Check what is draining the battery the most
Go to Settings > Battery to see a breakdown of what's consuming your phone's battery
Applications and features will display in a descending list of battery consumption
If you see an application or feature you barely or never use, you'll can uninstall the app or turn off the feature
Reduce email, Facebook etc refresh frequency
Set your various messaging apps to "manual" for the refresh frequency
This will instantly extend your device's battery life by a significant amount
Once you see what a difference that makes, try re-enabling just the most important ones, and possibly reducing their refresh frequency in the process
For Email
- Tap Email
- Tap Menu
- Tap Account settings
- Tap Email check frequency
- Change this to an hour, or never
For Facebook
- Open the Facebook App
- Tap Menu
- Tap Settings
- Tap Refresh Interval
- Tap the interval you wish to change it to
Turn certain functions off when not in use
Today's phones now have an impressive array of functionality
- LTE (4G mobile communications standard)
- NFC (Near-field communication)
- GPS
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
- Mobile Data
But do you really need all six activated 24 hours per day?
On your device, swipe down to bring up the notification bar, and then tap the white box icon on the top right corner, select the above functions and turn them off when not in use
Use the power saving mode
Some devices now have Ultra Power Saving and Extreme Power Saving modes, using these modes can squeeze extra hours or even a day of standby time out a small amount remaining battery life
Trim apps running in the background
From Settings > Apps, swipe to the left you'll see a list of apps that are currently running
Tap on each one to see what they're for
You can stop any apps that you don't need running in the background constantly
Remove unnecessary home screen widgets and live wallpaper
Just because they're sitting on the home screen, seemingly inactive, doesn't mean they're not consuming power
You don't need to remove everything as they are part of what makes Android great, just remove the ones you don't use
Turn down the brightness and turn off Automatic Brightness
Screen brightness is a big consumer of battery life, this tip alone will vastly improve battery life
Update your apps
Applications often get updated to use less battery power, so you should make sure your apps are up to date
Even if you configured the phone for automatic updates, some apps still require that you manually install updates
Check for app updates in Google Play by hitting the menu key and going to My Apps
Keep an eye on signal strength
If you're in an area with poor cellular coverage, the phone will work harder to latch onto a strong-enough signal
This has an adverse effect on battery life
There's not much you can do about this one, but keep in mind that this could be the culprit behind a seemingly weak battery
It's worth switching the phone into Airplane mode if you don't need data or voice calls
Buy a battery case or larger extended battery
Battery cases combine a hardware enclosure, which protects your phone, with an extended battery that can double your phone's battery capacity
You can find models compatible with popular Android phones from a variety of manufacturers
Does your battery need replacing?
Over time your battery will begin to gradually lose its effectiveness as it ages. The only option is to replace your battery.
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