Better Battery Life Starts Here
Ever wonder why your phone battery drains so quickly? Maybe you topped it to 100% overnight, but it doesn't even last you a full day before you need to plug it in again. While the lithium batteries in our phones aren't designed to last forever, there are various ways to extend their lifespan. Curious to know how? Here are 10 things that are draining your phone battery and 10 tips to boost its battery life.
1. Charging to 100% Every Time
It might sound contradicting, but it's not a good habit to charge your phone to full every time. While you can do this occasionally—and your phone may sometimes do it automatically for you, even if you place a limit—it's generally best to avoid doing so as it can stress the battery.
2. Letting Your Battery Dip Below 10%
On the other hand, if you run your phone battery to the ground every time you use it, this also stresses the battery and shortens its lifespan. This is because the longer you drain your device and leave it uncharged, the more strain you put on the lithium cells inside, which may eventually lead to swelling. If you ever have to charge it from 10% or lower, avoid using a fast charger—your phone may overheat.
3. Running on Full Brightness
Keeping your phone at maximum brightness also drains your battery as it consumes a lot of energy. It's also not great for your eyes; prolonged blue light exposure causes eye strain, which can then lead to dry eyes, headaches, and overall discomfort.
4. Keeping Background Apps Running
If you're the type of person to never close apps and you instead keep them running in the background, this could be another reason why your battery drains so quickly. Some apps, like Mail, automatically fetch data even when you're not actively using it, which also consumes energy.
5. Playing Graphic-Rich Games
For those who like to game on their phone, rendering graphics also takes an extreme toll on your battery life and performance. Resolution, frame rate, and other details put pressure on the GPU since every time the graphics change and refresh, your phone needs to work twice as hard.
6. Charging While Gaming
You might think that charging while gaming isn't a bad thing since you're keeping the battery topped up, but doing this overheats your device. In the long run—and the longer you keep it charged—the heat will damage the cells inside your battery, and you'll need to have it replaced.
7. Always-On Display
If your phone has always-on display—which keeps your screen on even when locked—this could also be draining your battery. Some phones may allow you to customize what you can see on-screen when this mode is on, so it's best not to clutter it with widgets that could be using more energy.
8. Exposing to Extreme Temperatures
Don't use your phone in extreme weather, like in high humidity or in temperatures below freezing. Doing so can permanently damage the battery or lead to unexpected shutdowns. Some phones may warn you if it's overheating and may automatically turn off or restrict usage until it's back to a normal temperature, around 0°C to 35°C.
9. Using an Unofficial Charger
Believe it or not, using unofficial chargers may actually damage your phone. You might think cheaper alternatives are a great bang for your buck and perform the same, but chargers built with inexpensive materials and parts could harm your battery. Keep in mind to use the correct voltage when charging as well—especially when travelling.
10. Google Assistant
While Google Assistant may be helpful, it can deplete your battery. The reason is because it's constantly listening for "Hey Google," meaning it continues running in the background even when you're not actively using the app. The same goes for Siri on iOS devices with "Hey Siri" switched on.
Those are 10 things that are depleting your phone's battery. Now, here are 10 tips to help boost its battery life.
1. Charge Only to 80%
Instead of fully charging your phone each time you plug it in, top it up only to 80%. Doing this puts less strain on the lithium ions inside the battery since it's not going through a complete cycle. In the long run, you'll lengthen your battery's lifespan.
2. Don't Let It Dip Below 20%
In addition to only charging your phone to 80%, don't let it dip past 20%. That's the ideal range to keep your battery in: between 20% to 80%. Letting your battery run below 20%, again, puts stress on the cells inside it and will shorten its lifespan.
3. Use Low Battery Mode
Whenever you can, turn on low battery mode. This mode pauses background activity, disables mail fetch, dims your screen, limits standby time, and more. And since your phone consumes less energy, your battery won't fluctuate or drain as quickly.
4. Set Automated Shortcuts
To make things easier for yourself, set up automated shortcuts if your phone allows it. You can create automations for your device to remind you when to charge it (when it dips below 20%), when to unplug your charger (when it goes above 80%), and at what battery percentage to turn on low battery mode (for example, 65%).
5. Shorten Auto-Lock Time
Your phone's auto-lock time is how long it takes before your screen dims and locks. Of course, the higher you set the time, the longer it will take for the screen to turn off, and vice versa. If possible, keep it set to 30 seconds—unless the task at hand requires your screen to stay on for longer.
6. Limit Notifications
If you have notifications enabled for every app on your phone, the barrage of announcements you get will cause your phone to "wake" each time, which will drain battery life. To combat this, go through your list of apps and pick out ones you frequent or use most, then leave notifications on for those only.
7. Use Dark Mode
Set your phone to switch to dark mode in the evening if you haven't already. This is especially useful for phones with OLED or AMOLED displays, as dark mode essentially switches pixels off since the display is mostly black. Better yet, leave dark mode permanently on if you experience eye strain from blue light exposure.
8. Keep Software Up to Date
While some may be wary of updating their software—due to past releases that deliberately slowed down older phones—it's better to keep your device up to date than not. Most of the time, these refreshes are for minor security updates, but they can also include bug fixes that might be affecting battery life.
9. Turn Off Cellular Data
Did you know that leaving cellular data switched on can actually drain your phone battery? This is because when cellular data is enabled, your phone is constantly searching for towers to connect to, which means a weaker data signal will pull more energy from your phone. Leaving data on also consumes more power than WiFi.
10. Limit Screen Time & Phone Usage
It might sound like a hard task, but if you can, turn your phone off. Limiting screen usage means your phone uses less battery, which means you don't need to charge it as often. When you're off at work or school, switch your phone off until you need to use it again.
