A guide to optimizing your smartphone’s or smartwatch’s battery

Yup, unfortunately phone makers and gadget manufacturers of today still have not found a way to develop a battery that can last for a whole week (with regular usage). So it is often up to us, end users, to explore other ways in which we can optimize the battery life of our mobile devices and wearables, especially if we do not have a charger within reach (or a friend or colleague we can borrow from). For those who haven’t quite figured out yet how to milk every bit of battery power from their devices, here are a few tips.

Know one’s device

How long the battery lasts often depends significantly on your device itself, specifically on how its hardware and components operate. So it does make sense to go back to the basics, particularly in checking the settings for the screen, audio, global positioning system (GPS), and wireless connectivity. 

Everybody probably knows that that the brighter the device’s screen is, the likely it will eat up its battery power. Thus, it might be a great idea to set the display brightness to an adequate level only, especially if one is not watching movies or browsing through images and videos. Some devices already come with auto brightness activated, but you can still make a difference by shortening the screen timeout time.

The same can be true of GPS and wireless connectivity settings. It pays to be more vigilant in managing location settings, as well as connectivity access for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And while it is true we simply can not live without Internet access these days, sometimes turning off connectivity for an hour (or for a few minutes) can help extend the battery life.

Be aware of apps running in the background

There are apps that continue to operate (or update) even when the owner of the device is not actively engaged with those apps. Having two or three apps running in the background would be okay, but when you have close to a dozen still processing all at once, it could consume much of the device’s battery power. It is recommended that you check the device and just close the apps you are not currently using. A more extreme suggestion is to get rid of the apps you really do not need in the first place. Sure, some apps can be useful, but if they turn out to be redundant, you can just remove them and your device will still be as cool as before.

As for notifications, there are probably some you can not afford to lose. You can optimize battery life, however, by deactivating audio alerts or even lock screen appearances.

Mind the overall usage

This could be trickier than you think (and maybe even unfair). But taking a break from screen time will not only help your device’s battery, but also may protect you from mobile addiction. Of course, addiction may be too strong a word, but if you constantly find yourself complaining about how fast your battery dies, well, there is a good likelihood you are using your device way too much in the first place.