Debbie Mayo-Smith: How to get more battery life from your smartphone each day

Six simple tips and tricks you can use to make your phone's battery last. Photo / 123RF

What do you have in hand - or at bedside 24 hours a day? Your smartphone. In the ten years since the first iPhone came out- operating systems; apps and the hardware of the phone has matured and one thing for sure. Like the old little pacman from the past- the sideways smiley face munching its way through the maze - your phone munches your battery.

Music, Maps, Notifications. Apps with absolute permission. You're probably scratching your head more often than not now saying "how on earth has my battery dropped 20% already?!".

Here are six simple tips and tricks you can use to make your phone's battery last at least a bit longer.

Dim your screen brightness

Although your smartphones big, bright beautiful screen may look colorful and great, it's your battery's number one enemy consuming battery power at a devastating pace. By simply turning your screen's brightness down to the lowest setting that you can tolerate, and leaving it there you will save a great amount of power daily.

Brightness can be changed in your display settings.

Make your Auto-Lock Short

This setting controls how long your phone's screen stays lit after receiving input, before it locks.

The normal settings are 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes and so on. (On an iPhone, look for Auto-Lock in the General Settings or for other phones the Display menu.)

Turn off Bluetooth or Wifi when not in use

Both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can be serious battery drainers and for that reason you should turn them off when you won't need them. Before you leave the office or home - turn off Wifi. When you leave your car - turn off Bluetooth. In iOS it's easier than ever to toggle Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on and off. Simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen to display the Control Centre.

Turn your location services off

Most of the apps that use your GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile data for monitoring your location are big battery suckers. You can easily change your settings so that apps can only access your location when you are in the app (or never at all). This can be done in the location settings on your phone.

Turn off vibrate

If you keep your phone on loud, turn off the vibration as it uses much more power than playing a ringtone does.

Use your phone on Power Saving Mode

Check if your phone has a power-saving mode. Enabling battery-saving mode manages your phone's various power-sapping features for you. For example, it prevents apps from updating in the background, dims your screen, reduces the screen timeout setting, disables on-screen animations or turns off the vibration.

On an iPhone, it can be turned on in settings>battery>low power mode or will prompt you to turn it on once your phone hits 20 per cent battery. In Samsung Galaxy, you'll find it in Settings>Battery.

Debbie Mayo-Smith is one of New Zealand's most sought after motivational speakers and trainers. Sign up for her monthly quick tip newsletter here. To have Debbie speak at your next event or train your team call 64 27 575 5359 or visit her www.debbiespeaks.com