How to make your phone battery last longer

A few settings and habits add hours to every charge. Most battery drain comes from a small number of features you can control in a couple of minutes.

Find what is using the power

Open the battery section in your phone’s settings and look at the list of apps sorted by usage. One or two apps usually account for most of the drain, often because they run in the background or keep location services on.

Restrict background activity for apps you rarely need to update in real time, such as shopping or games.

Adjust the screen first

The display is the biggest single consumer of power. Turn on adaptive brightness, shorten the screen timeout to 30 seconds, and use dark mode if your phone has an OLED screen.

A slightly lower refresh rate setting can also help on phones that offer 90Hz or 120Hz displays.

Charge with the long term in mind

Lithium-ion batteries age faster when they sit at 100% or run down to zero. Many phones now offer an optimized or adaptive charging option that holds the charge around 80% overnight.

Avoid leaving the phone on a hot dashboard or under a pillow while charging. Heat shortens battery life more than almost anything else.