Duracell Direct Blog

You may have read our previous post, “Extend Your Digital Camera Battery’s Life“.  It was by no means an exhaustive list, but some useful tips to get more out of your digital camera battery.  Since smartphones are very popular, these days and not all built equal.  Indeed some have a very questionable battery life.

We are so attached to our smartphones now, that our lives would be unbearable without it.  Not a second passes by without checking emails on the Blackberry, playing with the latest app on iPhone, browsing the web, playing games or simply making calls.  All of these tasks eats away at the battery life at varying levels.  So, how do you maximize your smartphone’s battery life? Stop using it, well there is no need for such sarcasm.  A smartphone’s battery life is a very serious issue.

• Switch off WiFi, Bluetooth and IR, turn it on only when you need to use them.  The auto-scanning, auto-search features uses a lot of battery power.
• Limit wireless use if you really want to save battery life.  Use the your PC for updates, apps, music etc and then sync your smartphone by connecting to your PC.  This is usually faster.
• Depending on your device, set a longer period for fetching emails.  Unless you are really busy and need to see your emails as soon as they are sent.  Setting it to fetch every 2 minutes maybe a little excessive and is sure to contribute to lowering the battery power.
• Lower the backlight and screen brightness levels, especially with the new swanky LCD screens which just eat battery life like there’s no tomorrow.  Sure the photos don’t look the same, but you have to compromise, if you want to use your smartphone for longer periods.
• Check battery usage to see which apps or functions are using the most battery power.  As some apps may be running in the background and some may not have stopped properly.  In some smartphones if an app is not exited properly it keeps working in the background.
• GPS and A-GPS functions are cool and in some cases very helpful, but playing around with these on your walk home or to your friend’s house is going to drain the battery faster than you expect.  Limit the usage of these functions to when you are really lost or maybe a quick peek when you are showing off to your friends.
• Turn off vibrate when playing games on your smartphone.  If you really need to have a complete gaming experience then, you really should be using a Sony PS3, Xbox 360 or a Nintendo Wii.

You can always carry a spare battery or use clever battery chargers from Duracell.

The Duracell Pocket Charger or the Instant Charger are ideal, compact products that can be used to recharge devices that are powered through USB.  It may not provide power for a full day’s worth of surfing using WiFi and playing games, but it will certainly provide power to make a few quick calls, send a few text messages and check emails.  Perhaps, it will last till you get to a power source.

Keep your smartphone charged up and stay connected, so that you don’t feel as if all your limbs were cut off.