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Windows Phone 8 battery saving tips

We all lead busy lives so we want to get the most out of our Smartphones, so we at the Gadget Helpline have put together a handy guide to help you extend your Windows Phone 8 running smartphones battery life to get the most out of your handset.

This guide will work for any Windows Sporting phone whether it is the Nokia Lumia 920 or 820, Samsung Ativ S or the HTC 8X or 8S you will be able to conserve precious battery hours.

First up some simple battery management Rules:

Rule 1:

Always drain the and charge the battery fully

With modern smartphones you will always benefit from charging a battery to its full potential and using your phone until the battery level is as low as possible. This process will ensure your battery lasts as long as possible – both on a daily basis and in the long run. Charging your phone for 20 minutes here and there will only shorten its overall lifespan.

Rule 2:

Actively manage your phone

There is no beating around the bush with this one… you will need to actively manage your handset’s battery consumption to maximise performance. This means closing applications when you stop using them, turning off features and crucially, lessening the use of power draining functions.

For this we have separated out managing your phone into three areas: Screen, Usage and Connections.

Screen

The biggest and most power consuming feature of any smartphone is the screen, so to start with you should check the screen brightness and the amount the screen is displayed for when not in use:

  • Set the phone screen to switch off after a short time:

    On the start screen swipe left and tap  Settings > lock screen > Screen times out after .

  • Lower the screen brightness

    On the start screen swipe left and tap Settings > brightness. Switch Automatically adjust to Off  and select the level you want.

Usage

After the screen, things like the camera, music players and speakers use up the most battery, so walking the streets with your music blaring out of the built in speakers really will be using up your battery.

  • Mute unnecessary sounds, such as key press sounds

On the start screen swipe left and tap Settings > ringtones+sounds. Scroll to Play Sound for and de-select Reminders, Key Press, Lock and unlock, Camera Shutter and All Other Notifications to suit your personal preferences.

Note: Turn off unwanted sounds and noises on app also to extend battery life

  • Use wired headphones, rather than the speakerphone

    If you do want to listen to music on the move then using Wired headphones is the best way to use your smartphone whilst conserving energy.
  • Close Applications after usage

The biggest drain can come from unused apps and features such as the Camera viewfinder, Games and internet connected apps. These can all drastically drain the power if left unattended (especially the Camera) so once you are finished using an app press the Back button to exit it.

Note: You can also access the opened apps by long pressing the Back button, selecting app to open, then pressing the Back button.

Connectivity

The last (but by no means least) drain of your battery is the connectivity of your smartphone. This means connections like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and NFC, all of which can be major drains. The simplest way to look at things is that if you don’t need something at the time, turn it off.

  • Use network connections selectively

    Checking for emails, Facebook updates and tweets every couple of minutes will severely drain your battery. Set your phone to check for new mail less frequently or even by request only.

    In every mailbox you have, on the start screen swipe left and select settings > sync settings, and change the setting for Download new content .

  • Switch Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and NFC on only when needed

Use connections like Bluetooth, GPS, Wifi and NFC on only when needed. It’s also easier to install a quick setting app that you can pin to the Start screen for easy access.

To switch the tap+send feature off, On the start screen, swipe left, and tap Settings > select either WiFi, Bluetooth, tap+send and location then select the feature to Off.

  • Use a Wi-Fi connection when available

Using your phone’s network Data connectivity will drain your battery more so than WiFi connectivity, so when in a WiFi area use this to get online. You can also set the phone to alert you when a new network is available:

On the start screen swipe left and tap Settings > Wi-Fi and select Notify me when new networks are found  .

Note: Remember to turn off the WiFi when you are not using it!

That’s it; if you follow these steps you should be able to better manage your Windows Phone 8 smartphone and extend its battery life.