Tricks to keep your Smart Phone’s battery run longer

If you’re a recent convert to smartphones, you would realize that smartphone's battery run shorter as compared to other phones. I was looking for some solution and came across this article in "The New York Times". It had some simple ideas which could help to get the most out of device's battery

1) Reconsider Your Network

The C.D.M.A. mobile standard used by Verizon uses more power than a G.S.M. network, principally used by AT&T and T-Mobile. If battery life is critical, you might want to consider G.S.M. as long as its coverage meets your needs.

2) Dim the brightness

Brighter your screen is, more battery will be drained.

For Iphone, Find it in Settings -> Brightness

 

3) Turn on Auto-Brightness

Turn Auto-Brightness on and you’ll save battery because your screen will need to use less power in bright places.

For Iphone, Find it in the Settings app -> Brightness -> Auto-Brightness On

4) Lower the volume

If you use your smartphone to play music, lower the volume.

5) Turn Off 3G

  Using 3G requires more battery life to get the quicker data speeds and higher-quality calls.If you need more battery, turn off 3G and just use the older, slower EDGE network. Your battery will last longer

6) Stop Searching

It is great that you can use Bluetooth technology to connect your smartphone to a headset, or use Wi-Fi to speed up the downloading of e-mail messages. But when you’re not using that headset or not near a Wi-Fi hot spot, turn off those features on the phone or laptop.

The reason is that portable devices will continue to look for Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth headset, using power.

Put your phone to sleep when it is in standby. On an iPhone, you do so through the “Settings” icon. On a BlackBerry, use the “Manage Connections” icon.

7) Turn off device’s mobile capabilities when in weak signal area

You’re in a weak signal area, your phone must work even harder to find one, decreasing battery life. If you know that there is no coverage in your area, turn off your portable device’s mobile capabilities.

If your G.S.M. 3G network is not available or the signal is weak, the battery will drain faster looking for one. Consider turning off the phone’s 3G network or using the slower EDGE network instead. It will make Web access slower but won’t affect phone call quality.

8) Check Mail Manually

Mobile smartphones can check for e-mail messages and instant messages automatically. Or they can be set to “push” notifications as soon as they arrive in your server’s mailbox.

Both strategies can be power hogs. To increase your battery life, turn off push and increase the interval between when the phone checks for new messages. Or better, set up your phone to check for messages manually.

9) Turn Off Everything

The simplest way to cut power to a minimum is to put your smartphone into “airplane mode.” In airplane mode and running just the alarm clock, your iPhone battery will last up to a week .

10) Get an App to Aid You

There are a number of applications that can help monitor battery life and shut off various functions that cut down on a mobile device’s effective power.

Battery Go and myBatteryLife tell iPhone owners how much charge they have left and how that power translates into minutes of talk time, music, video and Web surfing.

All batteries can be fully charged and discharged for a fixed number of cycles; lithium ion batteries typically last between 300 and 500 cycles. Information on the number of cycles can be obtained at manufacturers’ Web sites, or at batteryuniversity.com.