The top six battery hogs

1 Screens

LCD screens have to be powered themselves, but need a backlight too. The result is that they draw a lot of power, especially at brighter settings. OLED screens (used on iPhone X and Apple Watch) don’t require a backlight, so are kinder on batteries.

2 Data streaming

Streaming data at high speeds between your cell and the nearest tower requires a lot of energy. More modern versions are more efficient, but are still major battery killers.

3 Intensive applications

Processors are a bit like car engines, in that they use more fuel the harder you push them. Any task that requires a lot of processing power over a long time — such as converting a video, or the way a game is constantly using a graphics chip — will use a lot of battery power.

4 Wi- Fi

There’s some debate over whether mobile internet is more of a battery drain than Wi-Fi. Either way, sending data over the air from your device to your router (and back) will have an impact on your device’s battery life.

5 Hard drives

Got a Macbook? Then you should know that your hard drive could be the source of a major battery deficit. Think about it — spinning a magnetic disk at thousands of revolutions per minute uses more power than flash storage. If that’s a concern, it might be time for an upgrade.

6 GPS

Who would have guessed that communicating with satellites in low Earth orbit turns out to be taxing? The constant location searching your device does will quickly drain its battery.