Top 10 ways to make your smartphone battery last longer

Everyone has suffered the ill-fate of the low-battery warning pop up. Smartphone technology has advanced at an incredible rate and unfortunately, batteries just haven’t kept up. The new high resolution dynamic coloured screens and increased power processors require more energy to be powered but it seems they are leaving batteries behind in the dust. Gone are the days when your old school Nokia would go days without a battery warning message (Unless of course you’re still rocking a 3310)

Until the day of new super batteries come, here are our top 10 tips to stretch your battery as much as possible:

1. Turn your phone off. Yes let’s start with the obvious, but what you may not know is that if you are in an area of poor service, your phone wastes battery looking for better signal. If you are doing a long stint on the subway or on a long trip through a remote area, turning your phone off (or turning it to ‘Airplane Mode’) can save you more than you’d guess.

1. Make sure you have good signal. As explained in number 1, your phone uses a lot of energy searching for better signal. Use a cell phone repeater to ensure perfect signal where you use your phone.

1. Do not let your battery die. Lithium ion batteries don’t appreciate being run down to 0% and can quite often lead to long term damage meaning your battery won’t last as long. Lithium ion batteries prefer to be charged early and often. Try and keep your phone batter between 20-80%.

1. Turn off vibrate. The vibrating call alert a mechanical motion that of course requires battery. If you use a ring-tone, switch off vibrate and save battery. Furthermore, keep the volume of your ring-tone as low as possible while still being able to hear it when need be.

1. Turn down brightness and turn off backlight. The phones screen is one of the biggest suckers of battery. Keep your phones brightness to as low as possible. Some phones have automatic modes that change relative to lighting conditions. Also, if you can do without the phones backlight, turn it off or change your settings such that it only stays on for 1-2 seconds.

1. Turn off Bluetooth. Leaving Bluetooth on is a rapid waste of battery and should only be used when necessary. Stick to cabled headphones instead of Bluetooth ones and other methods are available for file transfer.

1. Avoid animations. This includes dynamic wallpapers and animations between opening and closing apps. These are a big waste of battery for a small amount of aesthetic pleasure.

1. Use a black background. AMOLED screens use a lot less power to display black compared to white. Try opting for wallpapers with a lot of black, and website such as Blackl, a black version of Google.

1. Use GSM over 3G. Using just GSM will use a lot less battery. Your phones spec will also probably state two different battery times, one for GSM mode and one for 3G/Dual Mode, check it out.

1. Get a portable battery charger. There are many portable USB chargers on the market, from the Duracell Compact Portable Power to the Samsung Portable Battery that can offer 4 full charges. You can even get yourself a portable solar powered charger.