3 Ways to Boost Your Battery Life for Summer Travel

It’s finally summer! And that means quick getaways, road trips, long distance travel. Inevitably, the #1 item you won’t forget to “pack”, is of course, your smartphone.

During downtime, travelers often use their phone to check email and engage in social media, play games, or watch videos.

When you have time to kill, your smartphone serves as a great way to pass time quickly.

But the downside is, the more frequently you use your device, the quicker your battery life will drain.

And if you’re camping in the woods or on an airplane with no way to charge your phone, you’re out of luck.

This summer, make your trips more enjoyable and optimize the battery life in your smartphone (and mobile device) with these 3 great tips!

1) KILL THOSE POWER HUNGRY SERVICES

There’s no need to keep all services active on your phone when they’re not needed. So disable those services that eat up battery life on your phone – you can always enable them again.

Disable GPS: Finally arrive at your summer travel destination? Disable your phone’s GPS function. This service is helpful for driving directions, local search results and other location specific services, but when not in use, it’s best to disable GPS altogether. (Depending on the type of smartphone you have, you may need to look for a setting titled “location” to disable).

Disable Bluetooth: No longer need to connect your smartphone to other devices like your car, portable audio player or headset? Shut off Bluetooth to save on battery power.

Disable Mobile Hotspot: Using your mobile device as a Wi-Fi mobile hotspot is a significant drain on your battery, so be sure to disable your hotspot when not in use.

Near-Field Communication NFC and Payment: NFC is often used to transfer photos/contacts between devices, as a “mobile wallet” or to gain physical access somewhere (i.e. keyless entry). While not all mobile devices are equipped with NFC, this is one more area to optimize if you truly want to get the most out of your battery life.

2) MINIMIZE DISPLAY USE

Dim Your Screen: Whether you’re traveling, or just going about your daily routine, reducing your screen brightness to the lowest comfortable level is a good habit to get into. After all, the #1 power drain on a mobile device is your display.

Avoid Live Wallpapers: Sure, they’re cool. But choosing one of your new vacation photos as your wallpaper can significantly help you reduce the drain on your battery and get more life out of your smartphone during summer travel.

Enable Auto-Dim: If your mobile device allows your screen to automatically adjust depending on the light in your environment, enable that setting.

Set Your Screen to Timeout: You’ve probably noticed your screen shuts off after a certain period of time. Did you know you can customize this timeout setting? When traveling with limited access to charge your device, set the timeout to 15 seconds or less. (This setting may be under a “Display” category on your phone).

3) OPTIMIZE THOSE APPS

Enable Power Save Mode: If power save mode is an option on your mobile device, this can extend your battery life when it is critically low.

Reduce Notifications: While enjoying family time on vacation, do you really need to know it’s your old college roommate’s birthday from 20 years ago? Facebook is infamous for notifications. But the truth is, most apps have notifications that can eat up your battery life. Go to your app settings and shut off any unnecessary app notifications.

Fetch Email Less Frequently: On vacation, unless you’re working – which you shouldn’t be – it’s not necessary for your device to synchronize email every 30 seconds. Lengthen your email synchronization time to extend your battery life.

Get Rid of Unused Apps and Widgets: Even if you’re not using them, most apps consume battery life and other valuable resources like data. As a general rule, keep your apps to a minimum. To conserve battery life, get rid of any apps you no longer use and remove unnecessary widgets from your home screen.

Disable App Auto-Updates: Quite often, apps will automatically download updates and install them. This setting is at times specified when you install the app, but whenever possible, disable auto-updates on apps when you need to conserve your battery power. It’s a good idea to enable them again for security purposes once you have access to a battery charger.

If you follow each of these tips, you’re bound to get more out of your battery life during your summer vacations this year. If you see a noticeable improvement, you could even adopt these tips into your everyday life.

Remember, the best summer moments are created with family and friends, not on your smartphone, so be sure to use your extra battery life not for games, videos or emails, but to take amazing photos of life-long summer vacation memories!