Saving Battery Power: Make Your Phone's Battery Life Last Longer

In the age of smartphones, people have really become cell phone charger carriers. I carry my charger to school with me, because my phone needs to be charged every six hours or so. It can get really irritating, trust me, especially since some of my teachers have a real problem with cell phones in the classroom, even when they're not in use. It's unnecessary to have my phone during school hours, I know, but it's comforting to know it's always on me, and that it's charged and ready to go should I need it. For others who travel a lot, conduct business over great distances, or for those who work at home, it's really important for them to stay connected via cell phone (Of course, there are loads of other people who need almost constant cell phone service, but these are just a few). For those who need to be connected most of the time, it can be really troublesome to have to charge your phone all the time. In light of this age where cell phones have more advanced technology than the first space shuttle, I've decided to put together a short list of things you can do to extend your phone's battery life.

1. Just Turn it Off! - It seems pretty obvious, though some of us are still not partial to doing it. When your phone isn't in use, or you don't want to be available for a short while (meetings, sleeping, etc) just shut your phone off. It helps extend your battery's physical life as well as conserving battery power for the time being.

2. Run Your Phone Entirely Dead Before Recharging - It almost sounds counterproductive, I know, but in an engineering class I took, we learned about how cell phones set themselves a "zero" point when it comes to battery life. When you're constantly charging your phone after it loses only a portion of it's battery, you reset that "zero" to whatever point you charge it at frequently. If you repeatedly do so, the phone runs dead much faster, though it's capable of holding more juice. So run your phone completely dead, and then completely recharge it. I've made a special habit of doing this, and it always helps my battery last longer!

3. Turn Your Backlight Brightness Down - Seems a bit obvious, I know, but I've had my phone almost a year now and just got around to doing this recently. However, as soon as I did, I saw a drastic change in the life of my battery! I can go much longer without recharging it now. This tricks requires less power from your phone, because it reduces the amount of light behind the screen. So simple, but so effective!

4. Turn Off Bluetooth - If you have a headset you use for making calls, that's great! But when it's not in use, turn it off, because the connection between the phone and headpiece can really drain your battery. You can always turn it back on if you need to make or answer a call.

5. Turn Off Those Live Wallpapers! - Another obvious choice, I think, but I have to admit that I like to see the blades of grass waving in the "breeze" on my phone. However, moving or animated backgrounds require quite a bit of work for your phone, so choose one that doesn't have any of those features and it will definitely help your battery life.

These are just a few tips I've learned to keep you battery livelier longer. I've tried all of them, and my smartphone seems to last much longer between charges now. Keep to these tricks, and I’m sure yours will do the same. Good luck!