Find out when to charge, what to turn off and which settings to manipulate to get the most battery life out of your devices.
We all know that smartphone battery life doesn’t last forever. Sure, the responsible thing to do is to always have your charger handy. But life doesn’t always go according to plan. So, if your charger is at home and you’re not, how can you stall that powerless feeling from taking over your phone and mental state for as long as possible?
Here are our top 9 battery tips you can implement before you leave home, as well as when you don’t have a charger handy:
1. Carry a spare charger that doesn’t require an outlet.
For optimal charging, use the approved wall charger for your device. But if you can’t be wired to a power outlet, you can still charge your smartphone or tablet battery with an accessory such as the Otterbox 5K Portable Power Bank or Ventev Portable Power Charge Stand.
2. Pamper your battery.
Keep the ports where your battery plugs into your device clean. Don’t let your device get hotter than about 95-degrees Fahrenheit, and limit your usage outside in cold weather, too. For additional reassurance or to give your hot battery a break, consider carrying a spare that you can pop in when you’re caught in the red.
3. Upgrade your device.
Newer smartphones have considerably longer-lasting batteries than older phones. Depending on usage, some new devices can deliver up to 48 hours of performance before needing a boost. Browse the latest smartphones and find out if you’re eligible to trade-in your device.
4. Economize.
Wi-Fi gobbles up a lot of power on all devices because it’s always looking for a signal, so turn it off when not in use. You can also turn off 4G LTE if you happen to be somewhere without a strong signal.
Keep the screen as dim as you can stand it, and close apps when you are done with them so they don’t run in the background. (You’d be surprised to see how many apps are running when not in use.) Extend the refresh time: Set your email to get new messages every 15 minutes (or even longer) rather than as soon as they arrive on the server. And whenever possible, put your device to sleep.
5. Turn off push notifications.
Of course you want to know about breaking news as soon as it happens or keep up with social media comments and DM’s the instant they come in, but these notifications require power. Turn them off when you need to conserve energy and disable location-based services when not in use.
6. Change your settings.
Change the display settings on your phone so that your screen time-out is at a lower setting. Make sure Bluetooth is turned off when not in use so your device isn’t trying to pair with an accessory that isn’t there. Turn off your GPS options, too. Live wallpaper applications can also affect battery performance.
While you’re in settings, see if you have the latest software, and if not, update it! Also, make sure you have enough battery life to complete a software update. Note that it also takes at least 3 days to see battery improvement after updating the software.
7. Don’t turn it off.
Your tablet or phone will use more juice powering back up than it will quietly napping. When at home, you’ll want to power cycle the device every 48 hours by turning it off, waiting 15 to 30 seconds, then turning it back on. A power cycle will reboot the device, and will turn off any apps that could be inadvertently running in the background and draining the battery.
8. Charge it.
But not too often. For optimum performance, “reboot” your battery whenever you can by waiting to charge until the battery is down to about 10 percent. Then, fill ‘er up to 100 percent. Try to avoid overcharging it except for newer devices, which is recommended.
9. Have a tablet? Drain its battery regularly.
For optimum battery performance in a tablet, once a month, let your battery drain completely before recharging. It appreciates the exercise!
Need help optimizing your battery? Stop into your local BeMobile for expert battery care!