How to Get the Most Out of Your iPhone’s Battery

It’s not an exaggeration to say that your entire life is basically on your iPhone, whether you’re mapping the route to an unfamiliar location or taking an important phone call. Which means that it can be highly inconvenient—even catastrophic—when its battery dies on you. Keeping your iPhone charged is absolutely essential, so have you thought about how you can get more out of your battery? Read on to learn how your trusty handheld stays charged and ready to go.

How Your iPhone Battery Works

Apple’s mobile batteries use high-density lithium-ion cells that are designed to store a lot of energy in a small space, resulting in extremely thin batteries that charge quickly and are great at retaining their overall health. They also don’t receive a constant current throughout the course of their charge; the first 80% ramps up fairly quickly, with a much slower charge for the last 20%. This fast/slow system ensures you can get quick power when you need it, while avoiding shorting out your battery and ultimately extending its long-term life.

In fact, the iPhone’s battery is a lot more robust than you may think. It’s designed to retain 80% of its original capacity even after many charge cycles, and even devices with years of use can still hold a charge depending on how the battery is cared for. Still, you may find yourself sorely missing that extra 20% capacity when your phone starts running out of power a lot quicker—something you’ll rue if, say, you’re in an unfamiliar city and find yourself unable to map any your routes with your dead phone.

That said: there are a lot of myths out there regarding how best to extend your iPhone’s battery life. We’re shedding some light on them below, so you actually have a handle on how to keep your device powered and in tip-top condition.

4 Stubborn iPhone Battery Myths...Debunked

4. “You should drain your battery all the way before recharging.”

While this might be sound advice for older devices and cameras, iPhones are unique in how they count charging cycles. By tracking of the amount of full charges from 0% to 100% rather than every time your phone is plugged in, your iPhone can accurately gauge the health of its lithium-ion batteries. Charging your phone for a few minutes doesn’t register as a full ‘cycle’, but a full discharge and recharge does counts against overall battery health measurements.

In other words, waiting until you’re flirting with 0% before plugging in your phone actually puts a bigger strain on your battery life than connecting for more frequent charges.

3. “Don’t leave your phone plugged in when the battery is full.”

Good news—you don’t need to worry about wearing out your battery by leaving it plugged in, especially since charging at night is the best time to do it. Your iPhone’s power management technology is smart enough to stop the flow of electricity when your battery is full, so you can leave it plugged in all night long without worrying about shortening its life.

2. “Disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and close out of unused apps to preserve battery life.”

Not true: the technology behind wireless connections like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have come a long way in the last few years, so they don’t require nearly the same amount of energy that they used to. As a result, disabling these settings will worsen your device experience without measurably improving battery life.

Additionally, closing out of your apps doesn’t necessarily lead to lower power consumption. iOS manages app processes very smartly, and most apps go to sleep immediately when not in the foreground to consume minimal resources. Often, an app will consume the most power when it’s freshly opened, so compulsively closing and re-opening apps will use more energy than simply leaving them alone.

Unfortunately, there are always some more power-hungry apps that this advice won’t apply to. It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the worst offenders if you are concerned about battery life (more on managing energy usage in the next section).

1. “Only Apple-branded chargers should be used with your iPhone.”

We can go on about what can go wrong with shoddy, unlicensed chargers—anything from diminished battery capacity to even spontaneous combustion can result from using counterfeit electronics. But not all third-party devices risk damaging your device, and many offer nice features for a lower price than Apple’s premium products. To be sure that your new charger is safe, check the box to see whether it’s MFi-certified. All products that pass Apple’s critical quality control standards will earn that stamp of approval, and are guaranteed to work perfectly with your iPhone.

5 Surefire Ways to Boost iPhone Battery Life

1. Turn Down Your iPhone’s Display Brightness

Since the process of illuminating your display will sap more power than any app will, tweaking your iPhone’s auto-brightness setting is a great way to cut down on power drain. Auto-brightness dims your screen based on the amount of ambient light in your surroundings, but in full sunlight the brightness gets turned all the way up. To avoid unnecessary power consumption during daylight, find some shade and lower the brightness slider in the swipe-up control center menu.

