Over the past decade, phones have significantly improved in terms of several aspects, especially when it comes to their cameras, graphics, games, and increased storage.
However, battery life still seems to be an issue for many. The majority of phones only last a day of decent use of a charge, and if you have an early start, a late finish, and will do plenty on your phone during the day, you cannot rely on some models of phones. However, there do exist some ways to improve the situation regarding battery life.
Here is a guide and a few tips for iPhone and Android users who want to make their battery life last longer.
1. Android: Reduce the refresh rate of your screen
These days, many Android phones have very high refresh rate screens. This means that the screen image is refreshed either 90 or 120 times per second, instead of the typical 60 times.
While this makes scrolling appear very smooth, it also impacts battery life to a significant degree. This is reportedly the reason behind Apple’s decision to stick with 60Hz for the iPhone 12.
To decrease the refresh rate to 60Hz, navigate to Settings > Display > Advanced > Refresh rate, or similar.
2. Android and iPhone: Switch of 5G
Benchmark testing shows that 5G takes up more battery than using 4G, both Android devices and iPhones. This may vary between the various phones’ chipsets, but switching to 4G mobile internet is worth trying out for busy days.
In an Android phone you can turn off 5G by going to Settings > Network > [Select SIM] > Preferred Network Type. Please note that the names of these sections in settings vary between different phones.
In an iPhone, you will find this option by heading to Settings > Mobile > Mobile Data Options > Voice & Data.
3. Android: Turn off background processes for all social media apps
Social media services, such as Facebook and Instagram are big fans of adding notifications on your phone that will draw that attention out. One way to prevent this and the associated battery drain, on Android, is to restrict what these apps are allowed to do when they are either not actually on-screen or being actively used.
Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Optimization/App Battery Management, and you will be able to find a list of all your applications and how the phone approaches them, where you can adjust app settings. In the entry of each app, you should view a few options for each, although what they are actually called will be different for different phones.
