In today’s world, smartphones are an integral part of modern life. We use them for everything – from messaging friends to ordering food and navigating our streets. However, smartphone batteries can degrade quickly, which can be frustrating. To avoid this, discover how to save energy on your smartphone and stop the battery from dying.
General Ways to Save Energy on your Smartphone
Table of contents [Show]
You can take general steps to conserve energy on your smartphone and stop the battery from dying.
Use the Power Saving Feature
The first and most obvious way to conserve your smartphone’s energy and stop the battery from dying is to use the in-built power-saving feature. This feature automatically modifies your settings to consume the least amount of energy needed to run efficiently.
Turn off your Phone at Night
Not only will turning your phone off at night help save your phone’s battery, but it is also good for your health as you are more likely to get an excellent night’s sleep. Suppose your phone is on in your bedroom while you sleep. In that case, you are likely to be woken by notifications or phone calls, leading to fragmented sleep quality. If you wake up at night and read something upsetting or stimulating on your phone, you may have trouble falling back to sleep.
If you use your phone as your alarm clock, as many of us do, set it to airplane mode. This setting will suspend all voice, text, and phone services without shutting off the alarm, therefore using less energy. Better yet: buy an old school alarm clock.
Be Aware of the Temperature
If you use your phone for prolonged periods in excessively hot or cold temperatures, the battery will be negatively affected. According to Apple, temperatures below 0°C and above 35°C will cause battery problems.
Try not to take your phone out of your pocket too often in cold weather, and only use it indoors or in the shade when temperatures are high.
Conserve Energy on your Smartphone through the Screen
Your phone’s screen causes significant energy loss. Follow these steps to stop it sucking your battery dry.
Screen Timeout
Your phone’s screen uses a great deal of energy. The most effective way of conserving it is to ensure that it times out when not in use. All smartphones have settings that allow you to shut down the screen after a period of inactivity. Consider setting it to 30 seconds or a minute to conserve the most energy.
Dim Your Screen to Save Energy on your Smartphone
The brighter you have your screen, the more energy it uses. Not only that, but there is evidence that looking at a bright screen for too long can damage your eyes. Reduce the brightness of the screen for the benefit of your health and your phone’s battery.
Use a Dark Wallpaper
Dark wallpapers use less energy as the battery does not have to illuminate as many coloured pixels. In contrast, dark pixels are not lit, thus requiring significantly less power.
Save Energy on your Smartphone while Charging
Smartphones, like most electronics, require you to charge the battery regularly. However, with every charge cycle, your phone battery degrades somewhat.
Thankfully, there are techniques you can use to charge effectively and reduce the strain on the battery.
Partial Charging
Charging a battery between 30 and 80% of capacity uses lower voltage, which is less likely to degrade it. Dipping below 30% and rising above 80% requires a higher voltage, which reduces performance. Therefore, small, regular to-ups within the 30-80% range are better than long full charge cycles.
Stop Charging at 100%
If you do fully charge your battery, don’t let it charge for long at 100%. Continuing to charge a fully charged battery can cause voltage and temperature stress, resulting in decreased battery performance.
Avoid Parasitic Loads
A parasitic load occurs when you drain the battery at the same time as charging it. For example, if your phone is charging while you are watching videos or playing games. Parasitic loads diminish battery performance as they cause mini-cycles, where the battery deteriorates faster. Also, a parasitic load on a fully charged smartphone can cause higher heat and voltage stress, further reducing performance.
Avoid parasitic loads by keeping your phone idle while charging, or better yet, turning it off completely.
Use a Certified Charger
Always use the charger that comes with your phone when charging. Cheaper, uncertified chargers may not have the same standards or use the right voltage, damaging the battery.
Apps
These days, part of the fun of owning a smartphone is the endless number of apps that can be downloaded and used for anything you can imagine. However, while entertaining and useful, apps can drain your phone’s battery life considerably. To avoid this, follow these easy steps.
Close or Uninstall Unnecessary Apps to Conserve Power on your Smartphone
Apps that are open but not being used are still consuming energy. When finished with an app, remember to close it.
Similarly, if you find that you don’t use an app any longer, uninstall it to remove the risk of accidentally opening it in the background.
Update Apps
Developers release updates of apps periodically. When this happens, make sure to upgrade, as the update may include fixes that can help prolong your battery life.
Deactivate to Save Energy on your Smartphone
Modern smartphones are full to the brim with features that, when activated, use up a tremendous amount of battery. While these features are useful, they can all be deactivated when not in use to save battery.
GPS
Certain apps, such as google earth, use GPS to track our whereabouts. However, GPS can suck your battery dry if left on when not needed. If you are not using an app that requires it, remember to shut down your phone’s GPS.
Deactivate Bluetooth to Conserve Energy
When Bluetooth is activated, it drains your battery by continually looking for a signal. Remember to turn it off when not in use to save energy.
Notifications and Vibration
All those pings and vibrations that your phone keeps making? They are draining the battery. Not only that, but notifications and vibrations cause us to pick up our phone without realizing, contributing to cell phone addiction.
Conclusion: There Are Many Ways to Save Energy on your Smartphone
Smartphones are an integral part of modern life that we all use and love. However, they do use up considerable energy daily. By following the tips above, you can preserve your smartphone’s battery and conserve energy at the same time.
