Your smartphone battery life is one of the most important aspects impacting your daily device usage. With phone batteries only able to last a day or two on average, many users constantly struggle to keep their phones charged.
Luckily, new advances and techniques have emerged to help you conserve battery life. By following a few simple tricks, you can significantly extend the endurance of your phone each day.
Top Tips to Preserve Battery Life
According to recent reporting, one of the best ways to save battery life on Samsung Galaxy phones is to utilize ‘Extra Dim’ mode under display settings. This option allows the screen brightness to go extra low, using less power. Users report gaining an additional 8-10 hours of regular use after enabling Extra Dim.
Other key recommendations from experts include:
- Closing Background Apps: Apps running in the background drain battery over time. Remember to fully close any apps not currently in use.
- Lower Screen Brightness: Keep screen brightness lower to reduce battery usage, while still maintaining visibility.
- Turn Off Bluetooth/Wi-Fi When Not Using: Disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when not needed to conserve power.
- Limit Widgets on Home Screen: Too many Live Widgets constantly pulling data kills battery quickly.
- Enable Dark Mode: For phones with OLED displays, Dark Mode requires less power.
| Tip | Estimated Extra Battery Gained |
|---|---|
| Turn Off Bluetooth | 1-2 hours |
| Lower Screen Brightness by 25% | 2-3 hours |
| Disable Background App Refresh | 3-4 hours |
| Enable Dark Mode (OLED screens) | 30-60 minutes |
“Following some simple operating habits can really transform how long your battery lasts each day,” says smartphone analyst Emma Porter. “Adjusting settings like brightness, turning off unneeded connections, and closing intensive apps makes a significant difference. You could gain 3-4 extra hours from a full charge.”
Choosing the Right Charging Practices
In addition to use-case habits, adopting smart charging techniques can also give your smartphone battery lifespan a boost.
Many users simply plug in their devices each night for 8+ hours overnight. However, this regular overcharging can degrade battery capacity over time.
Instead, experts recommend the following charging best practices:
- Avoid Overcharging: Only charge your phone up to 80% unless you explicitly need that last 20% before heading out. Over 80%, battery put under greater stress.
- Don’t Fully Drain: Never fully drain down to 0% if possible. This puts strain on the battery. Keep discharge cycles between 20%-80% for optimal longevity.
- Use Lower-Power Chargers: High-wattage fast chargers apply extra heat stress. Use lower 5W or 10W chargers whenever convenient to avoid degradation.
- Unplug When 100%: Don’t leave phones plugged in for extended periods at 100%. This adds unnecessary wear.
“It may seem counterintuitive, but taking steps to limit both overcharging and over-draining preserves battery capacity in the long run,” says Porter. “You reduce strain that diminishes performance over time.”
The Outlook for Future Battery Life
As smartphone processor power and screen sizes continue growing rapidly, battery technology has struggled to keep pace. Current lithium-ion designs are nearing their theoretical limits for density using existing materials and architectures.
However, experts predict several key developments arriving in 2024 and beyond that will drastically improve phone battery lifespans:
- New Materials: Replacing graphite anodes with silicon or lithium metal could increase capacity as much as 40%. Lab research advancing steadily towards commercial viability in 1-2 years.
- Graphene Batteries: Graphene’s high conductivity and thin profile makes it a promising replacement material. Enables faster charging, 45% greater capacity, with tabless design preventing fires. Major manufacturers racing to be first to debut graphene cells.
- True Wireless Power: Distance charging allows phones to recharge wirelessly from a router across an entire building. Eliminates need for daily plug-in charging sessions that degrade batteries. Standards and commercial systems may emerge by 2025.
- Smart Battery Health Monitoring: Future phones will have smart charging controllers that monitor battery health metrics like voltage and temperature in real-time. This enables fully customized charging to prolong lifespan based on learned user patterns. Early prototypes functional, with potential system-on-chip rollouts in 2-3 years.
While current lithium-ion has hit a limit, experts see pioneering advancements on the horizon. “The next 2-5 years will see new materials, intelligent software, and even over the air charging transform battery boundaries,” says Porter. “In the near future, multi-day smartphone battery life will be the norm, not the exception.”
Simple Habits to Adopt Today
Waiting for future tech can still leave you stranded with a dead device. Luckily, many simple tweaks exist to stretch battery life using just software settings and minor habit adjustments on existing phones.
“By turning off Bluetooth when you aren’t using it, closing processor-intensive apps, and lowering brightness, most users can gain a minimum of 2-3 extra hours daily,” recommends Porter. “Using airplane mode while keeping critical apps like maps open helps in a pinch too. For minimal hassle, these steps make a big difference holding you over until you can charge again.”
So revisit your settings, delete unused apps, adjust brightness down slightly. With smart usage habits, you can survive more than all-day on even current battery capacities while waiting for new technologies to arrive. Consistently monitoring usage and limiting unnecessary functions keeps your device powered on longer no matter what smartphone you own today.
To err is human, but AI does it too. Whilst factual data is used in the production of these articles, the content is written entirely by AI. Double check any facts you intend to rely on with another source.
