The length of time that a cell phone battery lasts depends on a variety of things. Battery life can be influenced by the type of the cell phone, the type battery, the age of the battery, the applications being used on the phone, even the temperature where the phone is stored and used can impact battery life. 

You can easily extend the life of your cell phone battery by understanding what causes them to degrade. Batteries degrade over time, meaning that overtime a battery loses it's ability to hold a charge. Each time your cell phone "cycles" it's capacity diminishes. A single battery's "cycle" is completely depleting and completely recharging the battery's charge.

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations without a charger and a low cell phone battery. There are several easy things you can do to maximize and preserve a cell phone's battery life. 

Keep Firmware Up to Date
Major cell phone manufacturers often release firmware/software updates. Keeping your cell phone up to date with the latest iOS or firmware can sometimes improve the efficacy of the battery and extend life. 

Close Background Apps
Determine what applications utilize your phone in the background. Most popular cell phones have a screen that allows you to determine battery usage, for example on samsung phones it is under "device maintenance". The screen will show you what applications are utilizing your cell phone's battery in the background. Close any applications that are running in the background and utilizing the phone's battery.

Dim Screen Brightness
The brighter the screen settings the more battery the cell phone utilizes. Dim the cell phone's screen brightness to preserve battery life.

Turn-off Auto Update
Constantly checking for program or data updates (like email) will drain a cell phone's battery. Turn-off any applications that routinely check for automatic updates.

Turn-off Vibrate
Turn off the vibration setting. Believe it or not, a ringtone uses less battery than the "vibrate" setting.

Good Signal Strength
Only attempt to utilize your cell phone when there is a strong cell signal.  If you do not have a strong signal and are attempting to connect to the Internet or cell towers, you will find it drains your battery.  

Turn-off Location Services / GPS
GPS and any applications that utilize location services will drain the phone's battery quickly. Disable the GPS or location services settings on your cell phone to conserve battery life.

Disable Wi-Fi
If you are not using it, turn off the cell phone's Wi-Fi signal in order to  prolong the phone's battery life.

Disable Bluetooth
If you are not using it, turn off the cell phone's bluetooth, in order to maximize the cell phone's battery life.

Turn-off Push Notifications
Turn off any applications that have "push notifications", this could be a stock monitoring application or reminder alerts.

Avoid Temperature Extremes
You may have observed that the battery runs down much faster when it is hot. Also, charging your phone in a very cold environment can cause it to charge very slowly. Cold charging also may makes the battery lose capacity over time.

Responsible Charging
Utilize only reliable charging devices. There are a number of 3rd party chargers that can generate excess heat and damage a cell phone’s battery.

It is difficult to estimate how long a phone's battery will last because there are simply too many factors involved. There are however things within your control that will allow you to extend the cell phone's battery life.

Article Date: June 12, 2020