Ask Bongani

Arthur’s right-hand man and expert tech guru Bongani Sithole answers questions: @GadgetZA Market researcher: @worldwideworx

Why does my phone ba ery die so quickly?

There are a number of factors that can drain your cellphone’s battery.

And equally, for each of these factors, there are techniques and habits that can prolong battery life:

Wi-Fi/LTE connectivity 24/7

Turn off Wi-Fi or data to save battery power, as it drains the battery even when not in use.

Especially with mobile broadband, the phone is constantly checking the signal, and making sure you remain connected. That eats up battery life.

Screen brightness

When possible, keep your screen brightness to a minimum.

Background applications

Go to your mobile settings and access an option called battery optimisation or similar, and turn off apps running in the background.

Location-tracking apps

In general, keep location tracking on your phone turned off. If you want specific apps (such as security and navigation apps) to continue to track your location, you can disable location tracking individually in the Permissions section of each app’s settings.

Always-on display

And then there are mapping apps that keep your display on throughout a journey. This makes a far greater impact on battery life during a journey than the app itself, or the location-tracking aspect.

Check that battery management tool again: it can almost be guaranteed that half the battery usage in any given period is coming from the display.

The bo om line

Every time you finish using the handset, simply click the On/Off button briefly to turn the display dark. That should extend your battery life into the evening.