This minHour teaches you different ways to extend the battery life of your iPhone, Android, or feature phone (non-smartphone). If you're using a smartphone, you'll also learn how to find out which apps and services use the most of your battery power so you can open them less frequently.
Increasing Time Between Charges
Turn the phone off.
Only do this if it’s going to be for several hours, as the process of turning the phone off or on actually uses a lot of power. This will probably be the most effective and simple way of conserving battery life between charges. If you don’t plan on answering the phone while you’re sleeping or after business hours, just turn it off.
Reduce your screen brightness and overall screen time.
Your Android or iPhone uses more battery while the screen is on, especially if your brightness is pretty high. If your battery is low, avoid keeping the screen on while following navigation instructions, don’t watch videos, and stay away from games and apps with lots of animations. If you do have to use the screen, reducing the brightness will conserve more battery power.
- Use a black background if you have an AMOLED screen. It will use less power because AMOLED screens only light the pixels needed for an image—if an image is completely black, all the pixels are off.
- When not in use, the screen is likely set to turn off after a certain amount of time. You can decrease the amount of time your smartphone’s screen stays illuminated by visiting How to Adjust the Screen Timeout on an Android Phone or How to Change Auto Lock Time on an iPhone.
- If you’re using an iPhone, disable the Raise to Wake feature so your screen doesn’t come on automatically when you lift it. You’ll find this setting in Settings > Display & Brightness.
Disable Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and/or GPS.
Leaving any of these services on when not in use uses your battery. Leaving Bluetooth on uses battery power even when you’re not paired, and having Wi-Fi enabled causes your phone to constantly search for available access points.
- To disable Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, swipe down from the top of the home screen (Android) or open the Control Center (iPhone) and tap the Bluetooth (a sideways bowtie) or Wi-Fi (three curved lines in the shape of a pie slice).
- See How to Turn Off Location Services to learn how to disable your phone’s GPS.
- If you’re using a non-smartphone, you can usually find the options to disable these services in your settings.
Use airplane mode when you don’t need a steady internet connection.
If you’re somewhere that mobile data and phone coverage is weak or nonexistent, turn on airplane mode until you get back to better service. You won’t be able to use mobile data or phone service in airplane mode, but you can still use Wi-Fi.
- To turn on airplane mode, swipe down from the top of the home screen (Android) or open the Control Center (iPhone) and tap the airplane.
Enable Low Power or Power Saving Mode when the battery is low.
If you’re running low on battery power, you can enable a special mode on your Android or iPhone that can buy you some extra time. See Enabling Power Saving Mode on Android or Enabling Low Power Mode on an iPhone to learn how.
Turn off vibrations.
If possible, put your phone on silent or just use the audible ringer. Vibrations use more power than tone.
Use the camera sparingly.
If you know it will be a while before your phone’s next charge, avoid using the camera, especially the flash function. Flash photography can drain your battery quickly.
Keep your phone calls short.
This is obvious, but how many times have you heard someone on their cell phone say, “I think my battery’s dying,” and then continue their conversation for several minutes? Sometimes, the dying battery is just an excuse to get off the phone, but if you really need to conserve the battery, limit your talk time.
Keep the battery cool.
Your battery will last longest if used near room temperature, and nothing wears on a battery like extended exposure to high temperatures. While you can’t control the weather, you can avoid leaving your phone in a hot car or in direct sunlight, and you don’t have to carry your phone in your pocket, where your body heat will raise its temperature. In addition, check the battery while it’s charging. If it seems excessively hot, your charger may be malfunctioning.
Charge your battery correctly.
Use the correct charger for your phone to avoid improper charging. Get a charger from the manufacturer, not the gas station.
- Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries (common in non-smartphones) naturally get quite warm while charging unless you use a specialized “slow charger.” If your phone uses a NiMH battery, do not worry about the heat generated during charging unless it becomes so hot that it is uncomfortable to touch.
- When using a car charger, do not charge the battery when the inside temperature of your car is hot. Wait until the car has cooled before you plug in the phone.
Checking Android Battery Stats
Open your Android’s Settings
An easy way to do this is to drag down the notification bar from the top of the home screen and tap the gear at the top-right corner.
- Use this method to find out which apps are using the bulk of your Android’s battery power. Once you know what apps consume the most power, you can make an effort to open those apps less (or uninstall them completely).
- Because all Android models are different, you may see slightly different menu names than what you see here.
Scroll down and tap Battery.
You should see the amount of charge your Android has at the moment (and how long that charge will last).
Tap the ⋮ menu.
It’s the three dots at the top-right corner of the screen.
Tap Battery usage.
If you don’t see this option, tap the icon of the battery instead.
Find out which apps use the most battery power.
You’ll see a list of apps on your Android and how much of your battery power that app has consumed since the last full charge.
