Phone battery drains quickly: How to extend battery life?

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Batterij telefoon snel leeg: Hoe kun je de batterijduur verlengen?

Does your smartphone battery often run out quickly? There are a number of things you can do to ensure that your phone runs out less quickly. We have listed the main reasons and give you possible solutions directly.

  • Battery age
  • Brightness of your screen
  • Apps running in the background
  • Bluetooth, wifi & gps
  • Poor reception

Battery age

One of the most common causes of a battery that runs out quickly is old age. Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about this. It is normal for a battery to wear out gradually. There are a number of things you can do to ensure that your battery wears out less quickly. This will make your battery last a lot longer:

Avoid high and low temperatures

Your phone's battery does not cope well with high temperatures. When the temperature of a battery regularly rises above 35 degrees, the battery will wear out much faster. Therefore, do not leave your phone in the sun when the weather is very hot. When it is very cold, your battery will last less long, but this does not cause permanent wear. For example, you can keep your phone in your trouser pocket at very low temperatures. This keeps your phone warm with your own body heat.

Doesn't charge your phone to 100%

Most wear and tear when charging your phone occurs between 0%-20% and 80%-100%. Therefore, it is wise to only charge your phone to 80% and not let it go below 20%. Most modern phones have a built-in protection for this, which reduces wear and tear. However, it is wise not to fully charge your phone too often and therefore not to let it run out completely.

Battery worn out?

If your battery is worn out after a few years of use, you don't have to buy a new phone right away. For example, you can choose to replace just the battery of your phone. This is often a lot cheaper than buying a completely new phone and is also better for the environment.

Another option is to use a power bank. With a charged power bank in your pocket, you don't have to worry about an empty smartphone. A power bank quickly extends your battery life by 1.5 to 4 times (depending on the battery capacity of the power bank and your phone).

Never run out of battery again?

Brightness of your screen

The biggest power user of your phone is the screen. The battery will therefore drain much faster when you use the screen of your phone a lot. Lowering the brightness of your screen makes the battery last a lot longer. This is not only good for your battery, but also better for your eyes. When your screen is set very bright, this puts more strain on your eyes and they get tired faster.

Many smartphones have an automatic brightness function that adjusts the brightness of your screen to the light in the environment (day/night). If you activate this function, you don't have to think about adjusting the brightness yourself and you can't forget about it.

You can also set an automatic screen lock. This will reduce the time your screen is on, which will ultimately save a lot of battery life.

Apps running in the background

Some apps use a lot of power in the background. This can drain your phone very quickly, even if you don't use it much. You can check which apps use a lot of power in your settings. To see this, go to:

Android: Settings > Battery > Battery usage per app

iPhone: Settings > Battery

If an app that you don't need much is using a lot of power, you can set it to not be allowed to do any activities in the background. This will stop the app from using power when you don't have the app open.

Bluetooth, wifi & gps

Certain functions of your smartphone use a lot of power. For example, when you are connected to another device via Bluetooth. Note that the Bluetooth function also uses power when it is only turned on, even without being connected to another device. That is why it is smart to only turn on Bluetooth when you actually use it. The same applies to WiFi and GPS. Both functions can use a lot of power in the background, without you actually using them. You can also easily solve this by putting your phone on airplane mode when you are not using your phone.

Poor reception

If you have poor reception, but still have your wifi or 4G/5G on, this also costs extra power. This is because your phone will then make extra efforts to connect to a network. So if you have very poor reception, it is also smart to turn on airplane mode.

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