10 ways to preserve your smartphone battery. As smartphones become a very important device for most people due to its various capabilities and functions, many can be found clinging to the likes of power banks and external batteries to keep the thing running.
However if you ever find yourself with an empty smartphone battery and power bank, here are some tips to best preserve its lifespan as compiled by kompas.com
Check which applications use up the most battery
Not all apps are created equal as some may require more battery use than others. It’s important to figure out which of these apps drains the most from your phone as you will need to shut them down to best preserve the battery.
If you are using an Android phone, you can access these usage stats by going into “Settings” and then selecting “Battery & Performance” where there will be a “Power Usage” option. This is where you will find the relevant statistics.
After seeing these stats, you can now prioritize your app use.
Lower the display brightness
Often times, you may need your device’s display to be brighter to see the screen more clearly. However, your device’s brightness is directly linked to battery usage.
The brighter the display, the more it takes up energy from your device. So to counteract this, it is important to keep the brightness low as much as possible. In a pinch when you cannot see your screen when its too bright out, perhaps it would be better to find a dark area to best check your notifications.
Turn off unnecessary signals
There are many frequencies your device may give off at any given time such as NFC, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. These different frequencies are used for different types of operations. For example, the NFC can be used for monetary transactions.
So in the case when you are trying to preserve the battery, it is important to check which signals are turned on and which of them you truly need to use. Often times, we do not need to transfer files via Bluetooth or find our geographic positioning. So unless truly necessary, keep these frequencies turned off.
In the case of your battery being critically low, it is best to turn off even data or Wi-Fi and only turning these features on in the case of an emergency.
Turn off applications running in the background
Often times, we find ourselves going between multiple apps at once, not closing one app before opening another. But there is a cost to this multitasking — when moving to another app it is necessary to shut off an app not in use so that your device does not use unnecessary energy.
The reason why this wastes battery is because when an app is running in the background, it is still using RAM in addition to the memory being used in the app that is on display. Make sure that you shut off all background apps when trying to save battery through the task manager.
Refrain from using widgets and live wallpapers
It is hard to disagree that some animated wallpapers look pretty cool. But in order to constantly run this animation, your device also constantly uses more memory to process the image, and in turn drains the battery quicker.
The same concept goes for widgets, as it constantly requires updates, using more internet data and draining the battery. So to save battery in this aspect, stick to a static wallpaper and minimize the use of widgets.
Shut off nonessential notifications
Many apps on your device may send constant notifications throughout the day. But how many of these notifications are truly necessary on an hour-to-hour basis? There are many nonessential notifications that can be shut off such as a notification to update your device or a certain application.
Lighting up the display to show these notifications or setting off your phone’s vibration or sound notifications drains the battery quickly. Therefore, make sure to go into the settings and shut off all notifications from apps that are not truly essential.
Update the device’s operating system and applications
Updating your device or your apps could be quite a hassle sometimes, but usually these new updates help to optimize your device. This means that the new version of the device’s OS or apps are updated to more efficiently use your device’s resources such as memory or battery.
So when there is a chance, be sure to apply these updates. But try to do these updates when there are no blackouts and when there is Wi-Fi access. This is because updates may use up much of your data plan, and restarting devices to apply updates also drains the battery.
Shut off the automatic sync feature
The automatic sync feature is used to synchronize the user’s data for applications that are used across more than one device. For example, it checks to see if your emails or social media notifications are all up to date.
However, this constant synchronization is a contributing factor to a quickly draining battery. To turn off this feature, go into the device’s settings and look for the Auto-Sync feature and there should be an option to shut this off.
Use your device’s power-saving feature
Most smartphones have the option to use a battery-saving mode, a feature that often activates automatically as the device’s battery is critically low. This feature automatically moderates and optimizes your device to use less battery.
This may limit certain features such as calling, SMS and internet, but it is the most effective way to save battery as the smartphone is programmed to self-moderate as effectively as possible.
Use applications that do not automatically show ads
Many free-to-use apps nowadays often automatically show advertisements. These advertisements are usually visual-based, meaning that it will most likely show vibrant images or animations. Not only does this use up your device’s processing power, it also uses up more internet data to show the advertisements in the first place.
Therefore, when trying to save battery during a blackout, refrain from using apps that typically show advertisements during use. 10 ways to preserve your smartphone battery (sal/kes, The Jakarta Post)
