The battery is one of the most important components of our smartphone. When it fails, or malfunctions, the entire user experience of a device is negatively affected. With the right care and attention, two key results can be achieved: a longer daily charge and overall life. Lithium-ion batteries in today’s phones are more reliable, longer lasting, and safer than older nickel-cadmium batteries. They no longer suffer (at least not so markedly) from the much-hated memory effect, contain less polluting components and, above all, allow greater capacities in smaller volumes.
The Recharge Cycles
Before starting with the advice, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the operating principle of a battery: with each charge cycle, the battery of a phone degrades slightly. A charge cycle is represented by a complete discharge followed by a complete charge of the battery: from 0% to 100%. Partial charges count as a fraction of a cycle.
For example, charging a phone from 50% to 100% is equivalent to putting the battery through half a charge cycle. Two half-charges count as one charge cycle. However, those who use smartphones intensively subject the battery to more than one full daily charge cycle. Therefore, it was established that, regardless of its use, each battery has its maximum duration. It is also true that treating it appropriately can lengthen its life.
Modern batteries ensure an average of 500 total cycles, but having complex chemical components inside them, they can be influenced (positively or negatively) by numerous external factors. Even with careful use every year, batteries leave about 15/20% of their operational capacity on the street. This means that a battery with two and a half years of life cannot offer autonomy as new. That’s why our smartphone, after some time, begins to ensure no longer the performance it guarantees when bought.
If the battery should leave you in the lurch, replacing it with a new one is still possible. However, almost all the latest generation smartphones have a body that cannot be opened except with the intervention of a service center. This has quite high costs and is only sometimes justified by the price paid for the phone. That is why it is worth following the ten rules that we propose. They will allow you to use your smartphone freely while maintaining good battery life and protecting you from nasty surprises.
Watch The Temperature: Hot And Cold Are Bad
Too low or too high temperatures cause the battery to discharge faster and shorten its life. Avoid leaving your smartphone in the car in the sun in the summer or too cold in the winter. When recharging the phone, it is better to remove it from its cover so that there is better heat dissipation in a phase where the temperature is destined to increase slightly.
Fast Top-Ups Only In Emergencies
It’s not that wireless charging or fast charging is inherently bad. However, Li-ion batteries prefer slow and constant recharges. So go ahead and use the fast top-ups when, during the day, you find yourself in emergencies with the phone almost empty. But try to avoid them when you can and, above all, when you charge your smartphone in the evening before bed. In that case, a slow reload is better.
Never Too Low: Recharge Them Carefully
Li-ion batteries don’t like being charged to 100% or used until the phone shuts down. The ideal is always to keep them above 20% and within the 80% threshold.
If It Remains In The Drawer, Charge The Battery Halfway
If you plan to put the phone in a drawer for an extended period without using it, charge it to 50% before turning it off and putting it away. Even if turned off and unused, the smartphone will continue to discharge, albeit more slowly. After a few months, check the device’s charge and return it to 50%. When you use it again, you will find it in perfect shape.
The Screen Consumes: Adjust Brightness And Time-Out
The screen of a smartphone is the component that requires the most energy from the battery. Lowering its brightness lengthens the autonomy. It is strongly recommended to use the “Auto-Brightness” mode, which manages the intensity of the backlighting for the light in the environment. Set the screen off time-out to 30 seconds (never more).
Dark Is Better: With The Dark Mode, You Save Battery
In addition to being trendy, dark mode helps improve battery performance. Most screens (OLED or AMOLED, for example) turn off the pixels to show black and, in doing so, require less battery energy. The gain in range could be surprising. Unfortunately, the dark theme won’t make a difference in phones with a non-OLED screen (all iPhones up to the iPhone X model).
Turn Off Facebook But Not Only…
It is a provocation because Zuckerberg’s app is among the most energy-intensive. Go into the settings and limit the permissions, such as auto-play videos, access to location, and notifications. And do it also with all the apps you use most frequently.
Find The Energy-Eating Apps … And The Crazy Ones
Always check the battery settings. Here you will find the consumption divided by item. Make sure that no apps use a disproportionate amount of energy and, if so, delete, disable, or limit them. It is also possible that an app goes wild and, in one day, consumes a lot. If so, close it forcibly and check if an update is available. It could be a bug.
Activate Energy Saving And Work On The Settings
All smartphones have one or more energy-saving modes whose job is to limit the performance of the CPU (and other features). Evaluate their use. You will get slightly lower performance but better battery life. By working on the settings, you can obtain excellent compromises.
Too Much Connectivity: Gps, NFC, And Wi-Fi Consume A Lot
If you don’t use GPS (especially), NFC connectivity, or Bluetooth, turn them off because you would consume the battery without having any benefit in return. Also, when a Wi-Fi network is available, use it. Here the savings will be visible because the phone will not continue to search the network to ensure the presence of data.
And ..Finally, 3 Useful Tips For The Battery
killer Emails
Email is a function often responsible for abnormal battery consumption. It is independent of the amount of mail you receive, but on the system you use to check its stock. In push mode, the system periodically checks for the presence of messages and consumes energy. However, you can choose how often the phone should do this check. The wider the time window, the greater the savings will be.
Roaming Abroad
When you are abroad roaming, your battery will tend to last less. Disable data traffic when unnecessary, and you will recover a lot of autonomy.
Drum Apps
Some apps monitor battery health and wear status. Among these, the most famous is AccuBattery. It is reliable and provides useful information.
Also Read: Why Using An Alternative Browser Can Be A Good Idea