Leaving home when your mobile battery is about to run out is a nightmare. Users want smartphones with longer battery life and fast recharge times.
Many people use outdoor travel battery bank chargers to maintain the digital access provided by smartphones. That’s why smartphone manufacturers go to great lengths to address these issues by designing efficient phones with longer battery life and fast charging capabilities.
However, you can also improve the battery life of your smartphone by following the following charging habits.
1. Never use a duplicate charger
Always use a charger that is recommended and provided by the manufacturer of your smartphone. This practice becomes even more important if your phone supports fast charging. Good quality original chargers guarantee longer and better battery life. Also, since the smartphone and charger are designed and tested together, they are more likely to work optimally.
Never use a third-party charger or cheap alternatives that are not recommended or compatible with the specifications of the original smartphone adapter.
2. Avoid fast charging unless your smartphone supports it
Fast charging heats the battery more than a normal charger, which can affect battery life as batteries often corrode due to heat oxidation. Unfortunately, it’s a common problem for many batteries. Therefore, it is better to use the fast charger only if it is necessary and, most importantly, if it is compatible with your phone. Alternatively, you can speed up charging by turning on Power saving and Airplane mode and leaving your phone idle while it charges.
3. Avoid battery drain
Make sure your phone battery doesn’t run out completely. Battery depletion results in a chemical imbalance within the battery, which is difficult to reverse. This imbalance reduces battery life and you will need to charge your phone frequently, often until the battery backup gets short enough to become useless.
4. Avoid Overcharging
Do not charge your smartphone overnight while you sleep. Excessive charging produces heat inside the battery that can cause a change in electrolyte composition and in some cases lead to battery outgassing and ignition, affecting battery life. The heat produced is not only bad for the battery, but also for the neighboring electronic components of your device.
5. Close unnecessary applications
You probably have multiple apps open, and each app gets its share of processing and memory usage. This creates a processing load on the phone to provide these services at the expense of current drawn from the battery. Therefore, it is better to close the applications when they are not in use.
6. Try to avoid full charge/discharge cycles
Lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones provide optimal performance and can hold a charge at full capacity for an average of 400 to 500 charge/discharge cycles. Each charge/discharge cycle brings charge wear to the battery. If you use a smartphone for more than a couple of years, you will notice that the battery capacity is reduced compared to when it was new.
Therefore, to maximize the battery life of your smartphone, avoid full charge/discharge cycles. Partial discharge is better for battery life. When it comes to charging, it is recommended to aim for 80-85% battery life.
7. Don’t play while charging
Avoid playing heavy (power consuming) games and apps while your smartphone is charging. Games and apps require processing power, use up battery life, and therefore heat up the phone. This heat adds more temperature to the already hot charging process that can damage the battery and electronic components of the smartphone.
8. Don’t let your smartphone overheat or get too cold
Don’t let your phone get hot in direct sunlight, near a heater or oven, as it runs out faster in hot weather. It affects the battery and electronics in the same way as overcharging or unsupported fast charging. Similarly, don’t keep your phone in extreme cold for too long, as it can cause the electrolyte to harden or freeze.
9. Enable dark mode and reduce your screen brightness
Screen brightness settings can be a huge power drain, depending on the brightness level. Set the brightness to the optimal level required for using smartphones. You can also use dark mode to reduce battery consumption.
10. Charge only to 85% to optimize battery life
While charging your smartphone, you may have noticed that the phone battery charges quickly from 20% to 50%, but it takes comparatively much longer when charging from 70% to 100%. As a result, charging efficiency is reduced and battery drain increases when the smartphone approaches “full battery”. Therefore, it is recommended to charge your phone battery up to 85% to reduce battery drain.
Samsung has also introduced a “Battery Protection” feature to its smartphones, which limits the maximum battery charge to 85% to minimize battery drain. Since the ability of most lithium-ion batteries to hold maximum charge is reduced after 500 charge cycles, Protect Battery can slow the aging process and increase the battery’s operational life.
11. Turn off location and wireless features
Smartphone apps use the device’s location for their services. However, such applications and services may not be needed throughout the day, especially when you sleep. Similarly, wireless features like Wi-Fi, mobile data, and Bluetooth may not be required 24 hours a day. Therefore, limiting these features or turning them off when not needed can help save battery life.
11 tips to optimize the battery life of your smartphone
To get a healthier, longer lasting battery for your smartphone:
- Never use a duplicate charger
- Avoid fast charging unless your smartphone supports it
- Avoid battery drain
- Avoid overload
- Close unnecessary apps
- Try to avoid full charge/discharge cycles
- Don’t play while charging
- Don’t let your smartphone overheat or get too cold
- Enable dark mode and reduce the brightness of your screen
- Only charge up to 85% to optimize battery life
- Turn off location and wireless features
It’s understandable that we can’t always stick to every battery optimization tip on this list. Sometimes you need to charge your smartphone before bed, and are you really going to set an alarm to wake up in two hours to turn it off again? The key point is to try to stick to as many smartphone battery charging habits as possible. Doing so will give your smartphone battery the best chance of lasting a long time.