How to get the most from your phone battery
15/11/2019
Everyone has been in that situation... you’ve forgotten to charge your phone and it runs out of juice at the most critical moment. This month we're presenting some top tips to help boost your battery life and ensure it stays healthier for longer.
Keep the charge near 50 percent
The battery in your phone consists of a layer of graphite and a layer of lithium cobalt oxide. The lithium ions move from one layer to another, creating the energy that powers your phone. When you charge your phone, you are forcing this reaction to take place and placing strain on the lithium ions. By reducing the frequency you charge your phone, keeping the battery charge between 20-80 percent, you will reduce the number of charge cycles you use on a daily basis and slow the deterioration of the battery.
Check your apps
There is typically a setting in most smartphones that will show which apps are using the most battery. This can be useful to know so you can be careful to close them down when you're not using them or even uninstall them if they are rarely used to stop them from running unnecessarily in the background. Facebook's app is especially notorious for draining your battery, so you may find it helpful to turn off notifications and regulate its background data usage. Watching videos and playing games will always drain your battery quickly as they require far more processing power than other apps, but keeping your apps, and phone, up-to-date should ensure your apps have the latest battery optimisation available.
Don’t overcharge the phone
Leaving your phone to charge overnight or plugged in for hours on end will place unnecessary strain on the battery. Although modern smartphones use a technology called 'trickle charging' whereby your battery stops charging after it reaches 100 percent, as soon as it dips below a set parameter it will start charging again, which means that the lithium ions are stimulated unnecessarily. Leaving your phone on charge overnight can also be a potential fire risk if you're using an unofficial charger that may not meet the necessary safety standards.
Take a look at your settings
Smartphones usually have a low power mode or battery saver mode. This tends to turn down your brightness, screen resolution and CPU usage to help retain power. Turning off features while you aren’t using them can also help you save battery, such as Bluetooth, mobile data and GPS, as they will constantly keep trying to find and connect to networks. This is something to really think about if you're on a train or in the car a lot as you will pass numerous networks to which your devices will be trying to connect to. Switching from data to Wi-Fi while at home or in the office can also help save up to 40 percent of your power.
In summary, try not to drain your phone's battery unnecessarily, don't charge your phone overnight or for too long after hitting 100 percent, check your settings to ensure they are battery-friendly, and keep your apps up-to-date.