A smartphone that started the day fully charged will more often than not be empty by the end of a day spent at a music festival. Festivalgoers use their smartphones to record video footage, take photographs, use social media and to pay for food and drink using payment apps. Some might even use it to make telephone calls. Having a functioning smartphone at your disposal is at the very least useful and probably even essential when at a festival. The VRT’s consumer team has compiled a list of top tips to ensure that your smartphone battery will last for longer.
Most of us use our smartphones for more than that just making telephone calls and sending text messages. The frequent use of online apps serves to accelerate the speed at which the battery empties and often by the end of the day the smartphone’s battery is flat. Not nice if you are attending a festival that lasts several days.
Laura Clays of the consumers’ organisation Testaankoop told VRT News that “Smartphones are becoming ever-more powerful and require more powerful processors and these use a lot of energy. However, a lot depends on the apps that are running in the background.”
The computer expert Jeroen Baert adds that "All the apps we install ourselves are also constantly performing little tasks of their own bat. Instagram checks for new posts, you get notifications from LinkedIn or Spotify checks for new podcasts. This keeps your smartphone busy all the time and drains your battery.”
Tip 1: Turn off as many apps and peripheral functions as possible
A lot of apps use location tracking and they try to determine your location all the time, even when you are not using them. This is case with, for example, weather apps, social media, google maps or other satnav functions. Laura Clays advises us to only turn on our location tracking function when we really need it. She adds that this also applies to peripheral functions such as Bluetooth.
Jeroen Baert says that we should not allow apps we don’t need to keep running in the background.
“You can adjust your phone's settings to prevent this”. Furthermore, we should delete any apps that we no longer use “This way your phone and your battery don't spend time and energy keeping these apps up to date.”
Tip 2: Adjust your screen’s brightness level
A smartphone’s screen brightness settings are a major determining factor in how much energy it consumes. Of course, on a sunny we need to set our screen brightness to the highest level in order to be able to see anything. However, we should turn it back down to the lowest level as soon as possible in order to preserve energy.
Is it best to put your smartphone in dark mode then? “That depends on which type of screen you have. If you have an amole screen, it is highly recommended", Laura Clays explains.
Tip 3: Keep your battery charged at between 20% and 80%
Testaankoop’s Laura Clays says that the most important tip is not to fully charge your smartphone battery nor to drain it all the way to 0%. “Today’s smartphones have lithium-ion batteries that age faster if they constantly go from fully charged to empty. So it is best to make sure you stay at between 20% and 80% charged”
Furthermore, “It's best not to always do fast charging”. Because when you fast charge, your battery is heats up and that causes its capacity to diminish more quickly. Some smartphones have the feature to charge slowly rather than fast. Jeroen Baert advises us to use this feature when charging our phone overnight.
Tip 4: Turn on power saving mode
Once your smartphone only has 20% battery power left, you will automatically get a notification asking you to turn on power saving mode. However, if you want to conserve energy you should do this much earlier. By putting your phone into power saving mode power-hungry background functions are disabled.
Tip 5: Disable notifications
Each time a notification is received the screen of your smartphone lights up. This of course consumes energy. The fewer notifications you receive the less energy you will use.
Tip 6: Don’t leave your smartphone in the sun
A smartphone’s battery is sensitive to the sun. Jeroen Baert told VRT News "Excess heat is not good for the battery”. Too much exposure to the sun can even cause the smartphone to switch off even if the battery is not empty. The same can happen if the smartphone gets too cold.
Tip 7: Turn your phone off
The best way to conserve energy is of course to not use your smartphone. Do you really need to record all those videos and take all those photos? And is it necessary to check your social media every half hour?
Turning off your smartphone for a while can be a good idea if you want your battery to last a few days. Turning it back on again doesn't use that much energy.
Tip 8: Use a power bank or find a charging station
If your battery does run low, a power bank can help. This is a spare battery that you can charge in advance, for example at home before you leave. Depending on the capacity of your power bank, you may even be able to recharge your smartphone several times. Some power banks can also recharge themselves using solar energy.
This is very handy on a sunny day at a festival venue. Some festival’s provide charging points where you can leave your smartphone for a while to recharge. At some festivals the service is free, while others charge a fee.