12 ways to make your device’s battery last longer in 2020

A smartphone battery these days lasts about 500 full charge/discharge cycles. It doesn’t really matter how often you recharge the phone. If you’re seeing your phone last about 550 days on average, there’s an awfully good chance you run the battery down nearly every day. The kind of life you’re seeing is expected behavior.

So what can you do to make the battery last longer? There are a few things one can do in 2020 but unfortunately, some of these aren’t so easy to achieve.

1. Li-ion batteries have two different aging mechanisms. Your battery will last longer if you avoid letting the charge drop close to 0% (it never actually will get to 0%, but your phone’s version of 0% is close enough). On the other end, it ages faster when charged above around 3.92V, which is about at the 80% mark.
2. If you only charge to 80%, of course, even if you run down your battery each day, you’re still only using 80% of a full charge. So your 550-day life will go to 660 days.
3. When your phone is plugged in and not working hard, it’s also not draining your battery. However, it will be charging your battery, most likely, so you’re kind of stuck either way.
4. Watch your cellular connection. The cellular network radio is one of the largest power drains in your phone, worst-case. The power levels received at your connected cell tower are used by that tower to instruct your phone’s modem to raise or lower power. Use LTE over HPSA if you have a reasonably modern phone. And if you’re not on a good cellular signal, use WiFi if possible.
5. Figure out your peak use occasions, and plug-in for those. For example, I use my phone Google Maps every now and then when driving. The GPS device is fairly power-hungry, and of course, Spotify radio is moving in and out of cellular ranges. You might save a little power, too, if you download your route before traveling.
6. Use it less. If you’re not running down the battery every day, the battery will last longer. And understand what actually eats power. Use WiFi calling when available, set your screen brightness down a bit, and you might be there.
7. Use two devices. Figure out where you’re busting the most power on your phone and maybe do it on another device. Seeing a big drain on the camera app? Get a real camera. Playing too many games? How about a portable game console or a tablet? Is it the SatNav function? Use a stand-alone.
8. Buy a phone with a larger battery. For the same power load, if you’re getting 550 days on a 3,000mAh battery, you ought to see 733 days with a 4,000mAh battery.
9. Get a phone with a swappable battery, if they still actually exist. This way you can swap a battery in 30 seconds, and if I need a new one, they’re like UGX 30k-50k. So the longevity doesn’t matter, and because I have several batteries, it is spread across those several batteries in any case.
10. Some phones are adjusting their charging algorithms to enhanced battery life. Apple’s iOS, as of iOS 13, will avoid charging your phone past 80% when left on power at night. It’ll learn when you normally grab the phone in the morning and ensure it’s at 100% by then, but no sooner. This sort of thing has to be managed in the phone since the phone is the battery charger.
11. Don’t let your phone overheat. All of the things that are bad for your phone’s battery longevity get worse when it’s at high temperatures.
12. Don’t store the phone, if you ever do, with the battery at 100%. If you’re going to leave it for a few days for some reason, put it away at below 80% charge.