10 Best Ways to Increase Your Phone and Laptop Battery Life
Batteries don’t last forever. All too soon, you will notice that your laptop and / or smartphone will not last as long as before. To maximize the life of this (sometimes non-user-replaceable) battery and get more power from it throughout the day, follow these ten tips.
10. Use your laptop manufacturer’s battery care tools.
Laptop manufacturers like Lenovo and Sony sometimes offer battery maintenance tools that automatically prevent storage of a fully charged battery, which can accelerate battery wear. Search your laptop for a battery or power management utility to see if you can benefit from it, and if your laptop has been plugged in for a long time and can run without a battery, remove the battery.
9. Keep your phone and laptop cool
Few things can cause a battery to degrade faster than high temperatures. Don’t leave your laptop, phone or other device in a hot car , make sure your laptop doesn’t overheat , and don’t let your phone overheat . Extending the lifespan of your gadgets is a good reason to turn on the air conditioner.
8. Decrease the brightness.
You will shorten your phone’s battery life by lowering the brightness. Previous tests have shown that the difference in battery life between maximum and lowest brightness on an iPhone is several hours. You can automatically dim your iPhone with Tasker (also for Android ). Dark wallpapers can make a difference, too . Brightness also matters when you’re running on battery power in your laptop.
7. Use apps to save battery power.
When your phone is nearly empty, apps that automatically help extend battery life will save your bacon. On Android, Greenify automatically hibernates apps that consume battery power (it works best for rooted phones , but you can also use it if your phone is not rooted ). For iOS, you can find apps that are consuming battery power using the Normal app . Carat provides battery life statistics for both iPhone and Android.
Also, don’t close all your apps on iOS – it can really shorten your battery life . Likewise, using the Android Task Killer can actually degrade battery life , so you’re probably better off not using it (although we love Watchdog ).
6. If you will be using your laptop soon, select Sleep rather than Shutdown.
When you put your laptop into sleep mode, it still draws some power, which might make you think it’s best to turn off your computer. However, in our experience , shutting down and starting up a laptop can actually consume more power than putting it to sleep and waking it up. Hibernation saves more battery power than hibernation, but it takes longer to return to a working state. The How-To Geek has tutorials on sleep, shutdown, and hibernation modes to help you decide when to use each.
5. Calibrate your phone or laptop battery.
Your phone and laptop can sometimes lie about how much power you have left. Periodic battery calibration ensures accuracy . The process is pretty straightforward , at least on laptops. (Unfortunately, if calibration doesn’t work and battery life is diminishing, it’s time to replace the battery if possible.)
4. Don’t let your phone or laptop run out of power too often.
Modern batteries these days do not need to be fully discharged often in order to extend their life. Instead, charge more often before use rather than letting the battery drain. These shallow charges will help extend battery life.
3. Do not leave your phone plugged in when it is fully charged.
Likewise, you don’t need to fully charge your battery to 100%. 40-80% would be preferable . If you charge your gadget to 100%, unplug it so that it does not remain fully charged and consume battery power. (If in doubt, you might also want to turn off your laptop on a regular basis.) When it comes to fast charging, while it can decrease battery life, the difference probably won’t be noticeable to most people.
2. Check and monitor your laptop battery.
Batteries can be confusing about what to do and what not. If you find that your laptop battery no longer holds a charge for a very long time, there are some troubleshooting tips and tools that you can try to solve, whether you are using a Mac or Windows.
1. Keep your smartphone and laptop running with some basic battery life tips.
Finally, what if you just want your phone or laptop to last all day? Old but useful, our guide to saving your smartphone battery covers all the basics, from disabling unnecessary services and background notifications to using mobile sites. We also have battery guides for Android and iPhone , but for almost any phone model, a few basic tips will be helpful, such as turning off Wi-Fi when you’re not using it (however, Wi-Fi uses less battery than cellular data if you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network). These tips usually apply to laptops as well.
More specific tips you can try include using the new kernel on Android , paying for mobile apps instead of using their free ad-supported versions (and avoiding the worst battery- draining apps , including many messaging apps ), choosing a battery saver. web browser and using the best video player and format to increase battery life on Windows.
When choosing a new gadget, remember that battery life is the most important parameter .
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