How you’re killing your phone battery

The phone ad promises longer battery life… but why is it that you have no juice even before the workday is over? It’s extremely frustrating, especially if you need it for an important call and your power bank is nowhere in sight.

Misleading ad? Not quite. There are some things that you’re doing with your phone or settings that are unintentionally draining your phone of battery when you’re not using it. Even the temperature outside can suck up your battery power!

So if you’re constantly plugging your phone to be charge, read this to find out how you can save your phone battery.

BAD SERVICE WHERE YOU ARE
On top of not having enough juice, you’re also not getting the service you need to make that call! Talk about double whammy. Did you know both are related? Not being able to check your emails (or look at Insta) is draining your phone battery because your phone is working overtime to reconnect you to service. It uses more power in its attempt to make a better connection, and when it uses more power the battery drains. Do This: The next time you find yourself in a no-service zone, switch your phone to airplane mode to conserve battery. Try connecting to WiFi instead.

NOTIFICATIONS ON ALL THE TIME
We get it – you don’t want to miss a post by your favourite Insta pet celeb @jiffpom. And ahem, yes that breaking news from CNN. But all that notification being pushed to your phone is cutting your battery life short. Unless you actually pick no for notification, most apps will send you push notifications and to do this, it will periodically check to see if there is anything new to show you. Imagine 75% of apps on your phone doing this – that can quickly drain your battery! Do This: Easily done – opt out of the unnecessary notifications by going to Settings > Notifications.

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IS YOUR BLUETOOTH ON?
Need to connect to your laptop with your phone via Bluetooth? That’s another function that your phone is constantly doing (pairing, connecting and looking for more devices to do the same) and that’s another way your phone battery is dying out. Do This: If you don’t need it, turn it off. Just like everything else on your phone.

IT’S TOO HOT (OR COLD) WHEREVER YOU ARE
Now this is interesting – the temperature affects your phone’s battery. Warmer conditions like here can kill the phone battery. But before you think of cranking up the AC, too cold isn’t ideal either. Yups, technology can be climate sensitive too. Do This: Keep it in room temperature always. If you feel like your phone is heating up, turn it off for five minutes before powering back up.

YOUR PHONE IS TOO BRIGHT
Brightness makes a huge difference in how long your phone lasts. In fact, this is the most obvious setting that’s killing your phone battery as it takes up a lot of power to light up the screen. And if your screen lights up with all that notification you’re getting? Zappppp goes your battery. Do This: Use the auto-brightness feature to allow your phone to adapt to the lighting around you. This will automatically dim your display when you’re not using it, thus saving your battery.

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash