By far, the biggest pain in the butt with any mobile unit is battery-drainage. Field Guide has come out with a handy list of drainage culprits, and how to avoid them.
- Repeated Charging – Believe it or not, this is a major culprit. Ideally, your phone’s in peak performance between 40 and 80% charge.
- App Use – Go to the “Battery” menu and open the settings. See what’s drawing the most battery, and see if there’s an update. Maybe it’s one you don’t even use that much, and you can blow it out.
- Display – The second-biggest threat to battery life. Dimming the brightness will give you bigger energy savings than you realize.
- Extreme Temperatures – The chemicals in the battery are temperature sensitive, so don’t leave it in the car on hot or cold days. You’ll destroy the battery more quickly if you do.
- Location Tracking – Disabling apps that track location will do wonders for how hard your device is working to keep tabs on you.
- Loud Audio – The louder the audio, the bigger the energy draw. Not an obvious one here, but one that should be noted.
- Spotty Signal – Searching for signal eats battery. The only real fix here is to put it in “airplane mode” when you know you’re going to be in a touch-and-go area.