User blog:Glflegolas/How to make batteries last longer

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If you're like most people (which, surprisingly, I am not), you probably carry around a smartphone (or other portable electronic device) around in your pocket these days. While these devices can be great if they're working, it's a real pain if the batteries die on you! As a battery researcher, here are some of my tips that'll help you extend the life of those batteries.

Capacity on one charge
Many of these tips are simply basic changes you can make to the settings on the device:
 * If you're somewhere where there's no WiFi, don't leave it on all the time. Scanning for networks uses up power.
 * Don't leave GPS on all the time, as it uses a lot of power.
 * Leave Bluetooth off unless you're actually using it.
 * Turn down the screen brightness to a level where you can still read it, but isn't excessively bright.
 * Change e-mail sync time to 30 minutes from 5 minutes or so.
 * Reduce the volume on your headphones.
 * Set the phone's screen so it turns off after 2 minutes of inactivity instead of a longer period of time.
 * Turn the phone off at night. You won't be taking calls anyways, and you might even sleep better.
 * Avoid doing CPU-intensive tasks on the battery (i.e. high-performance gaming) as that'll consume a lot of power.

Cycling life
All batteries lose charge capacity over time, for various reasons (read my papers if you'd like to know more). In fact, if you still retain 80% of capacity over 500 full charge/discharge cycles, you're doing very well. If that's not good enough for your liking, try the following:
 * If the device still has a decent amount of charge in it, don't charge it fully. Keeping the battery's state of charge between 40 and 80% will make it last the longest.
 * Do not place batteries in hot locations (for example, leaving it in your car that's parked in the sun). Temperatures over 50oC make batteries wear out much faster.
 * The worst treatment for any Li-ion battery is to charge it fully, and place it in a hot location.

I hope you find these tips useful!

Glflegolas (admin) Send a Messenger  16:13, April 27, 2017 (UTC)