Decades ago cell phones lasted for weeks, and we didn’t know how lucky we were. Charging the phone on a Monday and having 15% battery left on Sunday was the norm, so much so that we did not appreciate it.
When smartphones arrived, things changed drastically, to the point that the beginnings were disastrous, with really small batteries and with durations that did not reach, sometimes, a full day.
And, although now brands are struggling to cram 4,000 mAh batteries upwards, getting a good autonomy is not something easy, although there are tricks that help to stretch several hours the life of our Android. And they are not complicated adjustments nor will they take a long time.
That said, let’s review what we can do for the autonomy of our mobile phone:
- Monitor battery usage to spot the greed
- Keep track of newly installed apps
- Automatic brightness, dark mode and reduced on time
- Put the airplane mode when we need concentration
- Change networks when we don’t need a lot of speed
- Check bluetooth, NFC and location
1. Monitor battery usage to spot the greed
This advice seems very basic but it is absolutely necessary, since we do not know for sure which application or applications consume the most battery. And it is an option that usually gives surprises.
The normal thing is that WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok are the ones that swallow the most battery, but do not worry because it is logical as long as they are the ones you use the most.
Of course, if you hardly use them and you have them in the first positions, it may be that there is a problem with them.
Once this list is reviewed If one of the applications does not suit you, you can track it, in case it is pulling the GPS, or it stays in the background for longer than it should.
And remember that uninstalling applications is free, that it is often difficult to get rid of an app despite not having used it in months.
Although the application is not actively used, many times we grant location permissions and from time to time the application makes requests in the background that end up impacting the autonomy of our mobile.
2. Keep track of new installed applications
Sometimes it happens that, from one day to the next, the battery of our smartphone begins to lose autonomy. Going from holding up well all day to arriving home in the afternoon needing to connect it to the charger.
This usually has a direct manager, and It is usually that application that you installed recently and that you have not paid much attention to (Or the opposite, that watching 7 hours of TikTok videos consumes a lot of battery).
Depending on the type of app you have downloaded, the behavior of your Android may change, since you may be demanding too many background resources.
By a simple review it can give you the necessary information to know if everything is going according to plan.
3. Automatic brightness, dark mode and reduction of time on
We are at a key point, because the screen is the part that consumes the most energy of our smartphone. And by far.
That is why the recommendations that we are going to give you now are really the part that you should not skip in any way. First the brightness, then the dark mode and finally the screen time on.
First, the shine. Although you can adjust the brightness of the screen at any time, the smartest thing to do is leave it with automatic brightness, which is adjusting all the time depending on the light we have at that time. This will ensure that we never have excessively high brightness and save battery.
Then we have dark mode, an option that Android already includes in the settings menu itself and that allows you to always have the smartphone in dark tones, both in the Android menus and in the applications (that are compatible). In this way we will also save battery.
And finally, there’s the idle shutdown time. From 15 seconds to 5 minutes, in the screen settings we can select how long must pass from inactivity until the screen begins to dim and then turns off.
And, although it seems somewhat minor, we can be saving several hours a week of unnecessarily turned on screen.
4. Put the airplane mode when we need concentration
This advice is one of the easiest to do on a daily basis, because it is very fast and because it has a direct response in the autonomy of our smartphone.
You just have to pick up the phone when you go to class or work, just in those hours when more concentration is needed, and put it in airplane mode.
Thus We cut off all communications from the smartphone, so in that time the phone will hardly consume energy, giving us a good margin for later.
Of course, keep in mind that it also cuts the phone’s coverage, so if you are waiting for an important call it is better not to activate it, but to only deactivate mobile networks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
5. Change networks when we don’t need a lot of speed
Now that 5G is becoming an increasingly real option in more countries, we have to take into account one of the most negative parts of this technology: energy consumption.
Due to the large difference in speed and latencies between 5G and other networks, the new mobile network consumes much more energy than desired, although it is the price to pay for the super speed of the internet.
Therefore, for those who have an Android with 5G connectivity and who have contracted a 5G rate, the best you can do is change network preferences in phone settings.
And putting 4G networks as the preferred ones when we do not need a high download speed, we will gain a few minutes every day.
6. Check bluetooth, NFC and location
Every time we unlock the mobile and drag our finger from top to bottom, the Android quick menu opens, that place where some people have too many options activated, which is detrimental to the battery.
By default, apps ask us for permissions to function. That if the Bluetooth to connect the clock, that the location to give more precision in the shopping application on duty or that if the NFC by the bank.
And the truth is that throughout the day if we use any of these applications it is for a minute at most.
Therefore, the best thing you can do is turn off these options by default and activate them when Google Maps or the BBVA app asks you to activate a parameter, because in those connections we lose unnecessary battery minutes.
Bonus track
Finally, as a final tip but that we do not include in the list because it does not provide a longer battery life, but what it achieves is a longer battery life, the best you can do is charge your Android with the normal charger you have at home, instead of with the fast charge that came with the smartphone.
And it is that although these 35W or 65W chargers They are very good for when we are in a hurry to charge the phone, they continuously degrade the batteries more quickly than traditional chargers.
So, if you do not have too much need, it is better to take two hours to charge the smartphone than 45 minutes. Your phone will thank you in a few months.