If you’re anything like us your phone is usually more loyal than your
shadow. We check it first thing when we wake, read the news, glance
through our emails. Then we head to work, drowning out the familiar
public transport sounds with music or podcasts, maybe sending a text or
two between tunnels. For the next eight hours its texts, emails and
calls, until it’s time to finish when we go to plug our headphones in
and… oh… dead battery.
The current generation of mobile phones are improving, but in 2013 your little appy friend is going to need a top up in the middle of the day, else it’s awkwardly avoiding commuter eye contact and the repetitive drone of “Mind the gap” in 30 degree heat all the way home. There’s not much to solve that until all phones pack a battery like the Motorla Razr HD (which can almost survive a 12-hour day), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do to help get the most out of your smartphone.
1) Dim the screen – Your brand new 6-inch, billion pixel screen may let you read the BBC in eye-blistering colour and beauty, but it’s almost certainly the reason that you have to keep a charger nearby at all times. Sift through your display settings for a way to turn it down. If there’s an auto-brightness option it’s worth trialling for a while, but some people find that it actually drains even more battery. Though not much can help you if the sun is relentlessly beating down on your screen.
2) Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi – these two wireless technologies are fantastic for making the most out of Starbucks’ free internet whilst chatting away and slurping a drink. But when you’re not using them they’re just melting your battery away faster than your Mocha Frappuccino in July. Most phones have a quick toggle option, so switch those two off when you don’t need them.
3) Ditch the sensors – let’s take as an example the Samsung Galaxy S4, but this goes to some degree to all phones. Yes you can raise it to magically dial someone, yes it can automatically scroll down a page by watching your eyeballs, and yes it can sense your body temperature and lower it to that of a cool mist (It can’t? Oh, sorry). But all these sensors constantly monitoring a million environmental factors aren’t being powered by their own impressiveness. Stick to manually scrolling, dialling or whatever, and your phone might last a little longer.
4) Reduce the updates – it’s really tempting with our current level of connectivity to want to be notified the instant someone retweets your company’s latest offer. But do you really need a pop up to tell you it’s currently 2 degrees warmer in London than it was 30 minutes ago? It may not seem like much but every time your phone does that it draws power from all over. If it can wait until you get to your computer, maybe trying letting it?
5) Keep it cool – I know, in the middle of summer that sounds a tad ridiculous. But when your phone gets warm it actually drains the battery a lot faster than it otherwise would. So when your phone is stuck in your pocket, jammed against your radiating thigh on a crowded greenhouse of a bus it’s going to die a lot sooner than if it was in your bag. Avoid letting it overheat and it might even make it to tea time.
The current generation of mobile phones are improving, but in 2013 your little appy friend is going to need a top up in the middle of the day, else it’s awkwardly avoiding commuter eye contact and the repetitive drone of “Mind the gap” in 30 degree heat all the way home. There’s not much to solve that until all phones pack a battery like the Motorla Razr HD (which can almost survive a 12-hour day), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do to help get the most out of your smartphone.
1) Dim the screen – Your brand new 6-inch, billion pixel screen may let you read the BBC in eye-blistering colour and beauty, but it’s almost certainly the reason that you have to keep a charger nearby at all times. Sift through your display settings for a way to turn it down. If there’s an auto-brightness option it’s worth trialling for a while, but some people find that it actually drains even more battery. Though not much can help you if the sun is relentlessly beating down on your screen.
2) Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi – these two wireless technologies are fantastic for making the most out of Starbucks’ free internet whilst chatting away and slurping a drink. But when you’re not using them they’re just melting your battery away faster than your Mocha Frappuccino in July. Most phones have a quick toggle option, so switch those two off when you don’t need them.
3) Ditch the sensors – let’s take as an example the Samsung Galaxy S4, but this goes to some degree to all phones. Yes you can raise it to magically dial someone, yes it can automatically scroll down a page by watching your eyeballs, and yes it can sense your body temperature and lower it to that of a cool mist (It can’t? Oh, sorry). But all these sensors constantly monitoring a million environmental factors aren’t being powered by their own impressiveness. Stick to manually scrolling, dialling or whatever, and your phone might last a little longer.
4) Reduce the updates – it’s really tempting with our current level of connectivity to want to be notified the instant someone retweets your company’s latest offer. But do you really need a pop up to tell you it’s currently 2 degrees warmer in London than it was 30 minutes ago? It may not seem like much but every time your phone does that it draws power from all over. If it can wait until you get to your computer, maybe trying letting it?
5) Keep it cool – I know, in the middle of summer that sounds a tad ridiculous. But when your phone gets warm it actually drains the battery a lot faster than it otherwise would. So when your phone is stuck in your pocket, jammed against your radiating thigh on a crowded greenhouse of a bus it’s going to die a lot sooner than if it was in your bag. Avoid letting it overheat and it might even make it to tea time.
