Don’t buy a new iPhone – how to boost speed and battery life TODAY with five simple tricks

IF YOUR iPhone is on the blink, it’s easy to fall into the trap of simply shelling out for a new one.

However, upgrading isn’t always the best way forward. Here are five tricks to make your iPhone last longer.

1

1. Turn on auto-brightness

It can be tempting to leave your phone’s brightness set on maximum – but it doesn’t need to be on full constantly.

The brighter your phone’s screen, the faster your battery life will drain.

So consider turning on Apple’s Auto-Brightness feature, which will regulate the display brightness based on the ambient lighting wherever you are.

This can significantly improve your battery life over time, and is a handy way of keeping your brightness at the right levels automatically.

2. Delete battery-draining apps

Your iPhone has a built-in tool that lets you uncover exactly which apps are draining your battery life.

Head into Settings > Battery, and then wait for the page to load.

Next, tap on the ‘Last 10 Days’ option, which reveals battery usage for different apps from the past week-and-a-half.

If you scroll down, you can see the apps that have used the majority of your battery life, in percentage form.

So if an app has 20% next to it, that means it hoovered up a fifth of all battery life used in the past 10 days.

You can also toggle it to show the listed items by activity – keeping them ordered by battery usage.

So if you’ve spent very little time on an app but it’s high on the list for usage, that means it’s a battery killer.

This section also splits up the time that the app was running in the background.

Watch out for apps that use lots of battery and rack up lots of background usage time – they’re particularly bad for your battery life.

3. Stop ‘quitting’ apps

Closing iPhone apps constantly is a waste of time – and could actually hurt your handset.

Apple says you shouldn’t bother unless an app has frozen.

“When your recently used apps appear, the apps aren’t open, but they’re in standby mode to help you navigate and multitask,” Apple explained.

Part of the problem is that it’s tempting to think apps in your “carousel” are running.

But they’re actually frozen by your iPhone, so they don’t drain resources while you do other things.

Having to restart apps completely after being swiped away sucks up more battery life.

Also, the more strain you put on your battery, the faster it will degrade over time. That app will also take longer to restart.

It’s like loading a TV from standby, versus having the telly reboot completely.

4. Don’t use your iPhone while it’s charging

It is very tempting to use our iPhone while it’s hooked up to the charger, still, this can be extremely damaging to its battery. 

There is compelling evidence out there that shows using your phone while it’s charging can not only reduce battery life but disrupt the charge cycle as well. 

This is especially the case if you are using your phone to play a game or watch videos, which are considered processor-intensive tasks.

5. Auto-close your Safari tabs

Another way to boost performance is to trigger a self-destruct command for tabs in the Safari iOS app.

When activated, the setting means that users don’t have to close tabs manually from within the app.

As a result, your browser is less likely to suffer from a build-up of unused tabs that can slow down your device and tank your battery life.

To set your Safari tabs to close automatically, open your iPhone Settings app. Scroll down and tap Safari.

Scroll down again and tap Close Tabs. Select from the menu whether you want tabs to close after one day, one week or one month.

BONUS TIP: Keep your iPhone cool

The last thing you’ll want to do to preserve your iPhone battery is to keep it cool as often as you can. 

This will not only help to maintain the battery’s lifespan but will also improve the overall functionality and longevity of your iPhone.

For charging, specifically, this might look like keeping the iPhone in a well-ventilated place, or maybe even taking it out of its case while it re-energizes.

Additionally, you will want to avoid putting your phone on hot dashboards or under your pillow while sleeping.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]