For some smart phone users, every day is a battle to maintain the battery life of your device long enough to get home and recharge it. However, this is not a particularly convenient way to live your life. You might wonder if there are any ways to increase battery life and not have to worry about whether you will be able to make calls by the time you are on your way home from work. If you have an Android-based smart phone, there are some ways to help you do just that.The first thing you can do is adjust the brightness of your phone's display to an appropriate level for the situation you are in. When there is a lot of ambient light, such as when you are outdoors, you will need your screen to be bright. But if you are going to be indoors for an extended period, then this is not necessary. Some smart phones have an automatic brightness-adjustment feature, but for maximum battery life you should turn this off to avoid unnecessary fluctuations and high power consumption.
The next thing to do is disable the auto-sync option, so that applications are not constantly trying to use your data connection in the background, even while the phone is idle and the display is locked. These updates can quickly drain your battery and might also encroach on your monthly data allowance if you are not connected to a wi-fi network, so there are other benefits to disabling this.
Disabling the various connectivity capabilities of your Android device and only leaving them active when you need them will increase the amount of time between charges. Turn off things such as Bluetooth, wi-fi, GPS and even 3G if you are not going to be using them. A quick way to do this all at once is to turn on airplane mode, although this will of course prevent any calls or texts coming in to you. It might be a good option if you are not waiting for a particular call and you want to play a game or watch a movie during a long journey.
Multitasking is a great feature of Android. If, however, you have a lot of apps running in the background, this will not only hog your hardware resources but will also eat into your battery as your processor tries to keep up with its many jobs. There are apps such as Task Killer which promise to get rid of open programs, but even these can be an energy-sapping nuisance. It makes sense to go through your list of open apps manually and disable them as you see fit.
The ultimate solution to a low battery is to buy a second cell that is compatible with your Android handset. You can keep it charged up as a replacement should you need to use your smart phone when you are away from a mains-power outlet or charging device for some reason. You do not necessarily have to use your smart phone sparingly, but careful use will pay dividends.
