Extend your phone battery life

Shooting a quick film on your smartphone and your battery runs out. Damn it! Check out our top 5 tips on extending battery life for your phone model.

iPhone 

iPhone's are by far the most popular smartphone out at the moment, but all the great features they possess take up so much battery life!

• Turn off air drop - Air Drop in discoverable mode will put a heavy toll on your battery so switch it off when it's not in use.

What is airdrop?

• Turn off frequent locations - iPhone will learn your frequent locations and attempt to 'personalise' them. Although this is handy, it is also unnecessary and can be switched off in settings > Privacy > Location services > System services
• Disable vibrations - Turning off vibrations will save you valuable battery life. You can turn this off under settings > sound.
• Adjust screen brightness - From the display and brightness menu, reduce the screen brightness - This saves lots of battery!
• Reduce auto lock period - Adjust your auto lock period so the display turns off and locks the device when you aren't using. Set this to 1 or 2 minutes.

Samsung 

Samsung is your backup model if you can't get your hands on an iPhone for some reason. Their high quality cameras make shooting a quick video so simple and professional looking.

• Stop auto-syncing data - Applications such as email, calendar, contacts and Facebook are auto-synced using the mobile or Wi-Fi network. 
• Ultra power saving mode - This is useful when you are running really low on battery but need it to last that little bit longer. It turns your display to black and white and prevents all services from running in the background. With only 10% of battery remaining, this setting will give you over 24 hours of standby time.

Find Out More

• Play store updates - Set your play store updates to only auto-update when in WiFi range.
• Turn off air wake up - Smart stay will detect when you're looking at your screen and remain on when it detects you without auto locking. This feature uses your forward facing camera so disabling it will reduce power usage.
• Change your background - Switch from live wallpapers to static images or optimally to a black background.

Nokia 

At one point, Nokia was considered a phone of the Stone age, but they've made a comeback with their 'Lumia' range featuring the Windows interface. It's now considered one of the slickest and most updated phones.

• Battery saver - The battery saver mode automatically disables background sync, stops applications running in the background and stops updating live tiles. You can set this to do automatically by selecting 'Always turn on battery saver'.
• Limit what you pin to start - Pinning things to start allows you to access them quickly, but the more you have, the more battery it uses.
• Turn off WiFi - Your phone will search for a WiFi signal even when there isn't one available so if you know you don't want to use WiFi then switch it off.
• Switch off services - Unless you are actively using them, switch off services such as Bluetooth.
• Reduce screen time-out - Set a shorter screen time-out duration and set your phone to lock.

Sony Xperia 

The first Sony Xperia was released in 2008 as an intention to fill the widening gap of smartphones between high end smartphone devices such as apple. Now Sony is a popular choice amongst phone fanatics.

• Play store updates - Set your play store updates to only auto-update when in WiFi range.
• STAMINA mode - Switch it on from the power management settings, this feature optimises battery lifetime when the screen has been turned off for a few minutes. When the screen is off,  WiFi and data traffic will temporarily be disabled and most applications will be inactive.

How does STAMINA work?

• Restrict background apps - Navigated by hitting the menu button when on the data usage settings screen. Toggle 'Restrict background data' off which stops all your apps updating in the background/
• Turn off GPS accuracy - Many apps use features other than GPS to improve location accuracy. Location mode from the settings menu will allow you to toggle this off to conserve more battery.
• Disable vibrations - This is quite self explanatory, putting your phone on complete silence will save your battery.

Blackberry 

The blackberry model may not be as popular as it used to be, but those who love it, love it! The easy to use keypad makes it hard for people to switch to touch screen. Although, the later models of blackberry do now operate a touch screen system as well as the physical keypad.

• Reduce back light timeout - Adjust your back light time out so the display turns off when you aren't using it, reduce this down to less than 30 seconds.
• Use bedside mode - Accessed via Clock>Options, Bedside mode will let you automatically turn off the device LED and the radio as well as dimming the screen.
• Background app refresh - If background app refresh is switched on, this allows apps to refresh their content or use location services even when not in use. Many apps constantly refresh at set intervals and slowly chip away at battery life you could be saving.
• Adjust screen brightness - From the screen display settings menu, reduce the back light brightness. Lighting up your phone screen takes lots of battery!
• Switch off services - Unless you are actively using them, switch off services such as Bluetooth, LTE and NFC.

HTC 

HTC is one of the less popular phone makes yet a number of people still seem to use one. It's simple interface makes using a smartphone slightly easier for a newbie.

• Power saving mode - HTC's power saving mode is a quick fix to improving battery life. Once switched on, the screen will automatically become dimmer . If you touch 'Power Saver', you can see the features and can toggle these on and off.

How To Use Power Saving Mode

• Turn off GPS Accuracy - You can do this under location mode in the settings menu. By doing this, you will conserve more battery.
• Play store updates - Set your updates to only auto-update when within reach of WiFi
• Stop auto-syncing data - Applications including email, calendar and Facebook all auto sync using Wi-Fi, by turning this off you'll save lots of battery.
• Disable vibrations - As with most smartphones, this is the most simple way to save on your battery life. 

Out of all of the above models, the Samsung actually has the best battery life so if you're looking to invest into a smartphone to shoot your videos on, we'd certainly recommend the Samsung. You can also find out more about purchasing music for iPhone's in our help section.


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