With every new operating system comes a fresh set of features that serve up convenience…at the cost of your battery life. In many cases, it’s just not worth having your phone die when you need it most. Here are a few tips you can use to increase the battery life of your mobile devices.
Turn off location services
iPhones and iPads use the inbuilt GPS for many functions, including Google maps. You may be surprised about how many apps also use the GPS but it eats up battery life.
- You can turn off all Location Services or just turn it off for specific apps by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
- You can also turn off GPS settings on Android phones which will improve your battery life.
Prevent background app refresh
Background App refresh allows apps to refresh their content in the background while you perform different tasks. It is a clever new function of iOS 7 that means that the apps download new content before you open them. It also eats away at your battery life.
You can disable the feature entirely or simply disable the apps that you do not want to continually refresh. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
Fetch data manually
You can set your iPhone or iPad to check your email accounts less often. Data can be ‘fetched’ at specific intervals. The more frequently email or other data is fetched, the quicker your battery may drain.
To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually.
To increase the fetch interval, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly. If you have a ‘push’ email account you can turn it off when you don’t need it. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off.
Don’t automatically update apps
In earlier iOS versions you had to manually update app updates but with iOS 7 they automatically update when new versions are released. It can be a drain on battery life so to manually update apps go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Updates > and move the slider to off.
Auto-Lock iPhone and iPad
Always lock your iPad or iPhone when you aren’t using it. To lock, press the Sleep/Wake button. You can also set the Auto-Lock interval so your iPad will turn off more quickly after a period of inactivity.
The sooner the device goes to sleep the less battery it will drain. To set Auto-Lock, go to Settings > General > Auto-Lock and set the interval to a short time, such as 1 minute.
Carry an external battery pack
Having an external battery pack will save you in emergencies, I have one fully charged and I carry it wherever I go. They’re relatively cheap and will come in handy. You can purchase a small 3000mAH battery or a massive 26000mAH battery which is capable of charging a laptop.