Battery Life
The battery is one of the most important parts of your phone. A bad battery can quite literally destroy your phone and there are many many ways to destroy your battery!
Overcharging
Do not leave your phone charging all day or overnight. Remove your device as soon as it is finished charging. This can be very difficult to do as we tend to get distracted by other things. Therefore, we recommend using a timer socket to charge your phone. Set the time to how long it takes your phone normally to charge or a bit less. Plug your phone in and you can rest assured your battery will not be overcharged. These timers can be set on a schedule using the app provided. You can set the timer to start and end close to when you wake up, so your phone battery will be as full as possible for the day.
Ideally, try to keep your battery between the 20% and 80% range. Meaning, never charge it to 100% and never let it drop below 20% before charging it up. Once again, we know this is not always practical as some days might run on longer than others or, your phone use might be more than normal.
So just don’t let your phone battery completely die nor overcharge it.
Many factors determine how quickly your phone dies. The screen on time, ram usage, CPU usage… But if you can extend the amount of battery life you get in a day, that will mean fewer recharge cycles for the battery. Below are a few things you can do to make your phone battery last longer (some of these are mentioned further down in the article).
- Reduce your phone screen brightness especially at night when the extra brightness is not needed.
- Set your screen timeout time to be as low as is manageable.
- If your device has an adjustable screen refresh rate use the lower rate when a high refresh is not needed.
- Close apps in the background as they can be engaging memory which could otherwise be free. ( see this link for a complete guide on how to close background apps on Android and iPhone to prevent overheating)
- Turn off mobile data when not in use or not needed.
- Be sure to turn off features like Location and Bluetooth when not in use.
- Enable battery saver mode to enable on at a higher battery level or heck just leave it on if it doesn’t affect you.
Last but not least.
Try as hard as possible not to use your device while it is charging!
This will for one increase the charging time because the battery is being discharged by use while it is being charged.
Secondly, this will cause your phone to overheat. Heat by definition is quite literally energy, in this case, wasted energy, and will not only damage your battery over time but also the other parts of the phone being heated up by the battery.
Also, note that fast charging can and will heat up your battery quite significantly and should be avoided if possible. This is why some phones include the option to turn off fast charging.
Operating System
Problem
Your phone Operating System (Android or Apple iOS) primarily determines how your cell phone uses the electronic pieces inside to keep your phone running as smoothly and as efficiently as possible. But as it is impossible to predict how each user will use their device beforehand we as users, sometimes push the OS too hard, to the point where it can be detrimental to your mobile device.
Doing so may cause overheating, a slow moving device, or just plain unreliability.
Solution
Be sure to close irregularly used apps. Over time you can have well over 20+ apps open on your device but probably only used 10 in the past week. Close those extra apps to help free up device memory to keep your phone running smoothly. (See the article on how to force close apps and well as reduce/stop overheating).
Do not clutter your phone with apps as you can run out of memory. There is not only the app install size you need to worry about but the cache created by each app. Some apps cache can reach well over 2GB! If you need such an app it will be wise to clear the app cache every now and again to keep space on your phone.
Our phones automatically download new data every day even though we may not know. It may be emails, messages, browsing the web, or background updates… If a phone’s storage becomes full it will still need a place to put that new data.
So where will it go?
Some mobile devices will automatically start deleting stuff it does not think is needed….and it doesn’t always guess that right! You will also stop receiving new information!
You might very well end up losing the data you actually want. Also in the search for space, your phone will start moving extremely slow even when trying to perform simple tasks like making a phone call. Having a slow phone in an emergency can quite literally be a death sentence.
Certain apps can be installed on a memory card as well as data you do not need can also be transferred over. The less information on your phone storage the better.
Externals
At Nu Wave we are strong believers in, every cell phone should have a case.
Not just any case a functional protective case!
Here is what to look for when choosing a case.
A good case covers the entire back of your device and extends onto the edges of the screen.
The material used should be shock absorbent. The most used of which is rubber. In the unfortunate case that your phone does drop the case should absorb the shock rather than the phone itself.
The case should extend at the very least 2mm above the screen of your phone and a couple mm inwards. so if the device falls on its screen the surface will encounter the rubber before the screen.
Other internals
Dangers of Water
Even though a phone might be water-resistant that doesn’t mean you should test it! Even just one average-size drop / fall can render your phone no longer water-resistant. Keep your phone as far as possible from water as possible. Water includes any liquid whatsoever: water, sweat, mist all of it!
Some women place their phones against their skin especially in their bras when working out. This is highly ill-advised as the sweat from working out can as mentioned earlier seep into your device.
When bathing with hot water, the surrounding elements in the room will experience condensation. This condensation will also appear on your phone if it is close by and can seep into your phone internals.
Damaged Charging Ports
One of the most commonly done phone repairs apart from a screen or battery replacement is a charging port repair.
What tends to happen is we use our phones while they are plugged into our power adapters and over time the snagging and pulling and hanging from the cables causes the charging port and the charging cable to weaken. Or even if you are very careful to not do the above, just the daily inserting and removal of the cable in the phone weakens the connectors on the port. I should also add for all those who do not know a charging port repair is not cheap!
There is really only one way to solve this and that is to avoid insertion and removal of the cable into your device. This can be done wireless by charging via a magnetic USB cable.
Products We Stand By
The end that inserts into your device only has to go in only once and does not need to be removed. Connect to the charger by placing the cable near the socket and it connects magnetically. The cable disconnects automatically under too much pressure thus reducing the pressure on your port. Click here for more info on how to avoid a charging port repair.
Conclusion
These simple tips and tricks can help you dramatically improve the overall life of your device. See the actionable Cliffsnotes version below.
- Use a quality case with shock protection.
- Do not overcharge your device.
- Do not let your phone battery die fully before charging.
- Use a magnetic USB charging cable to avoid harming your charging port.
- Clear app cache and removed unused apps
- Avoid fast charging your device too often.
- Reduce your phone screen brightness especially at night when the extra brightness is not needed.
- Set your screen timeout time to be as low as is manageable.
- If your device has an adjustable screen refresh rate, use the lower rate when a high refresh is not needed.
- Close unused apps as they engage memory which could otherwise be free.
- Turn off your mobile data when not in use or not needed.
- Be sure to turn off features like Location and Bluetooth when not in use.
- Enable battery saver mode to come on at a higher battery level or heck just leave it on if it doesn’t affect you.