Extend Your
Phone's Battery
These days, our phones are way more than just phones. And we're more connected to them than ever before. So the idea that your battery's dying and you don't have a place to juice-up is a frightening thought. But with screens getting bigger, brighter and apps getting more and more addictive, the solution isn't less screen time. It's smarter power optimization. Herewith, six expert tips for better battery performance.
Dim Your Screen
This is one rule that even novices know, but don't always follow—brighter screens require more power. Disable the auto-brightness feature (which is often brighter than you need) and manually adjust your screen's brightness to your optimal level for reading comfortably.
Lose the Vibrations
Most people don't realize that the vibrations use up much more power than ringtones. But it requires a decent amount of energy to shake the entire phone by pulsating a weight inside the handset. By contrast, powering the tiny speaker takes next to nothing. Within your settings, you can turn off all vibrations or simply manage them to be shorter and used only for important alerts.
Manage Notifications
We tend to get a lot more notifications on our phones than we need, from app updates and social media "likes" to news and game scores. Manage your alerts in your phone settings and whittle them down to the essentials—texts, important emails, etc. That way, unnecessary notifications won't waste your time or power.
Watch Who's Watching You
A lot of apps utilize your phone's GPS and while some make perfect sense—you probably want to tag your location in Instagram—but all that tracking, running in the background, can drain a battery. Find out which apps have location-based features and shut off any that you don't need to conserve juice.
Stay Up to Date
The process of updating an app or operating system is often a battery-depleting task, so only do it while charging your phone. But don't ignore those little reminders. These necessary updates can correct power-sucking bugs or include energy saving optimizations. Delete old apps you no longer use, which may be running background processes that use up memory and battery life.
Utilize Airplane Mode
When you have little to no cell service or Wifi, turn on the airplane mode so your phone isn't constantly searching for a signal. Likewise, you can use this while you sleep or during a meeting so you're not disturbed, all while conserving battery life.