1. Reduce Screen Brightness and Timeout
Reducing your screen brightness and shortening your screen timeout interval can have a big impact on battery life. The screen is one of the most power-hungry components of a smartphone.
I find that setting the brightness to around 50% is a good balance between battery life and visibility. You can also enable auto-brightness to automatically adjust based on ambient light.
As for the screen timeout, I set it to 30 seconds or 1 minute. This causes the screen to turn off more quickly when you are not actively using the phone. The longer the screen is on, the more battery power is consumed.
2. Manage App Notifications
App notifications can drain battery in the background if you have a lot of apps notifying you constantly throughout the day.
Go through the notification settings for each app and disable notifications you do not need. For example, I disabled email notifications since I check my email manually anyway.
You can also disable or reduce notifications during certain times, like at night when you are sleeping. The key is evaluating which notifications add value and limiting the rest. Every buzz, sound and popup eats away at battery life.
3. Limit Location Services
Location services leverages GPS and cellular data to pinpoint your device’s location. This continuous location monitoring can shorten battery life.
Carefully review which apps have access to your location and disable it for apps that don’t need it. Most social media apps and games fall into this category. Also turn off location services completely when not in use.
You can also shorten the distance interval that apps can use to check your location. I set most apps to only check location when I explicitly open the app, which is the most efficient approach.
4. Disable Unused Connectivity
Modern smartphones come packed with connectivity options – 4G, 5G, WiFi, Bluetooth and more. Having multiple connections enabled when they aren’t actively in use drains battery.
I keep 4G, WiFi and Bluetooth enabled since I use them regularly. But you may be able to disable options you don’t use, like NFC or 5G if you don’t have a 5G-compatible network.
You can also disable auto-connecting to WiFi and instead only turn it on when needed manually. The more radios actively transmitting data, the more battery used. Evaluate what you actually utilize.
5. Limit Apps Refreshing in the Background
Many apps continuously run in the background and refresh content. For example, social media apps may automatically check for new posts and emails may keep pulling for new messages.
This constant data transfer and background activity adds up and impacts battery life. Most apps have settings to restrict background data usage – turn these on for apps you don’t need immediate notifications from.
Also, when cellular data is enabled, apps can refresh in the background even when you aren’t actively using your device. You can disable cellular data when not needed to maximize battery.
Following these tips has helped me extend my smartphone’s battery life significantly. Do you have any other battery saving tips I should try? Let me know! Optimizing battery life takes some effort but pays off in longer usage between charges.
