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iPhone Battery Life: Top Tricks
With each and every new version of the iPhone’s operating system “iOS” there comes a barrage of blog articles that summarize the latest and greatest tips for a decent iPhone battery life, or claim to have found the holy grail of reducing iPhone battery drain. The truth of the matter: iPhone veterans have known most of those tricks for years, apart from the version specific changes that are related to new features. You too can learn to manage your iPhone battery like a pro! Here’s an extensive guide on iPhone battery life and how to make the most of it.
Disabling features that can cause iPhone battery drain
Apart from malfunctions and a defective battery or misbehaving app (here’s how to close apps), the most common cases of battery drain are rooted in certain software and hardware features. Good news: You can toggle a huge percentage of the drainers and manage them yourself, instead of letting the system control them. These are the ones that make the most impact on your battery, in order of importance:
- Screen Brightness: By far the biggest cause of battery drain. Try to keep the brightness at a comfortable minimum at all times and make use of the automatic brightness feature.
- Cellular Data: If you can dispense with mobile internet features and choose to only enable Cellular Data from the “Settings” app when needed, you will notice an increase in battery life. Of course, this is only a measure for appropriate situations, as most of the time you might want to take advantage of the full spectrum of functionality.
- Bluetooth: Keep it disabled if you don’t use it, otherwise the bluetooth radio will be “discoverable” and your iPhone will try to communicate with nearby accessories, which drains some of battery capacity.
- WiFi: Switch it on as needed, use the Control Center for micromanagement.
- Equalizer (Music App): Using the equalizer costs a few cpu cycles and is noticeable when looking at the power usage of the device. Try to keep it switched off or only enable as needed.
Software features that can cause shorter iPhone battery life
A little effort and routine on your side and you’ll know exactly how your device responds to every feature. Here is a list of common iPhone battery drain causes that can be easily disabled.
- Disable “Background App Refresh”
- Having your apps download data in the background is handy for keeping them up-to-date, but not ultimately necessary. Disable “Background App Refresh” globally or only enable it for the apps that really need it.
How to deactivate: Settings > General > Background App Refresh
- Having your apps download data in the background is handy for keeping them up-to-date, but not ultimately necessary. Disable “Background App Refresh” globally or only enable it for the apps that really need it.
- Disable “Location Services”
- Using the “Location Services” requires several hardware components and fires up your WiFi, mobile Data and GPS at the same time, if available. While using navigation apps is known to be a huge power drain, many users forget that their apps are using periodic position tracking as well.
How to deactivate: Settings > Privacy > Location Services
- Using the “Location Services” requires several hardware components and fires up your WiFi, mobile Data and GPS at the same time, if available. While using navigation apps is known to be a huge power drain, many users forget that their apps are using periodic position tracking as well.
- Disable “AirDrop”
- AirDrop allows you to exchange files between iOS devices and periodically scans the environment for potential recipients of your latest funny images or awesome photography. While useful, we recommend to toggle it as needed via the Control Center.
How to deactivate: Swipe up (Control Center) > AirDrop > Off
- AirDrop allows you to exchange files between iOS devices and periodically scans the environment for potential recipients of your latest funny images or awesome photography. While useful, we recommend to toggle it as needed via the Control Center.
- Disable “Parallax”
- While pretty to look at, the 3D effect on your Home Screen uses the accelerometer to estimate the right math behind pretending that you are looking at something with depth. The shifting in your wallpaper takes up quite a few resources and the zooming effect you get during transitions can also be omitted for better battery life.
How to deactivate: Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Reduce Motion
- While pretty to look at, the 3D effect on your Home Screen uses the accelerometer to estimate the right math behind pretending that you are looking at something with depth. The shifting in your wallpaper takes up quite a few resources and the zooming effect you get during transitions can also be omitted for better battery life.
- Disable “Push Notifications”
- Managing a list of apps that are allowed to send push notifications is key to good battery life. Simply disallow any spammy or overly active apps to send you notifications and you’re golden.
How to deactivate: Settings > Notifications
- Managing a list of apps that are allowed to send push notifications is key to good battery life. Simply disallow any spammy or overly active apps to send you notifications and you’re golden.
By the way, we also recommend our great guide on how to charge your iPhone far quicker than usual.