We’ve all been there. You’ve got a group of longtime friends together for dinner and give the waiter your phone to snap a picture. He gets everyone all in focus and…the battery goes dead. Or you’re traveling for business and left the hotel in the morning with a full charge, only to find that by noontime, your battery indicator is a bright red. What gives? How can you make sure your phone’s battery is charged and ready when you need it most?
While you can buy on-the-go rechargers and extra battery packs, there are a few ways you can modify your everyday behavior to help your battery last longer. Of course, you can simply put it in airplane mode, but what about battery-saving strategies that will actually let you use your phone? Here we go with a list of tips that will be game-changers for your battery life.
Tone down the brightness: A bright screen looks great (especially outside), but it’s a huge battery-killer. Make it as dim as possible for you to still be able to see it.
Use WiFi whenever possible. You may not realize it, but browsing and emailing over your cellular network actually eats more battery power than connecting via WiFi. This not only helps extend your data plan; it will also help extend your battery life.
Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth when you’re not using them. While you want to use WiFi instead of cellular when you have the choice, when you’re not using your phone and have it tucked away, you don’t want the WiFi or Bluetooth running in the background. Turn them off.
Turn off location services. Similarly, location services that make certain apps a snap to use also drain your battery when they’re constantly tracking you in the background. Disable them when not in use.
Disable vibrate. While it’s great to have your phone vibrate when someone calls, that takes extra power. If you’re desperate to make your battery last longer, simply settle for a ringtone or screen notification for a call.
While all of these tips require a little extra effort on your part, they’re definitely worth it when at the end of a long day, you still have a whopping 5% of your battery left. Mission accomplished!
