Optimizing Phone Battery Part 2

[ajitsaria]

Continued from Part 1

Use a Black Wallpaper and/or Night Mode

Samsung’s latest “One UI” software experience has an excellent Dark Mode or Dark Theme. And for those unaware, dark mode saves a significant amount of battery life. If you can get used to the changes, we suggest using it 24/7. Go to Settings > Display > and turn on Night Mode.

While we’re on the topic of the display and dark colors, did you know using black wallpaper makes a big difference too? Samsung’s AMOLED screen technology is different from a typical LCD display. It’s easier and more efficient at showing black, instead of colors. Plus, the pixels don’t need to turn on individually — or as high — to display a black image. This is why every app from Samsung (and Google) now have a dark mode, and it’s why dark themes are so popular later.

With a huge screen on all three S20 models, the display will take up the most battery, so using darker colors and wallpapers will make a big impact on improving battery life.

Watch Your Screen Brightness & Sleep Timer

Aside from rebooting your phone perhaps the single biggest improvement you can make to get better Galaxy battery life is to simply learn to use your phone at a lower screen brightness. It amazes me how often a family member complains their phone dies too quickly, but they’re at 100% screen brightness. Seriously, you don’t need it that high, and it’s probably burning a hole in your retina.

My phone NEVER goes above 40% brightness. Never.

Plus, did you know most people turn on their phones at least 140 times a day? And that’s usually just to check the time, date, or glance at a notification. Then, once you’re done checking that notification you probably just set the phone down, and the screen stays on for 1, 2, or even 5 minutes until it times out and goes black. This is known as the Sleep Timer and changing it to 30 seconds can save you a TON of battery.

Samsung calls this the “screen timeout” which is how long the phone stays on after each use before the screen dims and turns off by itself. We recommend 30 seconds or 1-minute at the most. And while the Always-On display makes us turn on the screen less, you’ll still want to adjust the sleep timer and your screen brightness.

You can gain an extra hour or two each day by using a lower screen brightness and having your phone screen timeout after 30 seconds of inactivity.

Adjust WiFi, GPS, & Bluetooth Settings (and any carrier junk)

Most savvy tech users know that WiFi is more efficient than the internet connection from carrier Mobile Data. When you’re at home or Office, always be connected to your WiFi instead of a carrier network. This makes a significant difference in how long your phone lasts, especially at night. Plus, it saves your data plan.

However, if you’re not going to use things like WiFi or Bluetooth at all, turn them off. It’s rare that we don’t use WiFi these days, but it does happen. You don’t want it scanning for a connection all day long, right?

Next, anything that uses GPS like Google Maps or Facebook Messenger can and will destroy battery life. Keep in mind that some apps or games need GPS, and maps are more accurate with it, but you can still disable the GPS chip in many circumstances. Head to Settings > Privacy & safety > Location > and select Location Method, then choose “Battery Saver” or the middle WiFi and Mobile networks option.

Most people never take advantage of battery saver modes or even the “Power Saver” option in settings, but you should. The two work together to keep our devices lasting longer than ever before. I don’t change power modes often as it changes the resolution and might move your icons around, but battery saver is an amazing tool I use all the time.

Under Settings > Device Care > Battery you’ll find a few Power modes. These will change the screen brightness and resolution or even slow down the processor to extend battery life throughout the day.

At the bottom of the battery settings page is Google’s Adaptive power saving which will automatically adjust things like battery and performance based on your usage patterns. It’s actually pretty helpful, and that’s on top of Samsung’s own optimizations. Try one or both if you’re not happy with battery life. We use both with great results, and the update to One UI made it even better.

Other Battery Tips & Tricks

Another thing to consider is Bixby, Samsung’s virtual assistant. Don’t use the always-listening wake commands, as that’s one more thing always-on and listening. In fact, we recommend you completely disable Bixby.

If you’re more tech-savvy you can try going into the settings menu and disabling 5G, making your phone only use 4G LTE, disable the 120Hz display, or go into developer options and tweak some things. That said, just be careful messing around with settings.

In closing, don’t forget to use Airplane mode when you have no reason to use your phone. This setting turns off all data, radios, services and more and most phones can last 4-5 days with it enabled. You can turn on airplane mode while you recharge your phone too, to top it off even faster.

Another thing we tell people with a brand new phone is that your battery life will get better after the first week. It’s still new and you’re using it more than usual, plus the software is still learning your habits. Over time it’ll start to last longer.