So many years ago but in the not too distant past, phone users got three days or even five days standby time from a single charge of their phones. It was all about voice calls and text messages. Not anymore. The advancement of mobile phone technology has brought with it its own headaches. There is hardly anyone who does not own a smartphone these days and there are so many features and apps that users don’t know what to do with all of them.
Smartphones are currently used heavily for social media communications and it has become a heavy drain on battery. It is now commonplace to see people move around with funny-looking battery banks to keep their phones from running out of juice. Unfortunately, even the battery banks don’t hold enough charge most of the time. The result of this is that phone users find themselves missing out of their social media activities and voice calls because they find their phones out of battery power at the wrong place.
However, there are ways for phone users to continue to use their phones heavily and at the same time to make them last longer. Here, we give you some tips about how to do this.
(1) TURN OFF YOUR BLUETOOTH WHEN NOT IN USE
Interestingly, the growth of social media is almost making the Bluetooth connection technology to become old fashioned. People now prefer to transfer files over social media than Bluetooth. There are still some uses for Bluetooth like for hands-free speaker connection. Hence, a lot of people forget to turn off their Bluetooth connections even after unplugging the speakers. Some other people leave their Bluetooth connections own without knowing it. This consumes a lot of battery power searching for connections. So, turning off your connections when not in use can make a difference.
(2) TURN OFF GPS WHEN NOT IN USE
A lot of people also never turn their GPS off and the truth is they rarely use the connection. Most times, you need the GPS for navigation purposes and at other times, there is no need for it to be on. GPS itself consumes a lot of battery life. You should also turn off other connections like near field.
(3) TURN OFF AUTO UPDATE OF APPSÂ
A lot of apps in the background update themselves without your knowledge. Apart from eating up a chunk of your internet data, it also eats up part of your battery life while doing so. You can be sure that you do not even use those apps. When you turn off automatic updates, you only manually update apps that are necessary.
(4) UNINSTALL UNUSED APPS
There are many apps in your phone that you have never even used or those you have rarely used in a long time. Some of these apps run underground without your knowledge and consume your batteries and even internet data. Uninstall these apps and help your battery to last longer.
(5) DON’T USE YOUR PHONE WHILE IT IS CHARGING
Apart from the fact that it is dangerous to use your while charging as the chemical components of the batteries are volatile, a lot of phones forbid pass-through charging. This means that the more you use your phone while charging, the more it damages the battery.
(6) ALWAYS CLOSE YOUR WEB PAGES
Some people leave tens of web pages open without knowing it. Sometimes, pop-under adverts also runs under some web pages. These open web pages consume a lot of battery life and data for that matter. The best way of stopping this is to close all your web pages after viewing them.
(7) TURN DOWN THE SCREEN BRIGHTNESS
A lot of people like to turn up their screen brightness. However, most times this is unneeded and unfortunately, it drains a lot of battery life. So, unless it is very necessary, turn down your screen brightness and let it remain that way.
(8) REDUCE THE SCREEN TIMEOUT
You can also make your phone last longer by reducing the screen timeout – the length of time the screen stays on after the last time it is used. Because most people are inconvenienced by always having to insert their password intermittently to use their phones, they tend to increase the screen timeout. This also drains the battery rapidly.
(9) TRY TO KEEP YOUR PHONE BATTERY ABOVE 25 PERCENT CHARGE
The more you let your phone almost drain up before charging, the worse the battery life becomes in subsequent cycles. So, make sure to let your batteries always remain above 25 percent in battery capacity.
(10) STORE YOUR PHONES WITH KEYPADS LOCKED
When you put away your phones in your pocket or your bag, make sure that the keypads are locked. When items press on your keypad especially when it is not locked, it drains the battery so quickly that the phone can even be so hot. If you can, put away your phones in pouches, so that nothing presses against the keypads, even when it is locked.
These are some of the many ways you can make your phone batteries last longer.
–Kelechi Okorie
