iPhones are awesome. No denying that. But what's not so awesome? The iPhones battery life. I think it's fair to say that every iphone user ends up charging their phone at least once a day, if not more. On my quest to make by battery last longer, I have picked up on a few tips and tricks that can really make a difference!
1) TURN OFF BACKGROUND APPS
A very cool perk of iOS 7 is that there is an option for your apps (which are running in the background) to be regularly updated. What does that mean? Let's say for example you have Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter open. If you switch between the apps, and decide to do some pinning on Pinterest the other 2 apps will still be running and refreshing in the "background". So if you go back to your Twitter app, you will find that all the tweets you missed while on Pinterest have been automatically updated! This can be a really cool and handy tool. Unfortunately it can also really drain your battery (and not to mention your data plan!) because the apps are constantly loading and reloading without you noticing. If you would like to turn it off here are the steps:
Settings --> General --> Background App Refresh
Which will bring you to a page like this:
Notice how all those apps would be draining my battery to refresh? Yup. Let's turn them all off by sliding the Background App refresh button. Which will ask you to confirm:
Go right ahead and hit Disable and you will definitely feel a dramatic improvement in battery life - and data usage!
2) TURN OFF LOCATION SERVICES - SORT OF
Another handy perk of iOS 7 is it's improved location services, allowing you to share your exact location with multiple apps! Unfortunately this too can drain your battery life. To turn it off go to:
Settings --> Privacy --> Location Services
Unlike background app refresh you don't want to turn them ALL off, since this can actually be a necessary tool in some apps (such as maps). So instead I turned off all the ones I didn't need ( like messenger or Kijiji) and left on the important ones like google maps and apple maps. Use your own discretion here!
3) TURN OFF LTE WHEN NOT IN USE
I actually learned this tip in the apple store when I mentioned that my battery was really sucking. One of the employees mentioned that I should turn off LTE! She explained that depending on where you live, there may not be all that many LTE antennas! Therefore you will be on 3G network while your phone drains it's battery trying to constantly look for an LTE network to connect to! I've found that this tip has helped me the MOST in making my battery life last longer.
Settings --> Cellular --> turn off "Enable LTE"
4) AVOID DYNAMIC WALLPAPER
Dynamic wall papers are backgrounds you can set on your phone that move. Though they are really cool, they also drain your battery like crazy. I would reccomend considering a normal wallpaper called "stills".
Settings --> Wallpapers and Brightness --> Choose a new Wallpaper
* make sure you choose a still!
5) BRIGHTNESS LEVELS
On the topic of appearance, while changing your wallpaper you may want to reduce your brightness as well! The brighter your phone is the more battery it uses. Try reducing your brightness level and turning on your Auto Brightness option like mine below:
Settings --> Wallpapers and Brightness
What "Auto Brightness" does is that it adjusts your brightness levels automatically to suit your lighting situation. If you are in a dark movie theatre, where you need very little light on your screen to see it, it will reduce your brightness levels. And in situations where you need more brightness, like on a sunny day, it will increase the screens brightness automatically to accommodate! Very cool.
6) TURN OFF BLUE TOOTH
A quick fix for preserving battery life is turning off your blue tooth. Bluetooth, like the LTE option, is something that is constantly working. Even if you are far away from the bluetooth source, it will constantly keep trying to connect to it. I personally only need to use my bluetooth when I'm driving in my car because I connect my phone to my car's handsfree system. Otherwise I rarely use it. So do what I have learned to do. Have bluetooth turned off at all times, and only turn it on when actually using it.
You can access this by either going to Settings --> Bluetooth or through your quick command centre
7) CLOSE APPS WHEN NOT IN USE
And finally, what may be obvious to some but not to others, is to ALWAYS CLOSE YOUR APPS when you are finished using them. Otherwise they will be running in the background and draining your battery. In addition to that they will strain your iphones abilities and your data too!
To close apps, double click your home screen, and then scroll up to close an app.
One final tip on preserving your battery life? Take good care of the battery itself! You can do this by keeping it out of very hot or very cold environments, and by allowing your phone to go through a full charge cycle as often as you can. That means allowing it to completely drain and turn off, and then plugging it in until it's fully charged. This allows the battery to recognize what a full cycle should be like. You know what they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!