You’ve no doubt seen or read many articles online about saving battery life.It’s a popular topic because nobody likes tethering a phone to the wall multiple times a day.However, most battery-saving articles give you ideas about what to try in order to improve your battery life. This time around,
we’re instead going to identify all of the various things that cause drain battery.
Charging habits to maximize battery life
Battery size
On the high end, phones like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Moto G Power have massive 5,000mAh cells while some other phones, like the regular Galaxy S22’s 3,590mAh battery, have smaller cells. Generally speaking, phones with larger batteries tend to have better battery life than ones with smaller batteries.
This one is a matter of simple math. The larger the cell, the more power the phone carries around. Of course, there are many other factors to take into account. However, if the phones have identical specs, the one with the bigger battery will simply last longer.
There are four different ways a display can affect battery life. The first is the size, as larger screens have more surface area and require more power to light up. Phones with larger displays also usually have larger batteries so there is a bit of a give and take there.
The second way a phone’s display affects battery life is the resolution. Admittedly, the differences aren’t huge, but it is objectively measurable. Displays with 1440p resolution have 77% more pixels than a 1080p display and it requires extra processing power (and therefore OEMs sometimes include a 1080p mode on a 1440p display to help cut back on the processing power and save battery.
Displays use more battery than any other phone component without question.
Brightness is another significant power draw. This is also a matter of simple math. The brighter something is, the more power it requires. It’s not as noticeable if you go from 50% to 40% brightness. , though.
Finally, the display’s refresh rate matters a lot. The refresh rate represents the number of times a screen refreshes every second and is measured in hertz (Hz). Newer phones have 90Hz and 120Hz displays which refresh 50%-100% more frequently than regular 60Hz displays. That requires a whole bunch of extra processing power and put further strain on your phone’s battery. Modern phones have adaptive refresh rates to help combat the battery drain, but it’s still higher than if you set it at 60Hz.
Connections
Connections have a massive impact on battery life . The most common connections are your cell phone signal, data, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and location services. Connections drain the battery in a few different ways and the first one is fairly obvious.Connections have a massive impact on battery life. The most common connections are your cell phone signal, data, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and location services. Connections drain the battery in a few different ways and the first one is fairly obvious.
Every time your phone connects to something, it costs you battery life.
Finally, actually using these connections drains your battery. If you go online and spend five minutes downloading a file, that’s five whole minutes your phone is actively using its networking hardware. The same is true of voice calls as your phone engages its radio for the entire length of the call.
A lot of people recommend using airplane mode to switch off all connections when not using your phone. To be honest, it doesn’t save that much battery and it ends up being invasive and annoying. We recommend staying connected to Wi-Fi while at home (or work). Additionally, the Google Play Store, Google Photos, Amazon Photos, and others all have settings that will postpone backups or updates until you’re connected to a charger. You should definitely check and see what can be put off until your phone is safely charged.
Aside from that, just be mindful of how your connections are operating and use some common sense. Don’t start downloading a new 5GB game from the Play Store when your phone is at 12% battery and you should be okay.
Chipset
The chipset matters more than probably anything else here (aside from display) because it basically runs the whole phone.There are many ways a chipset can impact the battery.It’s especially true for root users as they have access to CPU tweaking tools.That said , even some non-root phones have performance modes that will drink your battery like water in the desert.An upgraded chipset is a lot more important than a lot of people realize.The model of the chipset matters as well. The Pixel 3a XL was one of the big surprises in terms of battery life in 2019. Part of that was due to the Snapdragon 670, a less powerful chip tuned for battery life rather than performance unlike the Snapdragon 855. On the other end of the scale, the Snapdragon 855 Plus is an overclocked version of the regular 855 and it uses more power.
Chipset updates get frequently overlooked when talking about new smartphones because a lot of people only look at raw performance. However, the efficiency, size, and heat improvements are arguably more important than raw performance boosts these days.
camera
People who use the camera excessively often have below average battery life.Video is more battery intensive.The processor has to take anywhere between 30 and 60 photos per second depending on the frame rate of the video and it also has to eventually stitch all of them matters together.Of course, resolution here as well.For obvious reasons, 4K video requires more power to process than 720p video.
Shutterbugs drain their batteries a lot more quickly than people who don’t use their cameras very often.
Leaving your phone in a hot car or using it while charging is really not good for your long term battery life.Temperature is a bit more tricky. Cold batteries have lower capacities (remember, we’re dealing with chemicals here) while warmer batteries offer better performance. However, too much time spent at extreme temperatures can cause permanent degradation of the battery over time. states that modern lithium batteries perform most optimally at about 68F. However, most people can’t temperature control their entire life so this problem is more or less unavoidable. The good news, though, is that OEMs have optimized charging and fast charging to an extent where users have few opportunities to really mess things up.
You can use some tricks to help prevent excess degradation from heat and age. However, even with best practices, the general rule of thumb is that you lose roughly 20% of your battery’s capacity after about 1,000 charges. You can avoid excess degradation by not using your phone while it charges, charging it less often (select phones with super long battery life rather than super-fast charging), and don’t play heavy games that heat up your phone for excessively long periods
the best way to save battery isn’t to adhere to an ancient list of outdated tricks that don’t work well enough if they even work at all. It’s also a bad idea to take advice that completely changes how you enjoy using your phone.
The best way to save battery is to understand where your drain comes from so you can adjust your daily use accordingly.Hopefully, with the help of this guide, you can do just that and score some outstanding battery life like I do.Good luck.