Devices get more energy-efficient as batteries get larger, but battery life is still a concern for most users. Such is the nature of modern tech, but this doesn’t mean we should be plugging in multiple times a day. If your phone’s battery drains faster than it should, identifying the culprits and finding solutions is worth the effort.
We are here to tell you the most common battery hogs in the smartphone world. Also included are solutions for the most common issues. Let’s get to it before that screen shuts off!
Here are some of the most common ones:
- There are too many push notifications and alerts draining the battery.
- There are too many apps running location services.
- There are too many apps running in the background.
- The screen is too bright.
- The screen is staying on too long before going to sleep.
- The phone doesn’t have service.
- The phone’s operating system is outdated.
- Extreme temperature variations are affecting your phone and battery.
- The phone’s battery is at the end of its life cycle.
How to extend your Android phone battery life
Avoid overcharging or overusing the phone.
To be precise, the time taken to fully drain a charged battery is based on the time of usage, type of apps used, number of hours used on screen, the screen brightness, etc. To make your phone battery last longer, endeavor not to overuse the phone and avoid overcharging.
To ensure you’re not overusing your phone, you should often take breaks after a period of usage or intensive gaming. More so, ensure to always unplug your phone after the charging is complete, or charge your phone between 20 -80% most of the time to make the phone battery last longer.
Do not use the phone when charging.
Using the phone while charging has a bad effect on the battery lifespan. When you use your phone while charging, the phone tends to draw power directly from the charger which reduces the amount of power passed to the battery.
Avoid using the phone at high temperatures.
The battery loses more power in high temperatures compared to when the normal temperature. To make cell phone battery last longer, try as much as possible not to use the phone at high temperatures, especially while walking under the sun. If you must reply to an important text on a hot sunny day, do it where there’s shade to cover the phone.
Avoid playing games or using the camera in direct sunlight as it makes the phone hot and drains the battery faster. If you work in places with hot temperatures, like the bakery, use your phone sparingly or look for a more temperate area.
Do not leave your phone in low electricity conditions.
Leaving your phone to charge in low electricity conditions will cause the battery to charge abnormally and most times charge slowly like a snail. Avoid charging your phone when there’s a low electrical current to increase android battery life.
Always use the original charger.
The type of charger you use also affects battery life. The best charger to use in charging your phone is the one box with the phone. However, if it has spoiled, make sure you buy the original charger that fits your phone to make the phone battery last longer.
Every phone is built to charge at a particular current, trying to use a charger with a higher or lower capacity will have a bad effect on the battery. Some may not even charge their phone. So, if you’re to purchase a new charger, make sure you compare the power rating with your original charger.
Low power mode
Low power mode, also known as Battery saver on Android can help you save a lot of battery by restricting some functions of the phone such as limiting the number of apps that runs in the background, disabling vibration, reducing screen brightness, etc., with just a single tap of activation.
If you need to use your phone for longer hours – say you have a lot of activities to complete on the phone, enable the Battery saver mode which cuts some of the phone’s functions in return for better battery life to make the phone last longer.
Do not install unnecessary apps
Our phone storage is big enough to take several apps, but how often do we need those apps? Keeping unnecessary apps on your phone uses more CPU and results in more power usage.
Consider uninstalling redundant apps or apps you don’t need on your phone. If you have some important apps you don’t use frequently, consider moving them to the freezer on your smartphones, which is efficient to make your phone battery last longer.
Turn down the screen brightness
Out of every other app or process running on your phone, the screen has more impact on battery life. It used to be the top feature, recorded by Android, that drains the battery. To extend battery life on android, turn down the brightness in most conditions.
You can also activate Adaptive Brightness on your Android phone to help you adjust the screen brightness based on the amount of light in your environment. It helps save battery life and also saves the stress of manually adjusting the all the time. To activate Adaptive Brightness, kindly toggle on the ‘A’ icon beside the brightness slider in the quick settings panel. Or better still, activate it from Settings >> Display >> Adaptive Brightness.
Use Dark theme
Alongside turning down the screen brightness, using a dark theme across all interfaces on your device will help save a lot of battery, especially if your screen is built with an AMOLED panel.
If your phone is running on Android 10 or later, turn on the dark theme from the quick settings panel (by swiping down the notification panel twice). You can also toggle on the dark theme from settings by going to Settings >> Display >> Dark theme, or Settings >> Accessibility >> Dark theme.
Do not charge the phone overnight
To ensure you’re not overcharging your phone, avoid charging overnight. Just come to think of it, the average sleeping time for most human beings is 6-8 hours and most phones are fully charged within 2-3 hours. So, charging your phone overnight will have a bad effect on the battery life. Some batteries have also been reported to become swollen or explode after a long time of overcharging.
Although some manufacturers confirmed in some new phones that the charger is automatically disconnected after the battery is fully charged, it’s still advisable not to charge your phone at the night.
Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
To increase android battery life, also turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when not in use. Turning them on always makes them continue to look for available devices to connect to, thereby using more power.
Do not use moving wallpaper
Truly, animated wallpapers are pleasurable to see. But how much do they affect the battery? The answer will be just like it is when watching an animated movie. So avoid using animated wallpapers to save more battery.
Turn off location
Alongside turning off the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, turning on the Location while not in use may drain the battery more quickly. So, to get a better battery life, consider turning off your location when not in use.
On the other hand, that’s a different story if you’re running on Android 10 or later. You don’t have to worry about turning off the location after usage, all you have to do is just configure the number of apps that can use your location in the background. To do so, kindly open the Settings app, tap on Location, and then tap on App permission to configure which app can use your location in the background.
Turn off vibration
Vibration on Android is a very handy feature. It keeps you alerted on every new notification. But the vibrator uses a motor that also draws some power from the battery every time the phone vibrates. To extend battery life on your android phone, kindly disable the vibration from the Sound settings on your device. You can also search for ‘vibration’ using the search bar on the settings app.
Find a new battery
Upon following the about guides consistently, your phone should have better battery life. But if you don’t notice any better changes afterward, there are chances that your battery needs replacement.
You can walk into a trusted shop to purchase a new battery if your battery is removable, but if it’s not, you may not be able to replace the inbuilt battery by yourself, you need to see a technician.
