Conserve your battery: Why does your battery's capacity keep decreasing?
Li-ion batteries are subject to constant wear and tear, and not just during fast charging. That's why you should protect the battery. The reasons for this lie inside the battery, where complex chemical processes take place. However, you can extend the battery life with certain measures. What matters is how often you charge the battery. But also the ambient temperature of the smartphone or how you charge it: if you want to extend the battery life, for example, you should avoid fast charging with an adapter on the battery.
When does the battery become a warranty claim?
The guarantee is also a voluntary service for the battery. Normally the battery is considered a wearing part. Then saving the battery doesn't help much: If a company gives you a two-year guarantee on your smartphone, this often doesn't apply to the battery. In addition, there are hardly any clear rules as to when a battery is considered defective. Apple is exemplary when it comes to batteries: after 500 complete charging cycles, the iPhone's battery performance should still be 80%.
This is a warranty case for the battery: The malfunction occurs during the warranty period. You are not allowed to actively contribute to this, for example using third-party adapters for fast charging. You can also differentiate based on the design of the battery: Regardless of the adapter, Samsung gives half a year for a replaceable battery. With a permanently installed battery it is twelve months.
Extend battery life: How can you tell if your battery has lost capacity?
If your battery loses capacity, you should protect the battery. Here's how you can tell when the time has come: Above all, you have to charge your smartphone more and more often or fast-charge it with an adapter. Using energy-intensive services such as streaming is hardly possible with a smartphone alone. Many people then use the smartphone with an adapter. You won't get far with one charge: For example, if you only charge it once a day after purchasing it, the cell phone will only last half a day with the same use later.
If you are clear about this, you can also extend the battery life of your smartphone. Then it's time for a battery check: Special tools for the battery compare the current state with the target state. How much capacity should the new battery have and how much does it still have? The difference results in the loss of capacity. Android offers you various apps for this display, such as AccuBattery. Apple has integrated battery health into the battery settings.
Tips for extending battery life on smartphones
1. Save battery, check energy saving mode on smartphone
Using less energy means charging the battery less frequently. This way you can extend the battery life and protect the battery at the same time. So check which functions on your smartphone extend battery life. Example energy saving mode, also called "sleep" or "standby": If this function is preset, the mode activates itself as soon as the battery falls below a certain percentage. In addition, connections such as Bluetooth are switched off. Individual setup is also possible if you want to conserve the battery and extend the battery life.
2. Regulate screen brightness on your smartphone
You can also use this to conserve the battery and extend the battery life of your smartphone: If you want to constantly reach 100 percent, you use a lot of energy just by using the screen. This is how you will extend the battery life: Test out which lighting is permanently acceptable for your smartphone. If you want to save the battery, you can either adjust the brightness manually. To do this, search for “Display and brightness” in the settings. You can optionally have it preset, for example with night mode: If you save electricity this way, the battery life of OLED screens will be noticeably extended.
3. Extend battery life: Need WiFi on your smartphone?
WLAN constantly scans the environment for networks and uses electricity in the process. You can save battery life by turning it off when not in use. This can also extend the battery life! Again, there are two options for extending battery life: Switch it off manually, but that takes time. You probably forget it a lot too. An app can help here, for example “WiFi Automatic” for Android. The app doesn't just turn off so you can extend your battery life. It also allows personal settings for reactivation: upon reboot, when waking from sleep mode or at a specific time.
4. Extend battery life: do not use as a Wi-Fi hotspot
Using it as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot requires a lot of energy. This is how you can extend battery life: Only activate the function if there is no other option. The smartphone doesn’t just send data back and forth. The more cell phones are connected, the more energy the function needs to save battery. This puts a lot of strain on the smartphone's battery, which is why it can run out after a short time. You should therefore use your router in your home if you want to extend the battery life. If you still need to use the hotspot function, don't forget to deactivate it afterwards.
5. Extend battery life: check apps and delete unnecessary ones
Have you ever checked all the apps on your smartphone? Which of these do you really need? If you delete an app directly from the respective store, you can extend the battery life and avoid data waste on your smartphone. There are also differences in battery conservation between deleting and deactivating: In the latter case, you still have the application on your smartphone, even if it is inactive. Don't worry that you will destroy your smartphone with this measure to extend battery life: system apps cannot be deleted at all!
6. Flight mode on, extend battery life
Using airplane mode can extend your battery life. It interrupts all wireless connections that you would otherwise have to turn off and on again manually. However, you can still use an adapter for fast charging. This is a very powerful feature to extend battery life: many connections are disabled in one fell swoop. This is quick, saves battery life and saves electricity. Affected are: WLAN, NFC, mobile network and Bluetooth. Charging or fast charging is still possible. You also prevent a lot of what otherwise runs in the background, for example annoying advertising in games. If you want to extend the battery life, charge your battery in this mode. It's not just fast charging using an adapter that makes it much faster!
