Save battery fast: 5 easy tips for Android & iPhone

Smartphones have become "minicomputers" for communication, banking, photos, and videos — but it is the battery that often fails to keep up with our habits. To avoid running out of power on the road or while playing, you can use simple steps to save energy on your iPhone and Android.

Express writes about it.

Turn off auto brightness

The screen is the main "eater" of the battery. If you turn off automatic adjustment and keep the backlight a little lower, your phone will use less power (you can increase the brightness manually if necessary).

On iPhone, go to Settings — Accessibility — Display & Text Size and toggle off "Auto-Brightness".

On Android, go to Settings — Display and toggle off "Adaptive brightness" (the name may vary depending on your model).

Turn on dark mode

Most popular models have OLED displays (all iPhones starting with the iPhone 12 and many Android flagships), which use more power on light-colored interfaces. Dark theme reduces the number of bright white pixels, which helps save battery.

On iPhone, open Settings — Display & Brightness — select "Dark" under Appearance.

On Android, go to Settings — Display and select "Dark".

Use power saving mode

Special modes on iOS and Android reduce background activity, syncing, and other processes to extend battery life.

On iPhone, go to Settings — Battery and toggle on "Low Power Mode". Apple explains that it temporarily reduces background activity (downloads, email, etc.) until you're fully charged. On Pro models, it also turns off 120Hz ProMotion.

On Android, go to Settings — Battery — Low Power Mode. It limits network features, syncing, location services, always-on display, higher refresh rates, and other settings.

Change display settings

Some changes can be made manually—some are made automatically by Power Saver, but you can control them yourself.

On iPhone, go to Settings — Display & Brightness and toggle off "True Tone". On Pro models, you can limit the frame rate by going to Accessibility — Motion and toggling on "Limit Frame Rate".

On Android, look in Settings — Display to lower the resolution and refresh rate, if your device supports these options.

Optimize charging to preserve battery life

Over time, battery capacity naturally decreases, but correct charging settings will help slow down wear.

On iPhone, go to "Settings" — "Battery" — "Charging limit" and lower the upper limit from 100% in steps to 80%. If you leave it at 100%, toggle on "Optimized Battery Charging" in "Settings" — "Charging" — "Optimized battery charging", then the smartphone will keep about 80% of the charge and will reach 100% closer to the alarm.

On Android, go to "Settings" — "Battery" — "Battery protection" and toggle on battery protection. For example, on Samsung, you can choose "Basic", "Adaptive", and "Maximum" modes for different levels of protection against degradation. On other models, you need to look for similar options in the same section. If possible, also disable ultra-fast charging — it reduces the load on the battery in the long run.

As a reminder, your smartphone can lose up to 20% of its charge overnight, even if you're not using it. It is not only due to background processes, but also to the hidden activity of unreliable VPN apps that can load the system while you sleep.

We also wrote that common charging mistakes harm your battery and accelerate its wear. To extend battery life and avoid overheating, it's worth changing a few daily habits.