Gadgetory

do you have to deal with poor battery life on your Android phone I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and these are five easy habits to improve Android battery life with the exception of tablets and a few different smartphone models battery life on Android is widely accepted as rather poor for many a full day of use without needing a supplementary charge is a pipe dream created in the wake of hundreds of thousands of BlackBerry converts who took battery life for granted unfortunately there's no magic trick to make your phone last days upon days on a single charge unless of course you're okay with cutting off data and leaving in your pocket the whole time but that defeats the purpose of having a smart phone your best bet is to adopt some simple habits that help curb battery drain throughout the day the first of those habits should be learning to toggle settings and connections on as you need them for example flipping on Wi-Fi when you get home is probably second nature but getting into the habit of turning it off as you walk at the door might save some battery the same stands for Bluetooth GPS and even 4G all of these connections sip into your battery throughout the day and if you're not using them you might as well turn them off for those who don't want to have to remember this is why applications like Tasker exist Tasker is an automation application that allows users to program their phone to carry out tests based on other interactions or statuses for instance I have my phone set up to toggle Wi-Fi off and Bluetooth on when I open Spotify since that's how I listen to music in the car I also have it set to turn on GPS and Wi-Fi when I open Maps since both of these improved location services but if you're not looking to spend hours programming simple profiles and tasks for your phone to follow through different use cases simple widgets or paying the settings application a quick visit can accomplish the same thing so long as your memory serves you well one of the main causes of battery drain is the display especially in most recent models with five inch or larger displays and a 1080p pixel resolution jacking the brightness up to 100% will likely result in you being able to watch your remaining charge disappear before your eyes for most hours of the day I keep my display set to auto brightness this saves battery by adjusting the intensity of the brightness based on ambient lighting once the Sun Goes Down however I drag the brightness slider all the way to the left as low as it will go it's also a good idea to keep the display timeout set to one minute or less sitting down your phone with its display left on will cause unnecessary power drain or of course you could simply remember to bump the power button before you setting your phone down again if this is something you can't remember to do you can create a task or profile to adjust your screens brightness based on time location and a host of other variables Android typically does a great job of managing RAM and keeping tabs on things it keeps performance up and kills off any unnecessary background processes but sometimes applications get out of hand and they can take charge of your device even without opening an application one could be taking up RAM in the background and likewise chewing through your battery it's wise to keep an eye on your battery usage which is a built-in function of Android if an application you don't recall using has caused an alarming amount of battery drain you can either for stop it or if you don't need it uninstall it you can also install applications like watchdog which will monitor applications and notify you when one has gone rogue despite what you've been told you don't really need to condition your battery at least not that often it's not a bad idea to let it drain all the way when you first get it but it's not entirely necessary there are no real side-effects of not doing it those who say you should let your phone completely die and likewise those who say you should never let your phone's battery drain completely all wrong most modern smartphones are powered by lithium-ion cells to prolong the battery's lifespan it's best to give your battery some exercise don't fall into a routine plug it up when it's almost dead next time charge it when it's near 50% let it die completely from time to time and don't be afraid to top off before you leave the house or office no battery is gonna last forever but charging a lithium-ion battery exactly the same every time can negatively impact the longevity so change it up often and don't leave it plugged in all the time lastly and unfortunately one of the greatest aspects of Android the utility of its home screen is also one of the many culprits to blame for battery drain widgets and live wallpapers can both be useful and look cool but they can also drain battery the more you have running on your home screens the more drain you're likely going to see there's no need to go off the deep end and delete everything off your home screen but if you have widgets or icons not using remove them from the homescreen and simply rely on the app drawer to do its job I for one have consolidated my homescreen down to a single page with two simple widgets and a row of folders my absolute bare minimum these steps aren't gonna make your phone last days on end but it might be just enough to make your phone last throughout the day so that's it for this video be sure to give it a thumbs up if you like what you saw and subscribe to the channel you can find this on your favorite social networks Google+ Twitter and Facebook at simply PocketNow I'm Taylor Martin and I will see you next time