2. Enable iOS’s Low Power Mode

Low Power mode was added in iOS 9 as a way to squeeze the last drops of juice out of your iPhone by limiting power-consuming background processes. Normally, it will ask to be activated when your battery dips below 20%, but you can activate it with manually at any time if you have a long day ahead. To toggle Low Power Mode, just go into Settings > Battery and flip the switch.

3. Update iOS to the Latest Version

Keeping iOS up to date is a generally sound practice, as each system update is bound to fix bugs and increase performance. When your phone is running efficiently, your battery has to do less work to keep everything running smoothly.

4. Avoid Using Your iPhone in Extreme Temperatures

Using your iPhone in freezing weather or direct, intense sunlight for a prolonged amount of time will inevitably damage your battery. While it won’t destroy your device, the battery capacity will decrease with more exposure to extreme high and low temperatures. Try to keep your phone in as close to room temperature for optimum battery life and performance.

5. Check Your iPhone’s Battery Usage List

Not all apps are created the same, and unfortunately they don’t all share Apple’s philosophy on power consumption. Sometimes background app processes get out of hand with excessive location checking or network connection for notifications. To see which apps are using the most energy, check Settings > Battery. If one of your apps regularly shows up near the top even though you haven’t been using it, your best bet might be limiting some of its functionality...or even deleting it if it’s not absolutely essential.

For instance, most location-based apps track your position even in the background and are therefore energy-intensive, which means temporarily disabling their Location Services setting can help conserve power. To manage which apps are accessing your location, check Settings > Privacy > Location Services on your phone.

5 Innovative Charging Solutions For Your iPhone

Following all of this advice will definitely decrease your iPhone’s power consumption, but its battery still needs to be charged at some point. We’ve done all the research for you so you don’t have to; here’s a lineup of charging accessories that are designed to safely (and reliably) power up your iPhone in no time:

1. 10-Ft MFi-Certified Lightning Cable: 3-Pack

Each of these cables is over three times the length of a standard Apple cord, and they’re all MFi-certified to boot. You’ll always have an extra charging solution on hand, one that will let you easily use your plugged-in iPhone from across the room without having to hover over any awkwardly positioned outlets.

Buy It Here: Get the 10-Ft MFi-Certified Lightning Cable: 3-Pack for $20, or 75% off.

2. PowerTime Apple Watch Charging Dock with 3 USB Ports

Keep every mobile device topped off with this Apple-design inspired Watch charging cradle. It offers three accessible USB ports in a small, scratch-resistant package, making it a compact charging solution ideal for any workplace.

Buy It Here: Get the PowerTime Apple Watch Charging Dock for $39, reduced from $49.

3. Kinkoo 40W 6-Port High Speed Charger

Charging multiple devices on your desk can clutter things up pretty quickly. This 6-port charger from Kinkoo comes with a built-in control chip to optimize each port’s output and ensure the fastest charging possible for all your devices.

Buy it here: Get the Kinkoo 40W 6-Port High Speed Charger for just $29, marked down from $50.

4. Gorilla Power 4-Port USB World Travel Charger

If you ever plan on travelling internationally, you're going to want the Gorilla Power 4-Port USB World Travel Charger. Roughly the size of a USB mouse, this charger is designed with interchangeable travel adapters for Australian, US, UK, and EU outlets, while maintaining 4, fully powered 34W output ports. Anywhere you go, you can charge all of your devices from one central hub.

Buy It Here: Get the Gorilla Power 4-Port USB World Travel Charger for $27.99, marked down from $50.

5. Zendure A8 26,800mAh QC3.0 Portable Battery Bank

The Zendure A8 is one of the fastest charging power banks on the planet, armed with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Technology. Add in the massive 26,800mAh battery capacity and this behemoth can easily charge your phone 7-9 times without needing a reboot, and maintains up to 95% of its charge after six full months without use.

Buy It Here: Get the Zendure A8 for $64.95, nearly half off its normal price


 

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