How To Preserve a Phone Battery — 11 Simple Methods

A common complaint for most people who own a smartphone is that their battery simply doesn't last long enough. We put a lot of pressure on our smartphones to keep up with our busy twenty-first-century lives, and for the most part, they're built to handle it. The problems start when we aren't using them in the most effective way.

To assist you with that, we've put together a list of eleven things you can do to preserve your phone battery. Let's get into it, preferably before your phone dies.

1. Turn Your Brightness Down

Nothing will gobble up your phone battery faster than if you permanently have your screen brightness set to supernova. Turn it down a little. You may even find that the level of brightness you've grown accustomed to is far more than you ever needed.

Excessive brightness for extended periods can damage your eyesight too, so not only will you be saving your phone's battery life, but you'll also be helping your eyesight.

2. Make the Most of Battery Saver Mode

A lot of newer smartphones now come with a built-in battery-saver mode. It usually kicks in when your phone battery falls beneath a particular threshold, most commonly 20%. However, you don't need to wait for your phone to reach that level before making the most of the battery-saver. In fact, on most devices, you can turn it on whenever you like. 

The best way to make the most of your power-saver setting is to turn it on whenever you know you're going to need to use your phone for an extended period without charging. If you turn it on long before necessary, you can keep your phone going for much longer. 

3. Don't Wait for Your Phone to Die Completely

You might think that letting your phone hit 0% before putting it near a charger is good practice, but actually, the opposite is true. If you only charge your phone once it's completely out of juice, then the battery has to work extra hard to reach 100% again. This will ultimately wear it out quicker. 

This myth of draining to 0% before recharging is mostly a result of the lack of understanding of how modern batteries work. Most rechargeable batteries these days are lithium-ion, and by waiting for it to die before charging it again, you could significantly shorten its lifespan. 

4. Don't Let Your Phone Charge Beyond 100%

Overcharging your battery is just as bad as letting it run to 0% every single time. Though it might sound impossible to go beyond 100%, this actually refers to keeping your phone on charge long past its hit its max. This is because, although the battery is full, it'll still experience the high heat from the charger which will damage it significantly. 

Since many people choose to charge their phones while they sleep, a lot of newer smartphones will practice ‘adaptive charging’, which means your device will only reach full charge by the time your alarm goes off. This device isn't available on all phones, however, so it's strongly recommended that you don't keep your device on charge all night. 

5. Slower Charging is Sometimes Best

Living in an era of tech where it's generally accepted that faster is better, this might come as a surprise. Although it's impressive that some lightning-fast chargers can take your phone to 100% in as little as thirty minutes, that speed could actually damage your battery. This is especially true for older phones. Sometimes, hooking your phone up to your laptop and letting it charge at its own pace is the safest route to take. 

6. Minimize WiFi and Bluetooth Usage

Although they may seem like absolute necessities a lot of the time, it's highly unlikely that you genuinely need either WiFi or Bluetooth during every second of the day. Whenever there's an opportunity for some downtime, turn off your WiFi and Bluetooth connection. This will put significantly less stress on your device's battery and therefore will prolong its lifespan. 

7. Embrace Dark Mode

Almost all apps and social media platforms allow you to enable ‘dark mode’, and most operating systems on smartphones do too. Although this may appear to be nothing more than a chic aesthetic change, there are some significant benefits to dark mode. Significantly, there's a benefit to your battery.

We've already discussed the role that excessive brightness has on your battery (and on your eyesight!), but screen brightness isn't the only important factor here. Your phone screen has to work harder to show brighter colors with any kind of clarity. This means it demands more energy. Dark mode takes this stress away, therefore demanding less from your phone's battery. 

8. Don't Always Allow Location Settings

A concerning amount of apps track your location these days, and for most of them, it really isn't a necessity. Unless you're using an app for active navigation, does it really need to have your location pinpointed at all times? The short answer is no, it doesn't, but it's guzzling energy from your smartphone regardless. You can alter which apps have access to your location through your privacy settings. 

9. Remember to Lock Your Phone

For most of us, it's simply a force of habit to lock our phones whenever they aren't in our hands. However, sometimes it's very easy to slip it into your pocket or put it on your desk without going anywhere near the lock buttons, leaving your screen burning and putting unnecessary stress on your battery.

Always remember to lock your phone when it isn't in use. Although it might seem harmless, little incidents like these can build up over time and have a much more significant effect than you realize. If you can't get into the habit of locking your phone, make sure sleep mode is set to engage as quickly as possible. That way, it's all taken care of for you. 

10. Only Use Push Notifications When Necessary

If you aren't already aware, push notifications are the kind that pop up on your screen and demand attention. They're most commonly used with messaging apps to let you know when someone has contacted you, but a lot of apps utilize them to let you know about their latest update or maybe a sale that's just gone live.

For a lot of apps, they're completely unnecessary, but that doesn't mean they don't cost a lot of energy. Turn off any push notifications that aren't absolute necessities, and let's face it, that'll probably be most of them. You can do this by going into your phone settings and looking under ‘notifications’. 

11. Update Your Operating Software

Finally, it's vitally important that your phone is operating on the latest software. Most phones will automatically update themselves, or they will (frequently) prompt you to consent to the update. 

If you feel like your phone hasn't updated in a while, go into your settings and navigate to ‘system’. If there's an update for you to download, it should be right there. Keeping your phone up to date is a highly effective way to ensure everything is running at an optimal level, including your battery.

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