10 tips to optimize battery life on electronic devices

The article below will list some tips to help you extend battery life on all the electronic devices you are using. It should be noted that the tips below prioritize optimizing battery life, so you may have to compromise a bit on performance speed or utilities on your device.

Reduce screen brightness on your device

Reduce the screen brightness on your device (Photo: Slash Gear)

The home screen is the biggest power drain of any device, be it a laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc. That's because every pixel consumes power and they are made constantly, like thousands of tiny light bulbs flashing faster than your eyes can perceive. Like light bulbs, if those pixels are dimmed, they consume less power. For that reason, one of the best ways to maximize battery life is to ensure screen brightness is always at a sufficient level.

Even if your device has a smart brightness leveling feature, sometimes it gives you more screen brightness than you need. Adjusting screen brightness manually can be useful because it allows you to increase brightness only when absolutely necessary.

Turn off unused hardware features

Turn off unused hardware features (Photo: Slash Gear)

Some of the causes of high battery drain on devices come from hardware features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS or NFC, among others. These features directly access the hardware to operate, consuming a significant amount of battery. To help your device save energy, you should turn off any features you don't need. For example: If you don't need to connect to any device via Bluetooth, turn off this feature to save more battery. Or if you're on the road, turn off Wi-Fi until you get to a location with a Wi-Fi hotspot.

The feature that consumes the most battery power is GPS. Any device equipped with a location feature will often ping continuously to track your location, which can greatly impact your battery life. Turn location features back on only when you're using an app that requires GPS.

Turn off unused software features

Turn off unused software features (Photo: Slash Gear)

Most of the major battery-powered devices in your life have all kinds of features designed to speed up performance, enhancing the user experience. But these features will cause your device's battery to drain faster. For example, gaming laptops often have CPU and GPU overclocking modes to ensure the best performance while gaming, but enabling those settings will drain your battery faster.

You can use these features when your device is connected to a power source and turn them off when unplugged, which will help you save quite a bit of battery capacity during use. Another tip is that you can turn off battery-consuming software features that you are not using.

Turn off unused applications

Turn off unused applications (Photo: Slash Gear)

Every program or app running on your device consumes battery power, even if you don't open it because some apps run automatically in the background. Therefore, to optimize battery capacity on your device, you need to completely turn off applications that you are not using.

On Windows PCs and Macs, this is especially true. Just because you close a window doesn't mean the application has stopped running. On Windows, you can check running applications in Task Manager and completely turn off unused applications. For Mac users, go to Activity Monitor to turn off unnecessary applications.

For smartphones, some applications will also automatically run in the background when you are not actively using them. To turn off the automatic background feature, users need to go to Settings> Applications> Select the application> Turn off the automatic background feature (or automatic refresh).

Use the energy saving feature

Use the power saving feature (Photo: Slash Gear)

Most modern devices are equipped with special features to help preserve your battery life. They can be operated in many ways. Some features try to limit power-draining apps and programs. If you're a user who prioritizes battery life optimization, this is one of the first features you should enable on your device.

On smartphones, both iOS and Android have a set of energy-saving features. For Android, you'll find these in the Device Care section of Settings, while on iOS, you can find them in the Battery section of Settings. The battery saving feature will limit applications running in the background, reduce screen brightness, thereby reducing the device's power consumption.

On Windows 10 and 11, you can find such features in the Settings app under System > Power & battery, where you'll find power mode settings that let you balance processing power with battery life. battery life as well as Battery Saving mode. Finally, on MacOS, you can find the same options by clicking the Apple menu and navigating to System Settings, then Battery.

Block power-draining apps

Prevent power-draining applications (Photo: Slash Gear)

Applications are one of the reasons why your device's battery drains. Some are more battery-hungry than others - for example, streaming video and web browsing are easy ways to drain battery life - but in general, battery life is the resources you use to run apps. Open apps will often run in the background, even if you think you've closed them. In some cases, they will run before you open them.

On laptops, this can drain the battery the most. On both Windows and MacOS, the operating system will upload a list of applications every time you start the computer and the applications will be automatically launched. On Windows 11, turn off unnecessary auto-start applications. You can find a list of applications that automatically launch when you turn on the device in the Startup apps section in the settings. On MacOS, you can find a list of applications that automatically launch when you turn on the device in the Login Items section.

Reduce screen display quality

Reduce screen display quality (Photo: Slash Gear)

Many modern devices, be it smartphones, laptops, tablets etc. are equipped with screens with high resolution and refresh rate. 4K screens and screens with refresh rates up to 120Hz have become increasingly popular. These features help improve user experience, but they also cause your device to drain battery faster.

Most devices have the option to run displays at lower resolutions and refresh rates than they are capable of. If your goal is to prioritize battery life, consider reducing the resolution to 1080p and limiting the refresh rate to 60Hz.

Stop charging when your device is fully charged

Stop plugging in the charger when your device is fully charged (Photo: Slash Gear)

You may have heard that charging your battery to 100% is bad, but that's a bit of a misconception. Charging the battery to 100% itself is not harmful to the battery. The battery's life will only be reduced if you continue to plug it in when the device is fully charged.

In other words, stop leaving your device plugged in to charge overnight. Instead, if you charge your battery before going to bed, unplug it, and plug it back in in the morning, this will increase the battery life on your device. However, most manufacturers have introduced certain safety measures such as trickle charging mechanisms over the past few years, alongside other smart software features to help maintain battery health. So, avoid leaving your device plugged in for too long.

Don't let your device run out of battery

Don't let your device run out of battery (Photo: Slash Gear)

Just like charging your device for long periods of time, leaving your device in a depleted state also reduces battery life. If you want to preserve battery life on your devices, charge them when they are above 20%.

Make sure not to leave your device in a place with extreme temperatures

Make sure not to leave your device in a place with extreme temperatures (Photo: Slash Gear)

Batteries are very sensitive to extreme temperatures. When the temperature drops too low, the battery's internal resistance increases, making charging more difficult. If you put your device in a place where the temperature is too high, there is a possibility that your battery will explode.

This not only causes the battery to seriously degrade, but can even cause the battery to catch fire or explode. (If you notice your device appears swollen, keep it away from people and pets, do not continue to use it, and do not attempt to charge it.)

To keep your device's battery working efficiently for a long time, store your device in a cool (but not too cold) place, away from direct sunlight, make sure There is airflow to cool the device.