Never Say “Die” (to your Old Smartphone)

With these further tricks to help your old phone run faster, you’ll not be so quick to get rid of it just yet. If you’ve missed the prior top tips (and you really should start with those, you can find them in Parts 1 and 2 here and here, respectively.

• Turn on Chrome’s Lite mode. If you’re waiting longer than what seems normal for webpages to load, your phone might be struggling to process data quickly, and if you use an Android Smartphone, you may benefit from switching to Chrome Lite. (Note that Chrome’s Lite mode at this writing is incompatible with iPhones and iPads.) Below are the instructions straight from Google:

How lite mode works
When you use lite mode, some of your web traffic may go through Google servers before being downloaded to your device. If the page is loading slowly, Google servers may simplify it so that less data gets downloaded to your device. Most of the time, your pages will look and work the same.

If you’re using lite mode, keep in mind that:

1. If you browse in private, lite mode won’t work.
2. Some websites might have trouble finding your location.
3. You might not be able to use pages on a local network, such as an internal company site.
4. You might have trouble with premium data services provided by your mobile operator. You also might not be able to sign in to your operator’s website.
5. When you go to a secure page that uses HTTPS, Chrome sends the URL to Google to load faster. Only the URL is sent, and Chrome doesn’t share your cookies or personal data with Google.
6. Turn on Lite mode
7. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chrome app Chrome.
8. At the top right, tap More More and then Settings.
9. Under ‘Advanced’, tap Lite mode.
10. Turn on Lite mode.
11. If you’re on a page that was simplified, you can go back to the original page without changing your settings. To see the original page, at the top, tap Lite and then Load original page.

1. See how much data you’ve saved
2. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chrome app.
3. Tap More and then Settings.
4. Tap Lite mode. At the bottom, you’ll see a list of the sites that you’ve visited and how much data you’ve saved.

Restart your phone regularly

A quick (30-second) restart will give your phone an instant speed boost by freeing up your memory, eliminating background processes and apps, and releasing any stuck apps. Even if you regularly swipe away apps, they might still be holding onto some RAM, which quickly adds up. And particularly if you’ve not got a lot of memory to start with, a weekly restart should make a significant improvement in your phone’s performance and battery life.

Re-Customize your Display

You probably set up your display just the way you wanted it when you first bought your phone, but it might be worth a re-visit. With a few tweaks, you can extend your phone’s battery life and speed up performance…without sacrificing your eyesight.

Lower the screen resolution: Many phones offer the same option as PC monitors for a lower resolution in the Display settings. This will have an immediate impact on battery life, and with the screen being so small, you probably won’t notice the difference anyway.

Turn on dark mode: If your Android phone has an OLED screen, using dark mode will actually extend the battery life because it’s using less power to light the display. Unlike LCD screens, OLED displays turn off the pixels to achieve blackness, so using fewer pixels is more efficient.

On your iPhone or iPad, tap Settings > Display & Brightness and tap the Dark theme under “Appearance” (see images below). This will automatically change the theme for built-in apps like Files, Messages, Music, News, Notes, Photos, Safari, and TV, as well as in some compatible third-party apps, such as Gmail. Others, like Facebook, will need to be switched on from its app. An example of what a text will look like is the third image, below.

Turn off the always-on display: The “always-on” display can be a battery killer. You shouldn’t be clock watching anyway! Put your phone back in your pocket where it belongs. You can always turn on audio Notifications if you’re expecting an important message.

If you’re looking for more tips on maximizing the life of your iphone battery, check out one of our earlier posts here.

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