Improving your phone battery life

Nothing is more annoying that having your smartphone battery " going flat" in the middle of the day, or even in early afternoon. It's crucial when buying a new phone to ensure that the battery is large enough, in capacity, to last a full day.

The rule is that the bigger the screen the bigger the battery you need. You should a phone with a battery of +3000 mAh if possible.

Let's say that you don't want to buy a new phone, and you need to get the maximum out of the one you have. There are a number of actions to take, starting with the screen brightness, and they are all in the Settings section of your phone.

The bigger the screen the heavier the drain on your battery, so try adjusting the brightness of the screen to a lower level, or set it to automatic. Most phones will set the screen dimmer indoors and at its' brightest when outdoors making a real difference.

How long does the screen stay on before going dim and the going off? Usually this is set at one minute, which is very fast, but can be reset in your settings to 2 minutes which is also giving you time to use the phone while saving juice. Unfortunately most phones only have settings for 1 min, 2min then jump to 5 minutes which will eat your battery.

Do you use Bluetooth to connect to your car speakers, external speakers or cordless earphones? If not, then it's worth turning the option off. Even if you do use one of these, by turning Bluetooth off when it's not needed, you will save the phone seeking a connection all the the time and draining your battery.

The same applies to WiFi which you probably use at home. Unless you're using your phone to send apps or programs to your TV, you don't really need WiFi as most Israeli packages give virtually unlimited amounts of free data. It's not really unlimited, but the data limit will only be reached if you are a heavy downloader on your phone,E.G watching a lot of videos or downloading music to your phone.

While it's also true that GPS, or location, is also a drain, you'll find that you need it for apps like Moovit,Google Maps and Waze etc. It's also crucial if you have the " Find My Phone" option ticked in case you lose it or leave it at friends etc. On Android you can set it to "low accuracy" which only uses WiFi and Bluetooth, which must e switched on.

If you have many apps that you don't use regularly you should be able to disable or "force Stop" them This will stop them sending background data when not being used. It will not harm the app, but may cause the app to take longer to open and will probably be reset when you restart your phone. Incidentally, many apps work in the background, even when not is use, sending anonymous data to the app makers. That's how they make free apps pay.

Do you have a lot of notifications popping up? Go through the app settings and only permit the notifications that you really need.

While talking of apps, if you are on Facebook, it's worth downloading their new "Facebook Lite" app which is less of a drain than the normal app. Facebook messenger is also a heavier than normal drain, and it might be worth deleting apps that you haven't used for a month. That includes Siri and Google Assistant if you don't use them.

If after all those options you still have problems with your battery life, you have two options; make fewer/shorter phone calls or change your phone battery. Most phones, but not all, have replaceable batteries and a good battery life if probably no more than 4 years, depending on usage.

I hope this info was useful, feel free to contact me by email with your questions and I'll be pleased to answer them personally. Enjoy your Tech ! Leslie