10 Ways to Maximize Your Smartphone’s Battery Life

Battery life is vital when using a smartphone. Sometimes it’s essential to conserve battery power, especially when you forget to charge up your smartphone or bring a portable charge on the go. Persistent heat can also drain battery life and affect performance during hot summer weather.

Here are some quick tips on how you can reduce smartphone battery consumption when you don’t have easy access to a power source.

How to reduce battery consumption

We’ve compiled a list of ways to reduce battery consumption using the iPhone as an example.

• *
  Settings may vary depending on the iPhone model and iOS version.

1. Reduce screen brightness
2. Set to Low Power Mode
3. Set to Airplane Mode
4. Turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Cellular Data communication
5. Shut down apps not in use
6. Turn off background updates for apps that are not running
7. Disable automatic app downloads
8. Turn off unnecessary push notifications for apps individually
9. Disable push mails
10. Turn off Location Services

(1) Reduce screen brightness

Increasing the brightness of a smartphone screen display means more battery consumption. Here is how you can reduce brightness.

1. From the Home screen, click "Settings," then "Display & Brightness"
2. Reduce the brightness setting to a level that’s still comfortably visible

(2) Set to Low Power Mode

Low Power Mode can significantly reduce power consumption by disabling the automatic receipt of e-mails and automatic updating of applications, as well as shorten times until auto-lock. In addition, for 5G models, only 4G communications are available.

1. From the Home screen, go to "Settings," then "Battery"
2. Set "Low Power Mode" to "On"

(3) Set to Airplane Mode

With Airplane Mode, cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS communications can be stopped. Especially when communication is unstable because the smartphone is constantly trying to find a signal, battery consumption can be high. Setting to Airplane Mode when a signal is unstable or when communication is not needed can conserve battery power.

• *
  Please note that if you turn on Airplane Mode, you will not be able to receive public emergency messages because cellular data communication is not available.

1. Go to "Settings" from the Home screen
2. Set "Airplane Mode" to "On"

(4) Turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Cellular Data communication

If "Airplane Mode" is not the best option, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular data communications can be turned off separately.

1. From the Home screen, click "Settings"
2. Select the item you wish to turn off
3. Turn the corresponding item off

• *
  Please note that you will not be able to receive public emergency messages if cellular data communication is turned off.

(5) Shut down apps not in use

Even when they’re not being actively used, opened apps are still running behind the scenes, so shutting them down can reduce power consumption. Note, however, that when closing frequently used apps, activating them again drains battery life.

Depending on whether a Home button is on an iPhone or not, the procedure to shut down apps is different.

• If you have a Home button (e.g. iPhone SE)
  

  1. Quickly press the Home button twice at the bottom of the screen to display the multiple apps in use
  2. Scroll left and right, and swipe up the apps you want to shut down
  3. When the apps disappear from the horizontal line, they are no longer active
  4. Press the Home button to return to the Home screen.

• If there is no Home button (e.g. iPhone 13)
  

  1. Swipe from the bottom of the screen to the center; apps in use will be displayed in a horizontal line
  2. Scroll left and right, and swipe up the apps you wish to shut down
  3. Tap the top or bottom margins of the apps to return to the Home screen

(6) Turn off background updates for apps that are not running

Since apps communicate on their own behind the scenes, to extend battery life, it helps to turn off automatic updates for apps that are not being used regularly.

1. Go to "Settings," then "General," then select "Background App Refresh" from the Home screen
2. Turn off the relevant menu items

• To stop all background updates
  

  Turn "Background App Refresh" off

• To stop background updates by app.
  

  Select the "off" setting for individual apps you don’t need to refresh

(7) Disable automatic app downloads

Apps are capable of downloading their latest versions automatically, but by reducing communications required for these updates, smartphone battery life can be preserved.

1. Go to "Settings" from the Home screen, select "App Store," then "App Updates"
2. Switch App Updates "Off"

(8) Turn off unnecessary push notifications for apps individually

Push notifications allow you to receive various updates in real time, but large amounts of notifications will cause your battery to deplete faster. Choose the ones you don't need notifications for and limit push notifications to save your battery.

1. Go to "Settings," then select "Notifications" from the Home screen
2. Select the apps for which you want to disable notifications
3. Turn the "Allow Notifications" setting to "Off"

(9) Disable push mails

Push mails consume battery power because email notifications are sent by continually accessing mail servers. “Manual" mode, which allows you to retrieve emails only when needed, consumes less power.

1. On the home screen, go to "Settings," then scroll down to "Mail" and select "Accounts"^*
2. Scroll down to "Data Retrieval Method" and select the account (mail setting) to be changed
3. Change "Push" to "Manual"

• *
  Some iOS versions may allow you to change the setting from "Account and Password;" in that case, change "Data Retrieval Method" on the bottom of the menu.

(10) Turn off Location Services

Location-based information is communicated when required, for example, to record the location of where a photo was taken or to check a smartphone’s current location when using a map app. If you do not need to acquire location-based information, turn it off to conserve battery consumption.

1. Go to "Settings," then "Privacy" from the home screen
2. Turn "Location Services" off

(Posted on July 22, 2022)
by SoftBank News Editors