iOS 10: Tips and tricks to lessen battery drain

IBTimes SG explores the top tips and tricks to reduce battery drain problems in iOS 10.

iOS 10 brings a bunch of power-packed features that invariably result in excessive battery drain as the new software is not fully-optimised to keep up with the power-hungry apps running in the background. As with other newly-released iOS firmware upgrades, battery life issues are still rampant with the new iOS 10 release.

Here are a few useful tips and tricks to diminish battery drain in iOS 10, with due credit to the industrious folks at iDownloadBlog:

Set display Auto-Lock to shortest time

You can set the display Auto-Lock feature to the shortest duration in order to minimise battery drain when the device is left idle. The auto-lock feature can be configured via Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto Lock.

Disable Background App Refresh

Various power-hungry apps are always running in the background and thereby result in excessive battery drain, especially on older devices which do not run on super power-efficient A10 Fusion chip.

Just by disabling the Background App Refresh feature, it is possible to significantly extend your phone's battery life. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and disable the option.

Disable Raise to Wake

New iPhones are capable of waking the display when you lift the phone up or pull it out of your trouser pocket, which is known as Raise to Wake feature. The feature uses accelerometer sensor to wake the display and hence it can significantly impact battery usage.

One can disable the feature by going to Settings > Display & Brightness > Raise to Wake.

Limit Location Services

Location-based apps are one of the prime concerns for battery drain as they ping your location co-ordinates on a round-the-clock basis, especially if you do not limit their usage. You can turn off Location Services when not needed in order to extend the battery life of your device.

Just navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and turn off this option.

Disable Auto-Brightness

With display brightness being one of the most battery-draining features, it is imperative to disable automatic mode; so that you can manually control brightness according to ambient light. It is reported that iOS often tries to increase brightness levels when exposed to sunlight in order to compensate for poor visibility.

You can disable Auto-Brightness feature via Settings > Display & Brightness.

Disable App Notifications

As the number of App notifications popping-up on your screen increase over time, they will drain that much more battery life on your device. You can limit the battery drain through App notifications by removing certain useless apps from the notification list. Just go to Settings > Notifications and disable all those apps that are hogging on your device's battery.

Use Apple Watch to control iPhone features

Employing the use of Apple Watch to handle notifications and control other iPhone features could help increase the battery life of your phone by reducing the display usage and processing load on the handset.

Replace wireless with wired headphones

You can replace your wireless headphones with the wired counterpart in order to reduce the battery drain as wired audio playback consumes less power than the wireless playback.

Enable Wi-Fi calling

Whenever you encounter lower signal-strength on your device, you will be draining more battery charge in order to keep up with the failing signals while making phone calls.

In such scenarios, just enable Wi-Fi calling feature to tap into nearby Wi-Fi networks to complete the ongoing calls without losing connection. However, this feature is limited to some phones based on whether the carrier supports it on any given handset.

You can enable the feature by going to Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi calling.

Low Power mode

Switch on the Low Power mode feature whenever you want to limit the functionality of power-hungry features like Mail fetch, Hey Siri, automatic downloads, app background processes and visual effects for reduced power consumption.

Low Power mode feature can be accessed via Settings > Battery > Low Power mode.

Keep iOS software updated

Installing regular software updates on your device will ensure that all known battery-draining bugs are quashed while also optimising the energy or battery efficiency for running apps in the background. Go to Settings > General and download the latest firmware update via Software Updates section.

Disable automatic downloads

You can disable automatic downloads to prevent iOS from forcing unwanted apps and app updates to your device without your consent. By turning off this feature, you can conserve battery life that could drain easily as update services are always running in the background.

Just go to Settings > iTunes & App Stores to access the automatic downloads feature.

Disable 3G data or Wi-Fi access

It is a good idea to disable mobile or 3G data and/or Wi-Fi access when you don't use it. Constantly keeping the Wi-Fi or cellular service turned on could rapidly drain the battery on your phone.

Alternatively, just flip the toggle switch to turn on Airplane Mode via Control Center.

[Source: iDownloadBlog]

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