A Few Things You Can Do To Get More Of Your Android Phone Battery

powerbank

Smartphones are now an integral part of everyone’s life. Very difficult to see anyone without them. Every person has a million things to say about their latest phone. A meet-up where there is no one bragging about their latest is a rarity. Given this state of things, there is one thing about smartphones that almost everyone complains about in a single voice – the battery. Everyone wants “just a little more juice” from their battery.

OP3 on table

The mind boggling capabilities of the processor, memory and the exotic displays need quite a lot from the battery. While it is very easy to put the onus on the mobile makers to solve this problem,  there are things that we, the users, can do to help here. Simple changes to the way we use the phone and what is on them can actually help a ton to improve battery life.

powerbank

Here are a few things that are known to help

  1. Dark Wallpaper – Have a dark or all black wallpaper for your phone. The current crop of displays burns a lot less battery when you do this. Very simply put, AMOLED displays do not involve a back-light and hence don’t need to illuminate a black pixel. And various tests have showed that a black/dark wallpaper saves battery considerably. Try it and you will believe it!  Note that this does not work on LCD displays though
  2. Uninstall Facebook and Messenger – This sounds like a biased suggestion, but trust me, this makes a HUGE difference to your battery consumption. The Facebook app is very notorious among power users as a battery hogger. The Guardian did a piece that explains this more in detail. What is more interesting is the fact that both the Facebook app and the messenger app are both culprits here, what do you do to keep in touch with your FB gang after you remove these? There are many options to help with that, the best option is Facebook’s own FB Lite app that is sort of like a wrapper around the mobile site. And doubles up as a substitute for both FB and the messenger apps on your phone. You will see almost a 20% improvement in your battery life. Try it and thank me later.
  3. Widgets – While it is all fun and exciting to be playing with widgets that update all the time and deliver the latest and greatest that we need to see all the time, it is worth remembering that these take a heavy toll on your battery. When they aren’t critical to anything that you are doing, try and not use them. You will see a definite change in the battery consumption
  4. Battery Saving Mode – Every mobile maker has a setting in battery management where you can select from a lot of preset modes that will throttle and manage networks and various other functions in intelligent ways to get more juice on the run while not compromising on what you need to get done. You can start with a preset mode and then eventually evolve into a personal setting that is custom fitted to suit you.

And yes, carrying around a power pack never hurt anyone! These are things that I learnt from my experiences and from my friends. If there are any other tips you would like to share, let me know! Have a good one! May the force be with you!

 

About Shakthi

I am a Tech Blogger, Disability Activist, Keynote Speaker, Startup Mentor and Digital Branding Consultant. Also a McKinsey Executive Panel Member. Also known as @v_shakthi on twitter. Been around Tech for two decades now.

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