By Cindy Wu
A few days ago, Apple announced three new iPhone models. The home button is officially dead and new devices going forward will start using Face ID as the primary unlock system. They will also release an updated Apple Watch later this month. But I believe the greatest area for potential growth and currently most neglected aspect of the iPhone, which I don’t see with this year’s new iPhones – is increased battery life. It is no doubt that the iPhone is an amazing piece of technology, but once its out of battery, it is little more than metal-and-glass slabs. There are many simple tips to improve the battery life of your iPhone devices, and today I will show you some of them.
#1 Don’t bother quitting apps
iPhone users tend to quit apps we aren’t using as it seems like a logical way to stop them sucking away at the battery. Unless you have enabled background app refresh, your apps are not allowed to run in the background except when they are playing music, using location services, recording audio, etc. Closing apps does not do anything for battery life.
#2. Turn on low power mode
You can enable Low Power Mode without waiting for your iPhone to reach 20%. Go to Settings -> Battery and turn on Low Power Mode. When Low Power Mode is on it will reduce power consumption, stopping Mail fetch, Hey Siri, background app refresh, automatic downloads, and some visual effects. Although features may already be turned off on our iPhone already, Low Power Mode still has an effect.
#3. Turn down brightness
Screen is one of your iPhone’s primary power drains. Lighting pixels on the device requires a significant amount of energy. In testing, excessive screen brightness was the single biggest iPhone battery killer.
You can save some battery life by manually adjusting the iPhone’s brightness. A quick fix is to turn down brightness using the slider in Control Center, accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the display. Drag the brightness slider down as far possible without leaving your device too dim.
You could also open the Settings app, access Display & Brightness and turn off True Tone (this may be Auto-Brightness on older models). This will stop your phone from turning up the brightness every time it deems necessary. Apple maintains that auto-brightness is designed to conserve battery life so if you find that turning Auto-brightness on dims your iPhone screen then you are probably best leaving it be.
#4. Turn down volume
It might surprise you, but the volume setting affects battery life too, so if you are playing music or other audio from your phone, turn it down using the volume buttons. Tap Settings -> Music and make sure EQ(music equalizer) is turned off.
