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As phones get smarter and cooler like the new breed of Android phones, inevitably play, showing off to friends and colleagues and even competing with iPhone users is going to have it’s drawbacks.  The culprit here is the dreaded battery life.

Well, you cannot have a small, sleek, Android smartphone and a battery that lasts for a month on a single charge.  That is going to be one bulky battery, not very practical at all.  So, we will have to live with some limitations until advances in technology are made.

However, it does not mean play time on the Android phone is limited to only an hour a day.  There are several things you can do to maximize the battery life.

1.  Use Wi-Fi when you really need it.  If this is enabled then the phone scans for available networks and this uses a lot of battery power.

2.  Turn down screen brightness or the backlight.

3.  Check the apps that are running and especially the ones that are syncing far more frequently.  This applies to email (not Gmail) and soical-networking apps like Facebook or Twitter.  Use the Android power widget and the task manager .

4.  Disable bluetooth if you don’t need it or use it.

5.  Animated wallpapers may be cool and fun, but these require a lot of battery power.

6.  Tried some fun apps when you first got the phone and have forgotten all about it now.  Then it’s about time you disabled them as it is probably still running in the background.  This uses up both the phone’s CPU and battery.

7.  Kill those unused widgets on your home screen, especially the ones which pull data from the web constantly.

8.  Do you really need to GPS turned on when you are stuck in the office or relaxing at home?  There are a lot of applications that use the GPS location to provide content like weather.  GPS services via satellites drain the battery quite quickly.

This is in no way a comprehensive list, but it can certainly go a long way to keep your Android phone running without losing power.  Also take a look at our previous post, “How to Maximize your Smartphone’s Battery Life?”.

If you need a quick charge or a boost of power then do consider one of the many USB chargers and USB external batteries from Duracell.  That is, if your Android phone can be charged through the USB port (most likely to be a mini or micro USB port).

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.