The Battery World
Smartphones have become an extension of ourselves, storing calendars and contacts, and sharing messages and pictures. That makes it aggravating when this important piece of yourself runs out of juice.
Geek Squad shared some top ways to conserve your Smartphone’s battery:
Remember to end route
Remember to tap “End Route” when you’re done using Google Maps, or else your phone will continue to use GPS to seek your location, draining your battery quickly.
Use low power/ power save mode
The low power mode feature can be found in your phone settings. It will prompt you when you reach 20 percent battery to go into low power mode. This temporarily reduces power consumption until you can fully charge your phone. When this is on, mail fetch, Hey Siri, background app refresh, automatic downloads, and some visual effects are reduced or turned off.
Check apps that are draining your battery life
While you’re in settings, you can also check to see which apps use the most battery life. If you start seeing an app showing up there consistently, you’ll know that running the app is costing you battery life. You may want to consider deleting the app or adjusting some of the settings.
Stay away from apps that promise to save your battery
The worst offenders for apps that drain battery life are apps that claim they will save your battery.
Some apps say they are saving your battery, but really they are running in the background using your battery and running adware. So they give you ad pop-ups, they ask you if you want to buy a certain product and really they are just using you for a way to make money.
Pay attention to sleep mode and brightness
You can turn your brightness up or down, and the lower it is, then the longer your battery is going to last.
Also considering changing how long your screen stays on before it auto-locks.
Using your phone as a hotspot
Using your Smartphone as a mobile hotspot will drain your battery life very quickly. This also heats up the phone which can damage the battery and reduce its life span. Only use your phone as a hotspot for a short period of time and remember to switch of your hotspot once you’re done.
Consider getting a portable charger/ power bank
Battery power banks are a great way to charge your phone if you’re on the go, especially a portable charger that will charge your device multiple times.
Look for charging devices that have charging cables built in. Also, pay particularly close attention to the number of milliamps on the device. For example, an iPhone 7 has 3,000 milliamp battery, so if a charger has a 3,350 milliamp battery it will likely charge your phone around one and a half to two times.
Notifications, vibrate mode
Turning off notifications and sound can also provide big battery savings.
Switch off notifications that you don’t need to see every five minutes or at least switching your settings so that your phone doesn’t vibrate with every notification. Setting your phone to vibrate for every text drains more battery than when it is on silent or loud mode.
Keep your operating system up to date
The newest updates they’re sending out, are going to be going for efficiency and optimization, so if you’re holding back on that update because you’re afraid it is going to change things too much, you should go ahead and push it through because that is going to give you those new settings that iPhone and Android are coming up with.
Overcharging the battery
Charging your phone for a longer period of time doesn’t necessarily make your battery last longer. Avoid letting your phone discharge to 0%, rather maintain a sweet spot between 20%-80%.
Not all devices may be compatible with a fast charger. the fast charger has a higher voltage and may damage your charging circuit and battery in your device.
