The fastest degrading component of a mobile phone is most likely the battery, plus most modern mobiles don’t offer easy access to the phone battery. Replacing your smartphone battery is costly and inconvenient and it’s an environmental hazard. Hence, extending the life of your battery is the best option which is why this article offers a few helpful tips for doing so.

01. First, Understand How your Phones Battery Life Disintegrates!

With every full charge cycle, the life of your battery degrades. A full charge cycle is from 0% to 100%; but if you charge your phone from 50% to 100% it is considered a half cycle and so on. While on average you would put your phone battery through a full charge once a day; there are certain people who subject their phones to a full charge twice a day – it really depends on the use of your phone. So, on average a smartphones battery power will decrease by 20% after 400 charges, meaning it has only an 80% capacity to store power and will continue to degrade further. Well, then how do you decrease the number of times you charge your phone? It’s not easy, but you can try these two suggestions.

• One, decrease the screen brightness and two, try not to stress your battery, that is do not leave your phone out in extreme cold or heat; leaving your phone in the vehicle is the worst, in summer heat or winter cold.
• Also, avoid fast charging when not necessary as this process too, stresses the battery. Slow charging is best and charging your phone via your computer or a smart port will make sure that direct power is not sent to your phone.

02. Do Not Let your Battery Drop Down to 0% Before Charging

Unlike the older batteries which had ‘battery memory’ the newer versions get stressed when drained completely (0%) or charged to a 100%. Hence, to keep your phones battery stress free – keep it at a minimum of 20% and a maximum charge that’s below 90%. A good compromise is to keep those batteries at around 50%.

• Short charges are best, while quick charges to just ‘top up’ your battery life too, will work.

03. Enjoy Long Term Storage by Charging your Phone to 50%

If your phone runs on a lithium ion battery, charging it to just 50% will be the healthiest option. If you plan on storing your phone for some time, you could charge it to 50%, then turn it off and store it. This system is kinder to your phones battery life than a full charge of 100% and then draining it to 0%. You must keep in mind that your battery will continue to drain and discharge even if it is shut down. The modern batteries of today have been made to be used, hence, even if you are storing your phone, set up a reminder and charge the battery to 50% every few months.

Now Let’s Look at Increasing your Battery Life on a Single Charge

While the above deals with extending the lifespan of your battery, the following tips will help you to use your phone for longer on a single charge.

• Reduce screen brightness – screens on smartphones use the most energy, hence choosing the ‘auto’ bright option will help save battery energy by turning down the brightness in daylight. The best, however, is to change the brightness settings manually by turning down the screen brightness whenever you have sufficient ambient light. This manual option is available on both the Apple iPhone and Android versions, despite being set to ‘auto brightness’
• Reduce the ‘Time-Out’ period – in other words, reduce the ‘auto-lock’ (as the option is termed on Apple iPhone) period of your phone; most phones have the screen time-out set to 2 minutes which can be reduced to 1 minute or as low as 30 seconds. But make sure a shorter time frame for ‘auto-lock’ does not cause your phone to dim while you are in the middle of reading something interesting.

There are apps such as ‘Tasker’ which basically is an automation app that works by deciding the screen time-out depending on the app your using at the moment.

• Choose Dark Themes – If you use a phone with an OLED screen for instance, using black as your back display, will not cause the backlight to be blocked with a pixel, as is the case in LED and certain iPhone screens. The pixels which display black remain turned off offering you a crisp bright contrast between colour and black. Thus the darker colour uses less energy; a good option if your phone comes with an OLED or AMOLED screen. However if it does not come with the above screen option, as is the case with iPhones, (before the iPhone X version) using the dark display will make no difference.
• Get Rid of Facebook – Facebook is an energy monopoliser; especially with all those videos that autoplay and location tags. It’s the same whether you’re on Android or iPhone. The only way to stop this power hog is to disable the app; but if you do want to keep using it, restrict permission via settings. For example, you can stop auto playback of videos and the app automatically accessing your location and even your notifications. These options use up both energy and data; you will find settings within your phone and the app to restrict permission to certain functions thus, extending your battery life and preserving your privacy.
• Use the Energy Saving Mode – By using any one of your phones energy saving modes you can restrict the CPU usage as well as other functions. While you may have to deal with the lower performance you can extend the life of your battery; especially in situations where you need your phone to function as – well a phone and be alive to receive an important call.