7. Extend battery life: Do not charge the battery overnight
You can also extend the battery life with the charging behavior. In addition to quick charging with an adapter, this also applies to charging overnight. With each of these, your smartphone battery ages faster! It charges up to 100%, but then uses some power again. It recharges this to reach 100% battery again. This goes on all night long. If you want to extend the battery life, don't just avoid fast charging on the adapter. Always let your smartphone charge in a controlled manner: ideally before going to bed. Plan enough time for this, then disconnect the adapter and smartphone from the power supply. Switch to airplane mode if you need the alarm function on your smartphone.
8. Avoid fast charging with an adapter on your smartphone
Fast charging or “Quick Charge” significantly shortens the charging time for a smartphone. If you want to quickly charge your battery, you will also need an adapter in addition to the normal USB cable. How much charging time you save with the adapter depends on its quality. An adapter is often included in the scope of delivery of a smartphone. Because these are not always the best adapters for fast charging, there are third-party providers of adapters.
If you want to use it, make sure the adapter is of high quality. Cheap electronics in the adapter can cause fires! During fast charging, the charging current increases, which leads to higher temperatures in the battery. This is why the battery ages more quickly when fast charging. Regardless of the adapter, it's best to avoid fast charging altogether. This also extends the battery life!
9. Extend battery life: influence of cold and heat
In addition to fast charging or a suitable adapter, the correct operating temperature also influences the service life. Because inside the battery there is the coolant, which becomes viscous the colder the environment is. This also slows down the chemical processes inside. This in turn causes the resistance in the battery to increase. Manufacturers help you save battery life by allowing the battery to switch off automatically under certain conditions. If it doesn't, your battery will need more and more power until it completely discharges. Therefore, by protecting the smartphone from freezing temperatures, you will extend the battery life. The most favorable operating temperature for the battery is just above freezing point. It ends at 35 °C: If you want to protect your battery, don't just refrain from fast charging. Also protect them from extreme heat!
10. Protect the battery, charge in a controlled manner
Do you always charge your battery at the last minute? This will hardly extend your battery life. Rather, it puts a lot of strain on it in a similar way to fast charging. The same applies if you always charge the battery to 100%. A high cell voltage means that the lifespan of the battery is shortened. Modern chargers prevent the worst on smartphones, i.e. overcharging and complete discharging. There is still something you should keep in mind when charging: it works best with 20% to 80% capacity. So if your battery shows 20%, you can already charge it. Then only go up to 80% before unplugging the smartphone. If you keep this in mind, the battery life will extend.
11. Synchronizing data: does it have to be?
Synchronizing can be very helpful, but it is not always necessary. Above all, it is a power guzzler. The apps in question often go online every minute, which is not helpful in extending battery life. So think about what you actually need: Do you really need to read every new email immediately? Should Google sync everything on your smartphone or are certain functions enough? There are several ways to turn it off, depending on how you want to extend battery life: Smartphones use the least power if you deactivate the function completely. Partial switching off is of course also possible.
12. Limit background activities to extend battery life
Apps are permanently active in the background. You won't notice most things, like updates or tracking your location. The battery constantly loses power, which is not helpful in extending the battery life. Therefore, you should avoid certain activities if you want to extend battery life. But be careful, the app on your smartphone may no longer work properly afterwards! This function can be found in the respective app under “Battery usage”.
13. Avoiding streaming can save battery life
Streaming with your smartphone always means high power consumption! It is therefore better to save music or videos and start them from the storage location. If you really want to stream new music videos, loading them once is enough. You can then enjoy your music offline. This is significantly more energy efficient than re-streaming a video every time. When you're at home, limit unnecessary streaming: For example, if you only listen to music casually, for example while cleaning up, you only need the music, not the video. Even with these little tricks you can extend the battery life of your smartphone!
14. Save battery: keep the time until sleep mode in your smartphone short
In sleep mode, the screen darkens to protect it and the battery. If you want to extend battery life, adjust the time to what works best for you. You can find the setting in question under “Brightness” in the smartphone screen settings. The more you want to conserve the battery, the shorter you should keep the time until it goes dark. On the other hand, it can also be annoying if the settings are too short. In addition, this function is deactivated in certain apps to save battery, for example if you want to watch videos on YouTube.
15. Extend battery life: Turn off vibration/push notifications
In noisy environments there is hardly anything better than the vibration on your smartphone. If you want to save the battery, you should switch off the function: your smartphone needs a lot of power to generate the vibration, including the battery. A compromise is limited use, for example at conferences. Where it's less annoying, normal ringtones are an energy-saving alternative. Also ask yourself whether push notifications on your smartphone are important to you. For example, if you suppress such notifications on Facebook, the battery life of your smartphone will extend.
