Why do your tablet and phone need plugging in every day? Actually, they don’t. Jane Hoskyn reveals how to double your battery life, or even make it last for days
Scientists can explore Pluto and even do head transplants, but they still can’t make a tablet battery last for a couple of days without having to plug it in.
OK, you could make your battery last for weeks if you were to close all apps, switch on aeroplane mode and leave it in the sock drawer. But if you do that you might as well not have a tablet at all.
Many of the best ways to make your battery last longer are well-known – don’t run a zillion apps at once, for example. So we won’t insult your intelligence by filling two pages with them, but we will start with a few basic battery tips you may have forgotten. Then we’ll reveal the latest battery tricks, including a couple of hacks the manufacturers don’t want you to know.
EVERYDAY BATTERY TIPS
Kill your brightness
Certain battery-saving tips have been around since the dawn of 1G (yep, there was a 1G: www.snipca.com/17537), but many are as relevant as ever. First, turn your screen brightness down.
In Android, you can quickly access the brightness slider from any screen by swiping down from the top with two fingers. In iOS, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and move the slider.
Use the lowest setting that’s comfortable for your eyes. Keep it especially low if you’re reading in bed at night. A bright screen at night is as bad for your eyes as it is for your battery, and can prevent you getting a good night’s sleep (here’s a detailed study in PDF format: www.snipca.com/17540).
Use plane common sense
Short of actually switching off your tablet, the best way to extend its battery life is to switch to ‘Aeroplane mode’ (or ‘Airplane mode’, to use the Americanised spelling you’ll see on some devices).
Aeroplane mode disables several battery-killers at once: Bluetooth (how often do you use it? Exactly); Wi-Fi (there’s no point having it switched on when you’re away from home, because your tablet will be constantly looking for Wi-Fi signals) and mobile data. Mobile data (3G/4G) is useful if you’re the type who checks Facebook constantly in the car, but we’re guessing you’re not.
You’ll find Android’s ‘Aeroplane mode’ switch by swiping down from the top of the screen, and iOS’s ‘Airplane mode’ switch by swiping up from the bottom.
Hide your location
GPS location services are now commonplace in tablets and phones, and they’re amazingly useful. Map apps, weather apps and, of course, live traffic apps such as Waze (www.waze.com), number 33 in our recent chart of the top 40 free apps, depend on location-detection – and can save you money on expensive in-car GPS devices. But GPS is a huge battery hog.
What’s more, having location services switched on by default compromises your privacy by embedding your whereabouts in every message you send, every photo you take and every move you make. And many apps that require location permissions have no reason for needing to know where you are.
To switch it off in Android, go to Settings, tap Location and then move the slider to Off. In iOS, go to Settings, tap Privacy, tap Location Services and then switch it to Off. This will disable location services for all apps.
NEWER BATTERY TRICKS
Use location without GPS
In iOS 7 and 8 there’s an easy way to prevent location services draining your battery – enable it for certain apps only. Very few apps actually need to know your location. Weather apps, maps apps and not many others.
Android doesn’t give you this choice (a rare case of Android giving you less control than iOS). However Android Lollipop has a ‘Battery saving’ mode that dramatically cuts the power cost of location services by forcing them to use Wi-Fi and, if you allow it, mobile data instead of GPS (a rare case of Android Lollipop giving you something to smile about). Android now also lets you see which apps and tools are having the greatest impact on your battery.
To enable this mode, go to Settings, then Location and move the switch to On. On the ‘Location mode’ screen that appears, tap ‘Battery saving’. You can also opt to use GPS only, and not Wi-Fi or mobile data. This is useful if you don’t have internet access, but it’s a big battery drain.
Hack Aeroplane mode to use Wi-Fi
You can actually turn on Wi-Fi when you’re in Aeroplane/Airplane mode. Mobile data is still disabled completely, but it means you can use Wi-Fi with minimal impact on the battery.
To do this in iOS, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and tap the Airplane icon so it goes white. The Wi-Fi icon will automatically go grey. Then tap the Wi-Fi icon and it’ll turn white again, so you can get online.
In Android, swipe down from the top of the screen, tap ‘Aeroplane mode’ and then tap the Wi-Fi icon. We had to do this a couple of times before it would come on, so it may be best to wait a minute after switching to Aeroplane mode before trying to switch on Wi-Fi.
Be aware that this trick will reduce your tablet or phone’s performance by limiting most background data. If you just want a few more hours (or even days) of battery life to read an ebook, reduced performance shouldn’t worry you much. It might force you to cut down on your video-selfie-sharing habit, though. (We’re joking.)
Don’t believe the auto-brightness hype
Android and Apple both recommend using automatic (or ‘adaptive’) brightness settings to save your battery, but we don’t. Auto-settings draw on your device’s sensors and involve background process that run constantly and drain your battery. Choose your own brightness to suit your eyes and save your battery.
Ditch notifications
Notifications are supposed to be useful. Actually, they’re battery-draining irritants. Worse, they can ruin your day. Earlier this summer, I was recording the Wimbledon final to watch after doing the shopping, and a BBC News notification spoiled the result for me while I was in the Asda queue. You can not be serious!
Even those notifications you actually enjoy getting, such as Facebook ‘likes’ and family emails, aren’t necessary. Why not just check these apps manually? Your battery will benefit greatly, and people will enjoy your company much more if you’re not constantly looking at your tablet or phone screen.
In iOS, go to the Notification Centre and choose None. In Android, go to Settings, ‘Sound & notification’, ‘App notifications’ and block notifications for apps you don’t want to hear from. Some devices bury notification settings in obscure places, so explore your tablet or phone’s settings for the easiest notification-killing method.
GREAT APPS, SHAME ABOUT THE BATTERY
We love these free apps, but they don’t half murder batteries…
SKYPE: Skype’s app (www.snipca.com/17543) lets you make free video and audio calls via Wi-Fi or mobile data. Great – but doing so for hours on end is wanton battery abuse.
PUSHBULLET: Our favourite free app of all time (www.pushbullet.com/apps) gobbles battery life, especially if you use it to share photos and videos (to be fair, the same goes for other media-sharing apps). To avoid battery problems, close it when you’re not using it.
CHROME: On some devices, Chrome’s app (www.snipca.com/17544) launches multiple windows when it really only needs to launch one. This idea is that separate windows don’t clutter your screen like tabs, but the result is harder work for your tablet.
FACEBOOK: Facebook’s app tops charts of batteryeating apps simply because people use it for hours on end (AVG Android App Performance Report, www.snipca.com/17545).