It’s happened to all of us – your battery is full when you leave the house in the morning, you check a few texts and watch a video or two, and BOOM! By lunchtime, there’s almost no battery left. How did that happen? There are several ways that you could be draining your phone’s battery without even realizing it, and some of them may even kill your phone every time you flip it on to check the time. Here are a few unexpected things that are sure to drain your battery faster than you would think.
#1. Streaming Media
It is a well-known fact that streaming media, such as music and videos, eats into your mobile data. But did you know that watching media on your phone eats into your battery life as well? YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and many other media apps could be largely responsible for your dwindling battery life – the average fully charged battery will only last about two to three hours when streaming media, just long enough to watch a movie or a couple of episodes of your favorite show.
#2. Background Apps
There are dozens of apps that can boot up as soon as you turn your phone or tablet on, sucking battery life needlessly even when you haven’t opened the app at all. The biggest offenders are social media apps such as Facebook, which is constantly searching for updates and messages to keep you informed – but if you can wait a couple of hours to find out who liked your latest post and who didn’t, you might consider ditching the app and just using your browser to check your social media instead. Apps that use GPS, Mail, Snapchat, and the WalMart app are just a few others.
#3. Mobile Games
With the invention of the mobile game, gaming has taken on a whole new dimension. Instead of settling down for several hours of gaming, you can spend five minutes on a game whenever you want, as frequently or infrequently as you want. Unfortunately, this kind of flexibility comes with a price, as starting and shutting down gaming apps dozens of times throughout the day takes its toll on your phone. Candy Crush and Clash of Clans, two of the most popular mobile games, are also among the worst when it comes to battery life.
#4. Powering Down
Most of us prefer to keep our mobile devices on but in sleep mode throughout the day. If you choose to power yours down frequently in an effort to save battery life, however, you may actually be doing just the opposite. Powering up pulls a lot of battery life, especially if your device has to kickstart its hard drive two or three times a day. Sleep mode is far more economical for your device – power down only when you won’t be using your device for several hours, and make sure to unplug your device after it is fully charged to improve the battery’s longevity.
Share this content: