Smartphone Battery Drainers and Life Savers

There is nothing worse than a dead cell phone battery. When your phone starts blinking and beeping and buzzing to alert you that you have 12% battery life remaining, it usually comes at the worst time. Seriously! Does your battery ever die as you are settling in bed for the night? No! It dies when you need to let the person you're meeting know you're stuck in traffic, or when you're expecting an important call or message. Just the other day, my phone started to give me the "low battery" routine and I swear, I left it completely alone - but the more it buzzed, and beeped, and blinked, the quicker my battery drained. I constantly see people on Twitter and Facebook talking about their dwindling down to nothing and how annoying it is when it gets to the point where the warning signs start. The general consensus seems to be that these "warning signs" seem to kill your battery quicker than if there were no signs...

Unfortunately as phones get more and more advanced and have more and more capabilities, they use more battery power. I remember ages ago, having my Nokia 5165 - it was all the rage when I was in middle school - and my battery lasted a lot longer. I could get away with charging it once every couple of days. When I upgraded to a BlackBerry, I would have to charge it every night, but if I forgot, I could get by - now with my Android phone, I can barely make it through the day. If I forget to charge it when I get home, forget about it. If I go a night without charging this phone, I may as well leave it at home! Luckily, I have some helpful hints to help your battery last a little longer!

While none of these will seriously prolong your battery life, they will help you conserve battery power.  Turn off wifi and GPS - these are serious drains on your battery. Turn off vibrating notifications or profiles - your phone exerts more energy when vibrating than simply playing noises. Think about it this way, are you more tired after going out dancing or singing? Odds are you picked dancing! Turn off push notifications - turning off these notifications almost defeats the purpose of having email or other apps on your phone, but in desperate times, turning them off will help preserve power!

Even better than turning off all the fun stuff that puts the smart in smart phone, is investing in a mobile car charger, like Accessory Power's MiniBolt. Having a charger on the go will help recharge when your battery needs a boost.

Another great option for improving battery life is investing in an extended battery. Most extended batteries are slightly too big for your phone, so like the truCELL Extended Smart Phone Batteries from Accessory Power, many come with a larger back door to attach to your phone. This can add a little bulk to your phone, but in the long run, bulk is preferable to 100 warning notifications that your battery is low. Another solid option is to get a backup or spare battery for your phone. Make sure the backup battery is fully charged and carry it with you to swap out when your battery gets low. This way, it's like doubling the battery life and enabling your phone to last hours longer. Accessory Power has several options for standard "back up" Smart Phone Batteries.

-Jinni