7:05am – 100 per cent, 7:45am – 36 per cent.
Woah, where did all my battery go?
Nearly everyone with a smartphone has come across this annoying feature of the modern day phone. Even on a commute that’s as short as getting a bus into work, you will see your phone’s life slowly die.
Fair enough, it’s a long distance from 100 per cent to 20 per cent and depending on how much you use your phone over the course of the day, you could get hours out of this period, or you could get just an hour from it.
Then, the dreaded last 20 per cent kicks in. Similar to when your car is heading towards the E mark, the symbol for the battery turns red and the time for panic begins.
You’ve left your charger at home, what else is new? No one else in the office has a spare charger to give you and you’re already in single figures.
Nooo.
By the end of the day, your phone has either gone dead or is languishing around the one per cent mark and you just know you won’t have enough battery to get home.
Well, fear not ladies and gentleman because UK based site, TechAdvisor, have come up with a number of life-saving ways of holding on to your battery.
Don’t charge the battery overnight
You may not know this but pushing the phone’s battery from 99 per cent – to the top figure is wearing out the battery and overall life of the phone. So, instead, maybe stick your phone on charge while you’re scrolling through apps in bed before you go to sleep.
Turn off unnecessary apps
An easy one that so many people forget to do. CLOSE DOWN YOUR APPS AFTER YOU’RE DONE PEOPLE.
Dim screen brightness
If it’s the middle of the day, there’s no need for the phone to be on full brightness whack. It’s a guaranteed battery killer.
Turn off vibrations
Vibrations require more power than an actual ringtone. If you’re the type of person who only gets a few notifications in the hour, just leave the ringtones on. If you get any more than ten in an hour, you probably check your phone religiously anyway and don’t need either.
Shorten screen timeout
Some phones don’t automatically lock themselves, so having a short time out period is vital to keep your battery in top shape.
Turn off Bluetooth
You may not think that it’s used that often but this little bad boy will put some mileage on your battery. If you don’t need it, don’t have it on at all.
Turn off GPS and other location services
The majority of apps track your location but it is going to cost your battery some time. In settings, you can choose the frequency of how often GPS is used.
Don’t have notifications for everything
Do you really need a notification for Facebook and Instagram? All notifications naturally consume energy, so if it’s an app you use regularly, cut the notification.
Push email
Same goes for emails. Unless your job relies heavily on you checking your emails every day, change it so it goes off every half hour or hour. Better still, Check them as often as you see fit.
Keep the phone cool
This is a handy little guideline to know when your phone is using too much of its battery. A phone needs to rest and recharge properly, so laying off your smartphone for an hour or two each day could save you months in the long run.
Invest in a battery bank
It is the modern day phone charger. They’re relatively cheap and you don’t have to worry about the hassle of being near a plug. Just remember to charge that up before you head out.
They also debunked some myths about charging your phone too such as disabling Siri or any A.I. on your phone completely. If you’re not using the likes of this, it’s not going to be running in the background anyway so it’s not causing you a problem.
Also, they discussed the issue surrounding what they described as cheap chargers and the impact they have on a phone.
Jim Martin from the site said:
“A cheap charger can potentially damage your handset, but most third-party chargers won’t cause any issues with your battery, and many will actually charge it faster.”
