Turning off location services and closing apps that drain your iPhone or Android’s battery can definitely help extend its life, but your screen’s brightness setting may be another battery draining culprit. According to SamMobile, screen brightness “typically accounts for 30-50% of total battery consumption under normal usage conditions.” Basically, the brighter your screen stays, the more power your phone uses to keep it that bright throughout the day. However, that doesn’t mean you should set your brightness level to an uncomfortable setting just so you can save a few hours of battery life. Depending on your display preferences, there are many settings that can help extend battery life while maintaining clear visuals, such as enabling adaptive brightness (or auto-brightness), manually setting an optimal brightness level, or using dark mode instead of the default lighting mode display setting.
Older devices were built with LCD screens that emitted light even when a screen appeared dark. Now a good majority of smartphones are built with OLED displays, which actually reduces battery consumption in dim or dim display settings, thereby extending the life of your phone’s battery. With this battery-friendly feature in mind, you’ll just need to find a comfortable brightness setting that will extend your battery life and save your precious turn signals from eye strain.
Correct your screen brightness setting to improve battery life
A good way to improve your phone’s battery life is to enable adaptive or automatic brightness, easily accessible in the Settings app on iOS and Android devices. Some people may think that this automatic setting can be very battery consuming, however, the sensors do not consume much power – they simply detect the level of lighting present in the room you are in. Manually adjusting the brightness yourself using the sliders found in your operating system’s Control Center can be just as effective, as long as you keep brightness levels between 50% and 75% to preserve battery life, and remember to recalibrate between bright or dimly lit areas.
Another setting to check is Dark Mode, which can also be enabled for iOS and Android phones in the Display & Brightness section. If you have the default Light Mode setting, which is dark text on a white or light background, this simply applies light text on a dark background through your Home interface and most of your installed apps. One of the known downsides of dark mode, however, is that the darker UI can make it harder to see what’s on display when you’re under intense sunlight. However, this is a great battery-saving option, especially for phones with OLED displays, because no black pixels on your screen will emit light or consume power. If you don’t like to embrace the dark side (of your screen, of course), you can always switch back to light mode.