- Tap an app to see specific information about how the app uses the battery. Depending on the app, you may see the option to enable Background restriction, which ensures the app doesn’t use the battery unless it’s open on the screen.
- If you’d like to see which Android services (in addition to apps), tap the three-dot menu again and select Show full device usage.
Checking iPhone Battery Stats
Open your iPhone’s Settings
You’ll find this gear icon on the home screen or in a folder.
- Use this method to find out which apps are using the bulk of your iPhone’s battery power. Once you know what apps consume the most power, you can make an effort to open those apps less (or uninstall them completely).
- You can also use this method to check the general health of your iPhone’s battery (iPhone 6/SE and later).
Scroll down and tap Battery.
It’s in the third group of settings.
Scroll down to view battery level information.
You’ll see a graph that shows your battery activity over the past 24 hours. Tap to see this information for a longer time period.
Scroll down to view the battery usage by app.
Under the “BATTERY USAGE BY APP” header lies a list of app names with corresponding percentages. The percentages tell you how much of the battery power over the past 24 hours (or 10 days, if you switched the view in the last step) was consumed by this app.
- Tap the SHOW ACTIVITY link above the percentage column to show the amount of time the app was using the battery over the selected time period. Each entry will display how of that usage occurred with the screen on versus off (in the background).
Tap Battery Health to check the status of the battery.
If you have an iPhone 6, SE, or later, you’ll see this option above the graph (and below the battery modes).
- Check “Maximum Capacity” to find out how much life is left in your iPhone’s battery. This value should be at 100% when the iPhone is brand new, but it will decrease over time. As the maximum capacity decreases, you’ll have to charge your iPhone more often. Once the battery’s capacity is problematically low, you’ll see a warning on the screen that tells you to replace the battery.
- Check “Peak Performance Capability” to find out if your iPhone is functioning with reduced performance due to the maximum capacity being too low. Once the battery reaches the end of its life cycle, your iPhone will automatically stop performing as fast to preserve its life for as long as possible.
Enabling Battery Saver Mode on Android
Open your Android’s Settings
An easy way to do this is to drag down the notification bar from the top of the home screen and tap the gear at the top-right corner.
- Use this method if you need to buy some extra battery time before you can access a phone charger.
Scroll down and tap Battery.
Tap Battery Saver It’s usually under the “Intelligent standby power saving” button.
Tap Turn On.
It’s at the bottom of the menu. Now that battery saver mode is enabled, your Android will operate with some reduced functionality to preserve your remaining battery power. Some of functions affected:
- Vibration and haptic feedback will be disabled.
- Location services and other apps and services that run in the background will be paused. Apps that sync in the background, such as your email and social media apps, will not update until you open the apps.
- Processing power will be reduced during power saving mode, so your Android may seem slower than usual.
Enabling Low Power Mode on an iPhone
Open your iPhone’s Settings
You’ll find this app on the home screen or inside of a folder.
- Use this method if you need to buy some extra battery time before you can access an iPhone charger.
- While you’re in Low Power Mode, the battery indicator at the top of the screen will turn yellow.
Scroll down and tap Battery.
It’s in the third group of settings.
Slide the “Low Power Mode” switch to the on
As long as the switch is green, your iPhone will operate with some reduced functionality to preserve the life of your battery. Some of the affected functions include:
- The Auto-Lock feature will reduce to 30 seconds.
- Apps that refresh/sync in the background, such as your email and social media apps, will not fetch new content until you open the app.
- Some visual animations will be disabled.
- “Hey Siri” will not work.
Add Low Power Mode to the Control Center (optional).
If you want to quickly toggle Low Power Mode on and off in the future, here’s how you can add it to the Control Center (the menu that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of the home screen):
- Open Settings.
- Scroll down and tap Control Center (in the third group of settings).
- Tap Customize Controls.
- Scroll down and tap the + next to Low Power Mode. Now when you open the Control Center, you’ll see a battery icon on the bottom row that, when tapped, allows you to toggle Low Power Mode on or off.
Tips
- You should not have to turn off your phone to charge it. Most battery chargers deliver more than enough current to power your phone and charge it at the same time. Doing so will not lengthen the charge time.
- Regardless of how well you care for your battery, it will die eventually. When it does, you may be able to have it refurbished by sending it to the manufacturer or bringing it back to the retailer. If it cannot be refurbished, or if you just want to get a new battery, be sure to recycle it, either by returning it to the manufacturer or retailer or by bringing it to a recycling center. Most major retail electronics stores have drop-off boxes for recycled phones.
- mAh is an abbreviation for milli-ampere hours which are units of electrical charge. Larger values, for batteries of the same battery voltage, indicate that the battery has a larger capacity and will power your phone for a longer period of time before charging.