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[p]Even in 2018, it's tough to go much longer than 24 hours without charging your smartphone. Better battery technology simply hasn't arrived yet, which means it's down to software and settings to eke out the limited power for as long as possible. [h2]1. Dim the screen brightness or use auto brightness[strong][br][/strong][/h2][p]
[br][p]You love your smartphone's large, colourful display, but it's the battery's mortal enemy. More than any other component of your phone, the display consumes battery life at a devastating pace. Most phones include an auto-brightness feature that automatically adjusts the screen's brightness to suit ambient lighting levels.This mode uses less power than constantly running your screen at full brightness would, of course, but you'll get even better results by turning your screen's brightness down to the lowest setting that you can tolerate and leaving it there. Even if you do nothing else we suggest, following this one tip will extend the life of your battery dramatically.[h2]2. Keep the screen timeout short[/h2][p]
[br][p]Under your phone's display settings menu, you should find an option labeled 'Screen Timeout', 'Sleep' or something similar. (On an iPhone, look for Auto-Lock in the General settings menu.) This setting controls how long your phone's screen stays lit after receiving input, such as a tap.[h2]3. Turn off Bluetooth[/h2][p]
[br][p]No matter now much you love using Bluetooth with your hands-free headset, your wireless speaker or activity tracker, the extra radio is constantly listening for signals from the outside world. When you aren't in your car, or when you aren't playing music wirelessly, turn off the Bluetooth radio. This way, you can add an hour or more to your phone's battery life.[h2]4. Turn off Wi-Fi[strong][br][/strong][/h2][p]
[br][p]As with Bluetooth, your phone's Wi-Fi radio is a serious battery drainer. While you will at times need to use your home or office Wi-Fi connection rather than 3G or 4G for internet access and other data services, there's little point in leaving the Wi-Fi radio on when you're out and about. Toggle it off when you go out the door, and turn it back on only when you plan to use data services within range of your Wi-Fi network. [h2]5. Go easy on the location services and GPS[strong][br][/strong][/h2][p]
[br][p]Another big battery sucker is apps using GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile data for monitoring your location. As a user, you can revoke apps' access to location services, or set levels (in Android) to determine how much power they use. In Settings > Location, you can choose High accuracy when you need it, or Battery saving when you don't.[h2]6. Don't leave apps running in the background[strong][br][/strong][/h2][p]
[br][p]Multitasking - the ability to run more than one app at a time - is a powerful smartphone feature. It can also burn a lot of energy, because every app you run uses a share of your phone's processor cycles (but this isn't true of all apps - see the myths section below).[h2]7. Don't use vibrate[/h2][p]
[br][p]Prefer to have your phone alert you to incoming calls by vibrating rather than playing a ringtone? We understand the inclination; unfortunately, vibrating uses much more power than playing a ringtone does. After all, a ringtone only has to make a tiny membrane in your phone's speaker vibrate enough to produce sound.[h2][strong]8. Turn off non-essential notifications[/strong][/h2][div]
[strong][br][/strong][/div][p]It seems as though almost every app now polls the internet in search of updates, news, messages, and other information. When it finds something, the app may chime, light up your screen and display a message, make your LED blink, or do all of the above. All of these things consume energy.[h2]9. Disable push email[/h2][p]
[br][p]Having your phone constantly check if there's new email is a waste of power. Instead of allowing email to be pushed to your phone at any time, why not change the setting to fetch mail every so often - maybe 15 or 30 minutes if you don't need to respond immediately to anyone[h2][strong]10. Enable power-saving modes[/strong][/h2][div]
[strong][br][/strong][/div][p]Depending on your phone, you may find the manufacturer has provided power-saving features that go beyond anything available in Android by default.Enabling a battery-saving mode manages the phone's various power-sapping features for you. It might, for example, prevent apps from updating in the background, dim your screen, reduce the screen timeout setting, disable on-screen animations, and turn off vibration. |
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