When it comes to cell phones, there’s a lot that’s out of your control. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to keep your phone young and beautiful.
SquareTrade IT specialist Peter Yao offers a few tips to extend your phone’s battery life so it can handle all the late nights, long drives, food photo shoots and fruit ninjas you throw its way.
Charge it when you can.
It may seem obvious, but charging your phone when possible rather than letting the battery drain is healthier for the phone. “Most new phones use lithium-ion batteries, which you don’t have to drain all the way,” Yao said. He advises to let the phone battery drain every once in a while to reset the software’s battery meter. “That will force the software to recalibrate and show more accurate battery percentage numbers,” Yao said.
Dim the screen.
When you’re running low on battery and can’t charge your phone, turn your screen dimness as low as you can stand it. This will help preserve battery power.
Cut the multitasking.
Many new phones allow users to have multiple apps open at once, so a user can engage with one app and keep others running in the background.
“Closing background apps is a must,” Yao said. “Depending on what’s open, your apps will continue to use battery power long after you’ve finished actively using them.”
Find a WiFi network.
WiFi uses less power than your phone’s cellular network (LTE or 4G in many cases). If you’re running low on battery, scan for a WiFi network you can jump on.
Get off the grid.
“Location services can deplete battery life,” Yao said. “These normally have a setting between all-the-way on and all-the-way off that will use less battery.” You can find this in your phone’s general settings. Just know that changing your location service settings will hinder apps that use this information, like maps or rideshare programs.
Monitor your app usage.
Most phones allow you to see what apps use what percentage of your battery life. “Some apps can drain power when they aren’t even on!” Yao explained. With that in mind, you can adjust how often you use apps that are particularly draining when you’re experiencing a battery life crisis.
So now you know – a few simple tricks can keep your phone up and running when you need it most. Charge on, SquareTraders.
By Hannah Ashe
