Even though we still call them phones that we use for their original intended purpose, to make calls, phones are a lot more than just devices in our pockets. Smartphones today are companions. Everyone that has a smartphone has the ability to be in touch with people either by email or an instant messaging service, take pictures, even be productive on the go.
Today’s smartphones offer a lot, they have a lot of advantages, portability, speed, good looks, but most have one big flaw. In order to keep the smartphones thin and lightweight manufacturers design them with batteries that don’t last too much. Unlike older dumbphones which lasted almost a week on a single charge, today’s devices barely last a day. Only a handful of devices on the market are able to last more than that. For people that are often on the road or are using their devices all the time this can be a frustrating thing, especially when they don’t have regulate access to a plug to charge their phone. The good thing is that most phone manufactured in the past few years have a quick charge option which enables to charge you to quickly charge your phone to get a few more hours of juice out of it.
Regardless if we have come to terms that we may never have a device in out pocket that may last several days on a single charge, there are a few techniques that may extend the battery life of our little companions enough to last throughout the day.
Display
In general, the display is the piece of hardware on every smartphone that uses most of the power. Since the display is the biggest power consumer on every phone in order to extend the battery life it is recommended to turn down the brightness. Also, users that have phone with AMOLED displays are recommended to use black themes and wallpapers because on an AMOLED display the black pixels are not light at all.
Background processes
Having half of the applications on the store installed on your phone will not only take up a lot of storage space but it will also drain the battery. The reason for this is that certain applications, depending on the nature, will continue to work in the background. This means that they will be using the phone’s CPU and RAM and will also slow down your phone. It is recommended to install only the applications that you use and “forbid” the non-essential ones to run in the background
Connectivity
in the past years the technology has improved much and today we have energy efficient hardware. Regardless of how much efficient a certain piece of hardware is if it’s on then it’s using power, even if it’s in some king of sleep or standby mode. Our phones come equipped with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and a lot more bells and whistles. Keeping all of them in case you need them is a waste of battery power. Remember to turn off the ones that you are not using in order to reduce the power usage. You will still be able to turn them on in a second using toggles.
Sync and notifications
Every single one of us wants to be constantly updated of everything that’s happening – a Facebook status of a friend, tweet from our favorite actor, angry email from the boos or maybe a selfie from the ex on Instagram. Being informed is good for you, but bad for the battery. Getting constantly notified means that the social media or email app is constantly working and sending data packages back and forth between the device and a server to enable you to get constant push notifications. Turning these off will have an increasing effect on your battery life. If you have multiple social media accounts logged on your phone turn off the push notifications and set it to check on a certain interval, for example every 2 hours, or you can turn them off completely. That way you will save a bit more, because the pone will not have to notify you by playing a tone and vibrating. The same thing applies for the emails. If you have multiple email accounts logged in on your device, make sure to turn off push notifications on the ones that are not very important to you.
Overall these are only a few of the tips that we have in store for you as a suggestion how to improve the battery life on your phone. If you have more recommendations, feel free to post them in the comment section.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Q: How much longer will my battery last?
A: No one can answer that. Every device and every user is unique. Two people with the same device will not get the same battery life. Depending on your usage, you might get several hours more battery life, or you may get several minutes.
Q: Are these for android only?
A: No, these are recommendations that apply for all the phones, regardless of the operating system that they are running. They are even recommendations that can be used with other battery-dependent devices – like laptops. While you can find info on increasing battery life for your laptop in other guides, these tips can help for the everyday usage of them. After all – smartphones are commonly used nowadays as a smaller computer.
