Regular (heavy?) tech users just love and rely on their devices as through them they keep in contact with the outside world: surfing the net, listening to music, watching Netflix or YouTube, purchasing, creating, checking current trends, and use it as a key productive tool, while also liaising with colleagues, friends and family via messages, emails, and various social platforms. Phew! Did we cover them all?
If you are either hooked by the latest smartphone and can`t let go, endlessly scrolling TikTok, or need your gadget for work and grinding purposes, well, it stands to reason that battery juice is paramount and a very much sought-after feature.
Avant-garde technology is always tweaking both its hardware and software to accommodate a better battery performance, like reducing overall heat with in-built or exterior attached fans during gaming to name one, while brands are providing big Watts chargers to speed up the process and replenish that juice. Time is money, and we don`t have patience.
Now, we can`t speak about technology and not mention our friends at Cupertino. Yes, even Apple has its own battle going against batteries; the charging time, avoiding heat, and how much they last. If you are a loyal iPhone user, well, read on as we discover 5 of the best techniques you can utilise to obtain a longer battery life span from your precious daily driver.
1. Display & Features
Undoubtedly, your iPhone`s display is one of the top battery consumers. Nowadays, brands compete against each other for the sharpest brightest display, obviously with repercussions on the battery.
A simple solution around this is to activate auto-brightness via Settings, which will in turn prompt your iPhone to adjust screen brightness in line with the current ambience light conditions. This will assist the battery consumption as it avoids that your screen is unnecessarily bright when not needed.
Furthermore, you can also reduce the screen timeout duration via Settings to a shorter interval, which will not leave your iPhone display on for long when not in use, again saving on battery juice.
Additionally, dynamic wallpaper and motion effects are beautiful but they do take their toll on battery power. Thus, disabling them will also save your battery life.
Fitness tracking is another cool feature which requires constant power. If you`re not an active athlete, or you don`t need to monitor your figures constantly, you can switch off fitness tracking until you need it to say start a jog and save on battery.
Although the iPhone`s keyboard haptics are satisfying, Apple advises that it can also affect the battery life particularly if you tend to utilise messages and emails regularly. So, do consider disabling these too, every drop of battery juice counts!
For those iPhone users who have iOS 16 upwards under the hood you should be aware of Live Activities, which keeps track and displays important info on the Lock Screen. Understandably, providing data on the fly from various apps in form of live widgets hits the battery severely. So, switching off Live Activities will also prevent battery drain issues.
2. Be Mindful of Background App Refresh & Automatic Updates
These are both useful but heavily impact your iPhone`s battery life. Solutions around it comes threefold by choosing one of the below via Settings:
- disable them
- select which apps need to be auto-updated
- for essential apps choose the Wi-Fi option, thus restricting continuous background refresh
3. Reduce Location Services
Providing exact location data to certain apps comes handy, but admittedly we don`t need it all the time on our iPhones. Using GPS, Wi-Fi and cellular data will hit your battery directly.
Thus, we recommend that you limit location services by choosing Wi-Fi which will not be regularly, plus it consumes less power than cellular data.
4. Engage Low Power Mode
A valuable feature in critical moments as it saves on battery, Apple`s Low Power Mode is a must and iPhone users should go for it when their battery is below adequate levels.
Low power mode will disable automatic downloads among other things but will leave your iPhone functional when you most need it, until you can recharge.
5. Keep Software Updated
Keeping your iPhone updated is vital for your battery, as software updates often include enhancements in power management and battery proficiency, guaranteeing a smoother performance of your smartphone.
To check for updates go to:
- Settings
- Select General
- Software Update
Wrapping Up
We presume that by now you have absorbed all the necessary know-how you needed to lengthen the life of that poor hard-working battery of yours. We are confident to have placed you in a better position, and can imagine you wide-eyed, eager, and feeling all geared up to try one of the listed practices hoping to cram another 2 hours of usage before you hit the bed. Did we guess?
Battery life has indeed become critical for any tech device, let alone an iPhone which also holds Apple`s reputation with it, and that`s a major responsibility when one also considers all those YouTubers and jealous reviewers peeping ready to point fingers. That applies for you too Android fans…just kidding, I`m on the A Team too.
Finding ways to lengthen our iPhone`s battery life is always good, heck in an ideal world we would need to charge at night only, while we get some rest and `charge` ourselves. Thing is that we must not exaggerate, as powerful charging bricks can still damage batteries in the long run. Additionally, refrain from using your iPhone when it`s charging, as it will increase heat which could cause further detriment to your smartphone.
Thankfully, innovative ideas are emerging, like using different battery material. Apple are leading the way in this, and with their latest iPhone 15 line they used 100% recycled cobalt which ultimately is better for our planet. Remember, there is life around us, so please do find some time to put your tech aside and live…while also charging that battery.
