Our electronic devices rule our entire world. Without them, sometimes it can feel like we are missing a limb! Especially when we are on the go for most of the day, making sure the battery on your phone, laptop or tablet will last can cause a lot of stress. You often find yourself eyeing your surroundings for an outlet to use in case of emergency. Since we are a Managed IT Service provider, we are often without easy access to an outlet as we travel to our various clients throughout the day. We have learned that there are several things you can do to help out the battery in your electronic devices so you can breathe a little easier and your device can get you through the entire day.
Screen Settings
Screen brightness can be the #1 consumer of your battery life. The lower the brightness of the screen, the longer your battery will last. Turn it down to as low as you can handle, and you are sure to get more time on your device. Often your screen settings can utilize an automatic adjustment, but we recommend controlling it manually since the system will error on the side of being too bright most of the time.
Power Settings
On your laptop, you can adjust your power settings differently for different scenarios. The settings can change for whether your device is plugged in, or using your battery. When it is on the battery, you will want to set the timeout to be shorter. This means instead of moving to a screen saver, try having it turn the screen completely off after 5 minutes of inactivity. You can also have it completely go to sleep after a small amount of time too, which will save even more power. Many phones also have a power saving mode that will limit the device’s functions and grant you a longer amount of time before you need to plug it in. Activate this mode before going into a long meeting that you will not want to be disturbed during, or when you will be too busy to check your phone. This will allow you to have full use of your phone later when you will need to use it.
Wireless Settings
If you are not currently using wifi or Bluetooth on either your laptop or your phone, disable the services all together until you need to use them again. Having these services on, but not in use can waste a lot of battery life. When the service is turned on it will search for wifi networks and Bluetooth devices constantly, which will drain the battery. On your phone, you can also change the wireless settings to only search for networks when you ask it to do so. Keeping this setting turned on will definitely help save your battery.
Background Applications
Making sure only the applications you need to have currently running can be hard to remember at first. It is so easy to open various apps, or tabs in your browser, and forget they even exist. Each application takes resources to run, and those resources translate into battery life. It’s a great idea to get into the habit of closing down an app or window once you are done using it to save battery life. Whenever you turn off your phone’s screen, take a quick look at all of the running applications and close them down. Also, once you are done with a web page or application, close it down as well. Check your task bar from time to time to see what is currently running, and what you can safely close down. Most applications load very quickly, so there usually isn’t a reason to have it running constantly.
Following these settings can definitely help you improve the battery life. Soon you won’t even look around you to find the outlets whenever you enter a building.