We carry them everywhere, and they’re more than just a way to make calls. Nowadays our mobile phones are our cameras, social lives, emails, browsers, GPS and more. All these come with a cost however, unlike the old ‘brick’ mobile phones, smartphone batteries can drain at an alarming rate if you’re not careful. Here are a few ways we’ve found to help stretch your battery life:

Less is best – if you’re trying to keep your battery alive, shorter phone calls are key. You can even save a little battery by turning the vibrate function off, the standard ringer uses less power. Similarly turning down the brightness on your phone screen can also save some power for later.

Use the right charger for your phone – not all chargers are built the same, and some can drastically heat your phone battery up, decreasing its life and capacity. Using the branded charger or checking with an expert about which ‘off-brand’ chargers are reliable can help keep your battery lasting longer, removing the need for a battery replacement. Along with this, keeping your phone out of excessively hot areas (for example on your car’s dashboard on a sunny day) is always a good bet to prevent damage to your phone’s components and remove any need for an unexpected mobile phone repair during its lifetime.

Know what applications drain your battery – in almost all phones you can check which apps are draining your battery the fastest. If you need help, head to your local repair tech and they’ll show you everything you need to know. Turning your phone onto its ‘battery saver’ or ‘power saver’ mode will automatically stop some applications.

Do you need to be using your camera? It’s surprising just how much more battery life you can get from your phone when it isn’t being drained by filming. If you’re on a battery-budget then try to use your camera as little as possible, and wherever feasible turn the flash off.

Turn it off - of course the way to make your phone battery last the longest is to turn it off. More realistically, you can turn off any features you aren’t using; not currently using Bluetooth? – switch it off. The same goes for location services and Wi-Fi. Close apps you aren’t using and switch currently unnecessary features off.

If you find your battery is draining too fast and you can’t find a reason, pop in to see us at your local mobile phone repair centre and let the experts see what they can do.