Staring at that dreaded low battery in the top right corner of your phone… It’s like a bar of anxiety, except the lower it goes the higher that sense of doom becomes. Luckily though phone manufacturers know that sometimes you need to power down in order to get to a charger.
Pretty much every device these days comes with a battery preservation mode, on iPhone it’s called Low Power Mode, on Android it’s Power-Saving Mode - but what do you actually sacrifice in order to secure some more precious screen time?
In this guide we look at what low power modes do, tips to save your battery and myths that don’t work.
What does Low Power Mode on iPhone do?
If you’re using an iPhone, your battery saving option will be called Low Power Mode. In short Low Power Mode will reduce the juice needed to power your iPhone by turning off, or turning down some settings in order to optimise what is left in the ole battery cup.
While Low Power Mode is enabled your iPhone will;
- Dim the screen brightness
- Disable background uploading and downloading (such as iCloud sync)
- Halt constant checks like emails, or news story push notifications
- Turn off Siri
- Disable 5G (if applicable)
Low Power Mode won’t enable automatically on an iPhone, but you will get a push notification prompting you to turn it on when you hit 20%. Once you get to a charger, and your phone reaches 80% it will automatically switch off though.
Alternatively you can switch Low Power Mode on, and off at any time. Simply;
- Open settings
- Tap Battery and Low Power Mode
- Toggle On on Off
What does Power-Saving Mode on Android do?
Called Power-Saving Mode, or Battery Saver on Android devices, this battery saving function operates almost identically to Apple’s Low Power Mode. Your Android device will scale back its functionality in order to preserve what battery you have remaining.
Power-Saving Mode on an Android device will;
- Turn on dark mode
- Disable background uploading and downloading (such as Google Drive sync)
- Halt constant checks like emails, or news story push notifications
- Turn off Google Assistant
- Disable 5G (if applicable)
- Lower screen refresh rate (where applicable)
Not all Android devices will be the exact same, but there are some generalities we can make. Most Android phones follow a similar outline as the Google Pixel does when it comes to Power-Saving Modes. You’ll be asked to turn on Battery Saver (or Power-Saving Mode) when you hit 15% and again at 5% if you didn’t turn it on the first time. Once you get back to 90% it will turn off by itself.
To switch Battery Saver or Power-Saving Mode on;
- Go to Settings
- Select Battery
- Tap Battery Saver or Power-Saving Mode
- Toggle On or Off
Battery saving tips
Of course there are other ways to save your battery other than just bumping down to low power mode. If you’re on the lookout for a way to consistently get your phone through the day, here are some manual ways to improve your battery longevity. Some of these are the same as what low power mode will do, but you don’t need to do all of them at once in order to see results.
Turn down your screen brightness
Your phone’s screen may be hypnotising, but it is also one of the main power drainers when it comes to battery life. Something as simple as turning the brightness down, or using adaptive brightness can save you a significant amount of battery throughout the day.
Switch on dark mode
If you have a phone with an OLED display, switching to dark mode can help you get a little more out of your battery. With an OLED display, individual pixels are lit up as needed. If the screen is predominantly black, that's a lot of pixels that aren't being used. The majority of recent high-end phones - such as the iPhone 12 family, the Galaxy S21 family, and more - all OLED displays. Dark mode won't make a difference if your phone has an LCD display.
Turn off 5G
While 5G is great, and getting pretty speedy if you’re with the right network, it is still very much a “nice to have” and not a “need to have”. And at this stage, it's more demanding than 4G. This is partially due to the higher speeds, and also less coverage - your phone has to work harder to maintain a connection.
There are also cases where the processor and the 5G modem in your phone are separate entities (as opposed to being a combined piece of tech), which means that to use these frequencies your device has to run a whole other chip. That’s going to use up some power.
Toggling this off is a quick, and relatively low impact way to keep your battery fuller.
Lower your screen refresh rate
This one is specifically for Android users, but many new flagships are coming out with higher screen refresh rates. This sure can make for some smooth scrolling, but it can wreak havoc on battery life. A simple way to lessen your battery usage is to opt for the standard screen refresh rate.
You should be able to toggle your screen refresh rate on an Android device by;
- Go to Settings
- Find Display and Brightness
- Tap on More and go to Screen Refresh Rate
- Note that the default is 60Hz
Store music locally, rather than streaming
Streaming uses the internet, the internet requires your phone to work harder to stay connected. If you don’t use it then you’ll use less battery.
Streaming music is generally something you’ll do for quite a while, so if you’re listening to an hour-long playlist on your run you’re going to use less battery pulling that data from your phone rather from the internet.
Keep in mind that if you want to store your music locally it will contribute to how much space you use on your phone, so a 64GB iPhone may not be enough.
Turn off push notifications on apps you’re not using
Push notifications are convenient, but they’re unnecessary for a lot of apps. Every time you get a notification your phone goes through a bunch of actions, all which use up battery power. By disabling the nonessential notifications on apps you’ll be surprised by just how much less power you’ll use.
Battery saving myths
The internet is dark and full of secrets, and myths. Within the entangled world wide web a variety of battery saving measures have popped up, but many of these have no credence. Let's bust some of the battery saving myths circulating.
4G uses more battery than WiFi
There is a lot (and we mean a lot) of contradictory information about this online, and not much recently either. But anecdotally, we’ve found that the connection you’re using won’t make a significant difference to your battery life. Whether you’re browsing on 4G or WiFi, you’ll still get pretty much the same battery life, which means that using WiFi calling won't hurt either.
The exception here is if you’re in a poor coverage area, but that is going to be the same on either connection type. If your phone is constantly searching for a better signal - WiFi or 4G - it’s going to burn through the battery faster.
Top up charging wrecks your battery
Once upon a time, this was true but now not so much. Batteries have improved over time and now doing small top up charges before your battery completely dies is just as good for battery health as waiting until it dies.
It is also far more convenient.
You can overcharge your phone overnight
Yeah no. This isn’t a thing. The term ‘overcharging’ refers to the idea that if you leave your phone connected to a charger after it hits 100% the electric charge will keep pumping resulting in a reduced capacity - or a fire.
While older batteries could definitely overheat if you left them charged for too long, new ones don’t have this issue anymore.
Background apps use your battery
Although closing off all your apps can be satisfying it actually won’t help conserve battery. When an app is running in the background it is ultimately in sleep mode, and barely affects your phone’s performance at all.
Actually, closing and restarting these apps may use more battery than just leaving them running.
Anula Wiwatowska
Offsite Editorial Lead | Instagram
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