Mobile phones have grown incredibly
sophisticated, with a growing number performing many of the functions of a full-size
computer, as well as some things a desktop computer can’t do, such as
navigating with GPS or starting a car. A 2011 Pew Internet Project survey found
that 25 percent of smartphone owners do most of their Internet browsing on
their phones.
The dilemma is that the more you depend on your
phone, the faster you’re going to drain its battery. While screen, processor
and storage technology has advanced significantly, lithium-ion batteries
haven’t changed much in 15 years. Incremental improvements in battery
efficiency have been far outpaced by processing power and screen size and
brightness, as well as 3G and 4G radios, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas, HD
cameras, GPS and a variety of other hardware, all of which require power.
To conserve battery life on your phone, turn off
what you don’t need, optimize what you do and perform a few tasks manually
instead of automating them. You can both increase the time between charges and
add to your battery’s usable life.
Instructions
1. Dim your screen to significantly improve your
battery’s life. Your phone’s screen is the largest power draw on the device,
and the brighter it is, the more power it draws. Dim it as much as you feel
comfortable with. The phone’s automatic brightness setting, which dims the
screen in low-light conditions, isn’t as effective as reducing the brightness
manually.
2. Set a short screen timeout interval to black
out the screen when you’re not using it. If the timeout is very short, you may
have to periodically touch the screen to keep it from timing out while you read
content. However, if you mostly use the phone for short tasks like checking
email or sending SMS messages -- battery-consuming tasks when you do them
frequently -- you'll see significant battery savings when you have a shorter
timeout interval.
3. Reduce the frequency of application updates
and syncs. For example, set your social-media applications to update manually
instead of automatically, so they aren’t constantly running in the background,
or while you’re not using your phone at all. Apple's iCloud also syncs
frequently, and you should turn it off when you don't need it.
4. Eliminate unnecessary widgets and animations.
On many phones, the bells and whistles on the home screen may use significant
resources, especially if they’re updating news or weather frequently, or using
animations where a static image would suffice.
5. Disable Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS when you
don’t use them. Each receiver or transmitter on your phone uses juice even when
it isn’t connecting, and both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi periodically search for
devices in the background, using up even more battery charge. Some smartphones
include a widget that allows you to enable or disable these antennas when
they’re not needed. When you’re in an area without 3G or 4G service, consider
disabling them as well, to spare your phone the battery-hungry effort of
searching for service that isn't there.
6. Use the Battery Saver or Power Saver mode if
your phone’s operating system has one. These features help you to control the
functions that sap your battery’s power, including background apps, widgets,
animations and screen brightness. Third-party apps like JuiceDefender or
Battery Saver for Android may help you conserve even more power.
7. If your phone uses an Organic Light Emitting
Diode screen, use a dark-colored wallpaper as your phone's background. OLED
pixels light up individually, so keeping most pixels as dark as possible
results in power savings. Unfortunately, this method won't work with LCD
screens, which use a backlight that remains at a constant level.
Tips & Warnings
Phones can vary widely in battery life, and
resources such as CNet's battery-life comparison charts can help you select a
phone with better power usage.
You may come across the misguided recommendation
to wait until the battery is almost completely discharged before recharging it.
This advice is unfounded. Although lithium-ion batteries do have an approximate
number of charge "cycles" before they lose charging capacity, a
partial charge is simply a partial cycle. For example, if you use 30 percent of
your battery's charge and plug the phone in until the battery is fully charged,
that usage represents only 30 percent of a charge cycle.
However, to ensure that your battery is properly
calibrated, many manufacturers recommend that you fully discharge and charge
the battery about once a month.
0 comments:
Post a Comment