be draining your smartphone battery.
On android, you’ll have to open Settings and navigate to the Battery menu. You’ll find all information on battery consumption there, and you can figure out what apps and/or services are draining the most power.
On iOS, it’s basically the same: locate the Battery menu in the Settings app. Here you can also manage the background activity of apps.
Enable Dark Mode
“Going dark” is a fairly new trend among app developers and manufacturers, and this coincides (or not) with the increasing popularity of OLED displays.
Due to the (nature of oleds), it’s a lot less straining on the battery to use dark mode in apps and to use predominantly dark wallpapers. As a bonus, this also puts less strain on the eyes.
Minimize display brightness and turn off automatic brightness
The screen is the part of a phone that uses the most power. And modern phones come with increasingly bright, and high resolution displays. Managing the power draw of the display is key in maximizing endurance. This can easily be done with the brightness slider found in most Android notification menus, or the Control Center in iOS.
Managing brightness can also be done from the Display Settings menu as well, and you might as well want to turn off the automatic/adaptive brightness option.
Avoid Battery saver apps
You might have come across these in the app store or seen ads on websites or in other apps, but these so-called battery savers are honestly not worth it.
Most of them run ads which are taxing on both battery and data, and can get really annoying. They also tend to run notification services, and constantly run in the background with their multiple “monitoring” services.
This ironically turns them into exactly what they’re trying to save you from, sometimes even worse. The only battery saver you need is the one that comes with whatever phone you buy. Don’t bother installing another.
Reduce screen off and sleep mode timeouts
The screen off timeout is how long it takes for your display to go off when you’re not using your device. Reducing this timeout cuts down the amount of time the battery stays on draining power unnecessarily.
Sleep mode, on the other hand moderates background processes while the device is not in use. Reducing the time it takes before your device goes into sleep mode also reduces power consumption.
Use Flight Mode in Places With Poor Signal
When a phone is in a place with poor network or wifi reception, it continually scans for available networks and this puts an increased strain on the battery.
When in locations with very poor reception, it is a lot easier on the phone battery to simply turn on flight/aeroplane mode, and it also helps keep the phone temperature down.
These few tips should help you get the maximum mileage from your mobile device battery, but if you seem to still be having unusual battery drain despite following the above, a simple reboot might help fix the issue if it’s software related.
I just hopped on the “dark mode” wagon a few days ago, it works! I’m definitely going to be intentional about the other tips… Thanks for sharing.