Why Doesn’t My Battery Last Very Long?
After what was a record-breaking Black Friday Weekend, we took some time to address the most common issues that affect our customers & phone users worldwide, the most apparent of which is inadequate battery life. So that’s the first issue we’ll be tackling in this post.
How Batteries Work
Lithium-Ion batteries are the rechargeable-power source of choice for mobile phones, tablets & laptops. This is because the electrodes within the battery are composed of Lithium & Carbon; meaning the battery can remain very light. In addition to this, Lithium has an extremely high energy density; 50% more so than an everyday nickel-metal hydride battery & 600% more than a lead acid battery.
The Lithium-Ion battery can also be recharged at any point, whereas other battery-types may need to be discharged fully before being recharged. They can handle hundreds of charge/discharge cycles at a time & hold their charge for a much longer period than any other.
Aside from this, there are some drawbacks to the Lithium-Ion battery. Firstly, they are expensive to manufacture because of the mini-computer inside that has to manage the batteries actions. In addition to this they will only last two to three years from the point of manufacture before they begin to expire.
Lastly of course, as we’ve been unfortunate enough to experience ourselves, there is a very small chance that these batteries can explode into flames. Be assured that this is a very rare occurrence that is often recognised as a manufacturing defect and amended before reaching the end consumer and spontaneously combusting in a heap of flames.
How to optimise your battery life
First of all, your old Nokia battery from 1997 still has 43% battery because the phone demands such little power on standby, not because the battery was so good! Believe it or not, modern smartphone batteries are much more powerful, but simply have so much more demand to cope with. With that being said, here’s some tips on making use of what you’ve got:
- Turn the screen brightness down. The stunning display on modern mobile phones consume more battery power than anything else. Using an auto-brightness tool or simply turning the screen brightness down when you’re using the phone will have a dramatic effect on battery life. Also, this may sound obvious, but lock the screen when you’re not using your phone.
- Turn off your Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Location, & Mobile Data. When you’re connecting your phone up to your car, you’ll need Bluetooth, but for the remaining 23 hours of the day, your phone will continue to search for external signals to connect to. The same principal applies to Wi-Fi, Location & Mobile Data. Most devices have a setting which enables the user to set the accuracy of their location tracking. Utilise this feature to stay on track when on a journey (high accuracy), but not drain the battery throughout the day (low accuracy).
You’ll be amazed at the extra lease of life your phone gains from simply turning off what you’re not using! IOS Devices have a control panel with all these features on that can be accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. Android Devices have this at the top – and can be added to the bottom in most cases.
- Clear you app history. Applications can continue to run in the background, this puts a strain on the battery. To do this on IOS, double tap the home button and clear the applications. On Android, you’ll either hold the home button or use the multi-tasking button.
- Don’t use non-genuine plugs or car chargers. The use of non-genuine & inappropriate plugs that are not optimised to charge your phones battery are not only dangerous, but damage your battery in the long term. Whilst in theory, modern smartphones should simply take in what they need, we’ve seen for ourselves that this isn’t the case, for whatever reason. If you need to charge your phone when you’re out and about, the use of a car charger is fine, but most car chargers continue to try & pump the battery full of power long-after reaching 100%, which cooks the battery. So use it as and when to top up the battery.
- The optimum charging cycle for your phone would be from 40%-80%, though this is by no means essential.
Don’t forget that a lot of phones have a built-in battery management that lets you see how your device is using your precious battery power.
Future Technology
Mobile Phone manufacturers & large technology companies such as Dyson are constantly investing millions of dollars in the form of Research & Development into developing better, longer-lasting batteries. The latest breakthrough in the battery world is the use of Graphene. Graphene is a very effective conductor that’s extremely strong, thin & flexible. However, it is very expensive to produce, but researchers are now making progress in producing graphene more easily with the use of copper foils. It seems that the technology is readily available (or at least on its way), and it’s just a case of manufacturing it on a large scale at a price that’s viable to the end consumer. New technologies such as the Lumopack, which can charge a phone in just 6 minutes, will also be of convenience to smartphone users in the very near future.
Battery Replacements
Most mobile phones’ batteries will start to diminish after two to three years. Because of this, all of our Refurbished Phones have new batteries fitted before being sent out, so check out our Used & Refurbished iPhones so that you can make a great saving without losing out on battery life.
We also replace batteries. Remember that we’re an iTechnican approved repair centre that replace phone batteries every day. For example, we’ll fit a genuine battery to your iPhone within the hour for just £29.99. See our mobile phone repairs here.
Talkback Team
