It’s no exaggeration to say that your entire life is essentially on your iPhone, whether you’re plotting routes to unfamiliar places or taking important calls. This means that when your battery dies, it can be very inconvenient or even catastrophic. Keeping your iPhone charged is an absolute must, so have you ever wondered how you can get more out of your iPhone battery? Read on to learn how your trusty handheld device can stay charged and ready.
How the iPhone battery works
Apple’s mobile batteries use high-density lithium-ion cells designed to store a lot of energy in a small space, resulting in an extremely thin battery that charges quickly and is great for maintaining its overall health. They also don’t receive a constant current throughout the charge; the first 80% charge fairly quickly and the last 20% much slower. This fast/slow system ensures you get power quickly when you need it, while avoiding short circuits in the battery and ultimately extending its long-term life.
In fact, the iPhone’s battery is much more powerful than you think.
It’s designed to retain 80% of its original capacity even after multiple charge cycles, allowing even devices that are years old to retain their charge, depending on how the battery is cared for Still, when your phone starts draining battery faster, you may find yourself sorely lacking that extra 20% capacity – for example, you’ll regret it if you’re in an unfamiliar city and find yourself unable to plot any routes. Use your dead phone a little
That said: There are a lot of misconceptions out there about how best to extend your iPhone’s battery life. We’ll go over some of them below, so you actually have a grasp on how to keep your devices powered and in top condition.
“The battery should be drained before charging.”While this may be sound advice for older devices and cameras, iPhones are unique in the way they calculate charge cycles. By tracking a full charge from 0% to 100% (rather than every time you plug it in), your iPhone can accurately assess the health of its lithium-ion battery. Charging your phone for a few minutes doesn’t count as a complete “cycle,” but fully discharging and charging does affect the overall iPhone battery health measurement.
In other words, waiting until you plug your phone in when it’s close to 0% charge actually puts more stress on your battery life than charging it frequently.
3. “Don’t leave your phone plugged in when the battery is full.”Good news – you don’t need to worry about your battery wearing out from being plugged in all the time, especially since overnight charging is the best time to charge. iPhone’s power management technology is smart enough to stop the flow of electricity when your smart iPhone battery is full, so you can keep it charged all night long without worrying about shortening its lifespan.
2. “Disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and close unused apps to extend battery life.”Not really: The technology behind wireless connections like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi has come a long way in the past few years, so they don’t require nearly the same energy as before. Therefore, disabling these settings will worsen your device experience without significantly extending battery life.
Additionally, closing an application does not necessarily reduce power consumption. iOS manages application processes very intelligently, and most applications immediately go to sleep when they are not in the foreground to consume minimal resources. Typically, apps consume the most power when they’re first opened, so forcing them to close and reopen will use more energy than simply leaving them alone.
Unfortunately, there are always some more battery-hungry apps for which this advice doesn’t apply. If you’re worried about battery life, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the worst offenders (more on managing energy usage in the next section).
1. “Only use an Apple-branded charger with your iPhone.”We could go on and on about the problems that can arise with inferior, unapproved chargers – using counterfeit electronics can cause the battery to lose capacity or even spontaneously ignite. But not all third-party devices risk damaging your device, and many offer great features at a lower price than Apple’s higher-end products. To make sure your new charger is safe, check the box to see if it’s MFi certified. All products that pass Apple’s critical quality control standards receive a seal of approval and are guaranteed to work flawlessly with your iPhone.
5 sure-fire ways to extend your iPhone’s battery life1. Turn down the brightness of your iPhone’s displaySince the process of lighting up the display uses more power than any app, adjusting your iPhone’s auto-brightness settings is a great way to reduce battery usage. Auto-brightness dims the screen based on the amount of ambient light
Your surroundings, but in full sunlight, the brightness is turned all the way up. To avoid unnecessary power consumption during the day, find some shade and lower the brightness slider in the Control Center menu.
2. Enable low-power mode in iOSLow Power Mode was added to iOS 9 to squeeze every last drop of power out of your iPhone by limiting power-hungry background processes. Normally, it’ll ask to activate when your battery drops below 20%, but you can always activate it manually if you’re having a long day. To toggle low-power mode, just go into Settings > Battery and flip the switch.
3. Update iOS to the latest versionKeeping iOS up to date is generally a sound approach, as each system update is bound to fix bugs and improve performance. When your phone runs efficiently, your battery has to do less work to keep everything running smoothly.
4. Avoid using iPhone in extreme temperaturesUsing your iPhone for extended periods of time in freezing weather or under strong direct sunlight will inevitably damage the Apple Cell Phone battery. While it won’t damage your device, battery capacity will decrease with greater exposure to extreme heat and cold temperatures. Try to keep your phone as close to room temperature as possible optimal for battery life and performance.
5. Check your iPhone’s battery usage listNot all apps are created the same, and unfortunately, they don’t all share Apple’s philosophy on power consumption.
Sometimes, background app processes get out of hand with too many location checks or notifications about network connections. To see which apps are using the most power, check Settings > iPhone Battery. If you have an app that keeps showing up near the top, even if you don’t use it, your best option might be to limit some of its functionality… or even delete it if it’s not absolutely necessary of).