As much as having all of the latest specs on a smartphone is something a lot of people like, it is something that is completely futile if your smartphone has no battery. This seems to be quite a big talking point for 2017 in the smartphone sector – trading off power and features for battery.

For example, you could buy the Samsung S8 and have all of the latest features. However, the battery is quite small and the likelihood with a Samsung smartphone is that the battery won’t last more than a day after a year of use.

Whereas, you could buy a Moto Z Play or the OnePlus 5, which both last nearly two days now so will last over one day in a year’s time.

Whatever phone you have purchased, there are ways to increase it’s battery life – here are the main ways.

 

#1 Check what is draining the battery

Android has a useful feature which allows users to see just exactly what apps are draining the battery the most by going to settings and then battery.

From this, you should see some common battery killers at the top of the list, such as:

• Screen
• Android system
• Wifi
• Phone idle
• Android OS

However, what you want to find are the most draining apps on your battery. From finding this, you can force stop them or, if you don’t use them that much, uninstall them altogether, to increase your smartphone’s battery life.

 

 

#2 Disable Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS where possible

Connectivity for a smartphone is great but will cost you battery. The biggest killer is GPS, followed by wifi and then bluetooth. Therefore, if you are not using any of the three at a point in time, to save battery, it is worth turning them off.

Regarding wifi, this applies to when you are not using the internet. If you are using the internet, then it is usually more efficient to use wifi than mobile networks (and will also use less data too on your phone plan).

 

 

#3 Charge to 85%

This is something that you probably have not heard that much online. However, the lithium ion batteries in smartphones, every time they are charged, reduce in life. The rate at which they reduce in life depends on the ‘life cycle’ that the battery goes through.

If you continually charge your phone from 0-100%, then the battery life would reduce very quickly, since you are pushing the battery to the limits. However, if you charge to around 85% and then charge it again when it reaches 15%, the life cycle the battery goes through is a lot kinder, prolonging the life of the battery in the long run.

Therefore, if your smartphone can do a day of use on 85%, it is worth only charging to that, so that in a year to come, your smartphone still has plentiful of life in it to cope lasting a day.