Does the battery in your Android phone last long enough? The answer is probably no and few phones meet our needs or expectations. Use these battery saving tips to get more hours per charge.

Battery life varies from phone to phone and some are better and some are worse than others. You may struggle to get through a full day on a single charge and by afternoon or evening you have to top it up with the mains charger. It can be frustrating when you need your phone, but see the battery level falling 30%, 20% ,10%...

Some phones are very good and have great battery life, but there are too few of them and many people struggle. What can be done about it? There are actually quite a few ways to increase the number of hours the phone will run for on a full charge and here are some of them. Not all features are on all phones and the one used for these tips is a budget Samsung phone running Android 10. Other phones with other versions of Android may have some or all these features, but menus vary, so you may have to hunt for them in the phone settings.

Low power mode

One of the best ways to reduce battery drain on a phone and to get more running time is to use low power mode. It reduces the screen brightness slightly, limits the CPU performance to 70% of maximum, and restricts background tasks. The phone runs more slowly, but this means that it draws less power and consequently the battery lasts a bit longer. The phone does not feel much different and these limitations are hardly noticeable in email, messaging, social media and other apps. Many apps don't require maximum performance anyway.

CPUs these days do not run at a constant rate and they speed up and slow down automatically depending on the demands made by the operating system and apps. So turning this on doesn’t exactly slow it down all the time, it limits the CPU's top speed. The result is that the battery lasts longer.

The phone is slower, but the loss of performance is small and you might not notice it with many of the apps you use. Some apps require very little processing power anyway, so this setting might have little effect on your activities. I run my Samsung Galaxy M31 in low power mode all the time and only occasionally switch it off, such as for playing games. It works fine in low power mode and the battery lasts longer.

On this phone, pull down from the top of the screen and there is a toolbar of icons. One of these switches to power saving mode. However, it can also be enabled in Settings if your phone does not have this quick access toolbar.

Enable power saving mode:

1. Open Settings
2. Press Device Care
3. Press Battery
4. Press Power Mode
5. Select Medium power saving

There is a Maximum power saving setting, but this is a bit extreme and turns most things off. It is for emergencies only. There is an Adaptive power saving mode that aims to set the power mode automatically based on your usage. You might like to try that and see if it makes a difference.

Sleep and deep sleep apps

When apps are on the screen, they are obviously using power, but when they are not actually being used, they can continue to run in the background unseen and continue to use power. Apps running in the background may check the location, access the internet, check for updates, show notifications and more. All these activities require power. Preventing apps from running in the background can therefore reduce power consumption and increase battery life.

(Apps can be set never to sleep and you might want to put some essentials there, like email, messages, alarms, calendar, to-do and others.)

Set Android apps to sleep:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Press Device Care
3. Press Battery
4. Press App power management
5. Press Sleeping apps or Deep sleeping apps

Your phone may have just a Sleeping apps option, but some phones also have Deep sleeping apps. The difference is that sleeping apps may occasionally wake to perform tasks, like checking for emails, messages, but deep sleeping apps will never run in the background and only run when you run them.

Whether sleeping or deep sleeping, press + Add apps and select apps that you do not want to run in the background. Don't deep sleep email or anything else you rely on for notifications. I don't need to see updates from Facebook, Instagram and other social networks, so I deep sleep them to prevent them from running in the background and using battery power. It is just my personal choice and your priorities may be different.

Other power saving settings

Power saving mode reduces the screen brightness by 10% to save power, but manually lowering the screen brightness can result in even greater power saving and longer batter life. Pull down from the top and there is usually a screen brightness slider. Make the brightness as low as you can while still being able to see the screen comfortably. There may be a down arrow at the right of the brightness slider and this shows an Adaptive brightness option on my phone. It automatically changes the brightness according to conditions. Your phone may have a similar option, but it could be in the Display section of the Settings app.

In Settings > Advanced features is an option to reduce animations, such as when apps are opened and closed. It helps reduce power requirements a tiny bit.

In Settings > Display is a light and dark mode option. Dark mode is not just nice, on some phones it can save power. Enable it if your phone has it. Also in this section is Screen timeout, which automatically turns off the screen when you put your phone down or in your pocket after a certain period of time. Set a short timeout to prolong battery life.

In Settings > Connections turn off Bluetooth unless you need it. If you don't use your phone for payments, also turn off NFC.

There may be other settings that can save power, but it depends on your phone. For example, go to Settings > Advanced features > Motions and gestures and there is Smart stay. This checks that you are looking at the screen and turns it off if you are not. I am not sure whether it saves more power by turning off the screen than it does to keep checking that you are looking at your phone, presumably with the camera. Lift to wake tends to turn on the screen a bit too often for my liking and the screen uses a lot of power. Turn this off to save power.

Action points to extend battery life:

• Enable power saving mode
• Limit CPU performance
• Turn off haptic feedback
• Turn down the screen brightness
• Turn off Bluetooth
• Turn off NFC, S Beam, Nearby devices
• Turn off Wi-Fi
• Limit apps data usage to Wi-Fi