Tricks to Getting a Quick Smartphone Charge: Life on the Go

Does any of this sound familiar? You’re in a hurry, sure you’re going to be late, and look down to see your cell phone so near death that you hear angels warming up in the background. It’s at moments like these that you simultaneously curse your dependence on your phone and wonder how anyone ever managed to get by without one.

Switch to Airplane Mode

The beauty of airplane mode is that it immediately shuts down operations known to suck the battery dry, like attempting to signal a cell tower, pinpointing your location, finding Wi-Fi service, and syncing up with Bluetooth. A quick word of warning though: airplane mode also shuts down your ability to make or receive calls, so only take advantage of this hack when you’re not expecting an important call.

Connect to Charger

Once you’re in airplane mode, plug the phone into its charger. Although putting your phone into airplane mode won’t cut your charging time by half, it may buy you enough battery strength to get on the road.

Plan Ahead

Once your phone is properly charged, you may want to consider battery-saving techniques. Here are some we have found effective:

• Find out where you can save power. Simply navigate to Settings > Battery. Once there, you will find apps and features listed in descending order of which ones use the most battery power. Go down the list and uninstall any you rarely use.
• Take advantage of the power saving mode. Referred to as “Battery Saver” on many phones, this feature can squeeze extra hours of standby time – even when your battery is on its last legs.
• Cut the apps. Remember all those apps you just had to have but rarely look today? Cutting them now that they’ve lost their appeal is a great battery-saving measure. From Settings > Apps, swipe and you will see a list of the apps currently competing for battery power. Stop any apps you don’t want running in the background 24 hours a day.
• Consider brightness. You can improve battery life by turning down the screen brightness and turning off the Automatic Brightness feature.
• Check battery strength. When you’re in an area with poor cell coverage, the phone must work harder to find a signal strong enough to meet your cellular needs. Place your phone into airplane mode until you’re in an area that is better covered. You can always turn it off airplane mode if you need to make a call.

We realize that a phone is no longer just a phone. It’s a miniature computer that we’ve all come to depend on. As you search for computer services in Colorado Springs, we hope you will trust us to answer your questions about your business computers — large and small.