An article about optimal cell phone battery health doesn’t seem super glamorous but it’s worth reading! The battery powers your phone – without it, you’d be staring at a blank screen on a useless device. What’s more, a phone with a bad battery can be really annoying – it can power down unexpectedly, run out of juice quickly, or take an eon to charge up to 100%.
Here are some ways you can keep your battery in tip-top shape now to prevent a stop at the repair shop later:
Keep your cell phone away from extreme temperatures
If your phone gets extremely cold or hot, this can stress out its battery, decreasing the lifespan. So don’t leave your phone out in the sun on a hot summer day or resting in your car during a cold winter night.
Don’t let your phone run completely
If you have a newer phone, draining it or charging it fully will stress out the battery which will shorten its life. An optimal charge is above 20% full but under 90%. If you want to keep the perfect charge, phone batteries do best at around 50% full. Although this sounds like a whole lot of work to keep your battery healthy, think about it this way: just plug your battery in when it falls below 20% and unplug it before it completely charges.
Don’t Use a Fast Charger
Did you know that the slower you charge your cell phone battery, the healthier it will be? That’s right! Avoiding fast chargers can save you a trip to the cell phone repair shop to get your battery replaced. Charging your phone from your computer can slow the rate at which your battery charges.
Adjust your Screen settings
You can make your battery healthier by adjusting some settings on your phone. For example, turning down your screen brightness will save you battery, helping you to decrease the amount of time you will have to spend charging it. The Auto-Brightness setting is an easy way to automate this, as it will turn down the screen brightness when there is less light around.
You can also adjust the screen timeout. The screen timeout is the amount of time your phone will stay awake before it turns off after use. If you reduce the time, you’ll save battery, which also means less charging time. You can turn down the screen timeout to 30 seconds to save serious battery.
If you’re storing your phone for a while, keep the charge at 50%
As we mentioned above, the optimal battery charge for its health is 50%. If you plan on storing your phone for a while, charge it to 50% or let the battery drop to 50% before you turn it off and put it away. If you’re planning on storing your phone for a year or more, turn the phone on after six months and recharge the battery up to 50%.
Get Rid of Battery Leeching Apps
The number one culprit here is Facebook. You should get rid of it, or if you are too attached to the social media site, you can cut back on the app permissions and cut back on use.
Head to your battery settings to find other apps that use a large amount of your battery and get rid of them, disable them if they are system apps or restrict their permissions if you absolutely need them.
Support app developers and purchase premium versions
If you have a free version of an app on your phone, it may be supported by ads, which will drain your battery and hog data. If you use an app a lot, consider purchasing the premium version to get rid of the ads – the small investment will probably pay off long-term when you consider how much data and battery you will save.
Turn off cell phone functionality you don’t use
For example, when you’re not using GPS, don’t leave it on. NFC, GPS, Bluetooth, and other functions can use a lot of battery, even if they are in standby mode.
Don’t let the battery drain significantly while you charge it
This is called “parasitic load” and it puts a strain on your battery which can shorten its lifespan. To avoid this, don’t do battery intensive activities like watch videos while you charge, or better yet, turn your phone off while it’s charging. By following these tips you can keep your battery healthy and avoid a trip to the cell phone repair shop. An added benefit of following some of these tips is that you won’t need to charge your phone as frequently and get more use out of each charging cycle.
