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20th December 2016
12:18am GMT
It's the biggest first world problem but smartphones just can't seem to stay powered up for a full day. And it's not the manufacturers fault- the market demands slimmer, sleeker, faster smartphones and due to social media- we're using our phones more than ever. Now before you get smart with me- the obvious option would be to carry a charger around with you but sometimes we don't possess that smart foresight so here are 9 tricks to get a full day's life out of your smartphone:
They will often contain fixes that enhance your battery life. You can check for iOS updates right from the phone, instead of using a USB cable and syncing with iTunes.
Settings > General > Software Update
Believe it or not this is a big one. Check your Locations Services to turn them all off. It will also let you disable this function on separate apps too. The other one is Frequent Locations- turn it off. Its used by apps to target you for ads.
Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Move slider to off
Push notifications will eat away at your battery life. I have just voice-call, messages left on. We naturally check out phones nearly 100 times a day anyway so that Facebook notification or Tweet mention can probably wait until you actively turn to your phone. Another handy tip is to only allow the important ones come up on your locked home screen. I have Twitter disabled until I unlock my home screen cause its open on my desktop for example.
Settings > Notifications > sort through different apps
Its handy if you're transferring data or using wireless headphones, but other than that you don't need this setting on all the time.
Settings > Bluetooth > Move slider to off
If you're in work and on your laptop or using desktop for most the day, you probably don't need to have this setting on the 6-8 hours. It wastes your battery more than you'd even think. Turning this setting off during the day can save as much as 2.5 hours of battery life.
Settings > Wi-Fi > Move slider to off
Looks slick for iOS 7 but this feature just drains a stupid amount of battery life. This is the motion of the user interface, including the parallax effect of icons and alerts. Not a necessary feature and has been known for causing motion sickness!
Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > Move slider to on
Again, if you're sitting at the desk all day, you do not need to have this setting on. The amount of data thats used for push notifications is a killer.
Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data > Push > Move the slider off > and then set Fetch to Manually below
I swear by this. Not only does it help battery life by a big shot it also acts as a privacy screen- people are less likely to see what you're seeing.
Settings > Display & Brightness > Pull the slider to the far left and turn off Auto-Brightness
The additional power cases look incredibly bulky but another option is to buy a little pre-charged external battery. These are made really tiny these days and most slide into a wallet so don't take up much clutter. Really handy if you're travelling or know that you need your phone with you at all times.
