One Tech Tip: How to get the most life out of your device

LONDON — If you want to use your shiny new iPhone for as long as possible, you better take good care of it.

Most people are now holding on to smartphones longer instead of regularly upgrading them, and there are many reasons why.

At the dawn of the smartphone age, you might have upgraded to a new device every few years to make sure you had the latest must-have features or because your carrier’s contract subsidized the purchase of the newest model. But that’s no longer the case as smartphone technology has matured and innovations have become more incremental, and carrier pricing models have changed.

There’s also an environmental push to keep old phones out of landfills as electronic waste becomes a larger sustainability issue. Smartphones these days are also just sturdier and better able to survive dunks and shocks.

“As long as you take care of your phone and keep it updated, you’re going to get at least four or five good years of use out of it,” said Chris Hauk, of Pixel Privacy, a tech website. Some device owners boast in online forums that they’ve had phones last more than seven years.

And if you’re paying over $1,000 for your smartphone, you’ll probably want to it to last as long as it can. Here are some tips to extend the lifespan of your Apple or Android mobile device:

Battery care

One of the biggest factor in your phone’s lifespan is the battery. A rechargeable battery’s chemical age isn’t related to when it was manufactured. Instead, it’s based on a complex mix of factors including “temperature history and charging pattern,” according to Apple.

“As lithium-ion batteries chemically age, the amount of charge they can hold diminishes, resulting in reduced battery life and reduced peak performance,” the iPhone maker says.

The company says its charging optimization technology is designed to improve battery life, and it’s safe for iPhone users to charge their phones overnight.

Samsung, meanwhile, says its lithium ion batteries do best when kept above 50% charge. It advises against running the battery down.

“Repeatedly allowing the battery to drain fully may shorten its life and decrease its overall capacity,” the company says in an online guide. “If this happens, you’ll need to charge the battery more frequently and it may last only a few hours before needing a charge, for example.”

Avoid extreme temperatures

Apple says that batteries warm up as they charge, which can shorten their lifespan. It warns against using your phone or charging it in very hot temperatures, above 95 degrees (35 Celsius), “which can permanently reduce battery lifespan.”

Samsung also says extreme heat or cold can damage batteries and warns people not to, for example, leave their phones in a car’s glove box when it’s very hot or cold. And don’t put your phone in a freezer either, it’s a myth that it can prolong battery life. “This is not correct and can damage your battery,” Samsung says.

Google, which makes the Android operating system and Pixel phones, says hot batteries drain faster, even when they’re not in use, and that can damage the battery.

Adjust your power options

Tweak your device settings so apps or features use less power, which extends your battery’s daily life and the time between charging cycles.

You can turn down your phone’s screen brightness, turn on the dark theme and reduce the time for the screen to power off. Enable the auto-brightness feature, which adjusts screen brightness according to the level of ambient light. Also check battery usage in your settings to see if there are any power-hungry apps you can switch off or uninstall.

If the power level dips below 10%, iPhone users can turn on low power mode to stretch their battery’s life before it need recharging. Samsung’s Android phones have a similar “power saving mode.” You can also leave it on all the time, but it might affect your phone’s performance.

Samsung says users can switch off Bluetooth or Wi-Fi if they’re not being used, although Apple advises leaving them on because they draw minimal power when not connected.

Use protection

Phones are sleek capsules but the glossy surface means they can slip easily out of your hand. So it goes without saying that you should get a sturdy protective case to help cushion the blow when you accidentally drop it.

Don’t forget a screen protector. Plastic versions are the cheapest option but can scuff easily, according to device repair website iFixit, which recommends ones made with TPU film or tempered glass, which offer better protection against scratches and drops.

Keep your device clean

Keeping your phone in your pocket or purse means its ports and sockets can collect lint and other debris that you’ll need to clean out.

“Take a little toothpick and just kind of get in and get rid of any debris,” said Hauk. “Also the speaker and the microphone grills on phones, they do get dirty,” so use a toothbrush to clean them, he said. Just make sure you’re flicking the debris away from the phone instead of pushing it deeper inside the tiny holes.

Update your device

Software is another important factor in a phone’s lifespan. Experts advise keeping your operating system and apps up to date so they have the latest privacy, security and battery management features.

That will be easier to do as your phone ages because some device makers have been extending the time limit for providing updates.

Google has pledged to provide Pixel 8 and newer phones with seven years of Android and security updates, compared with four to five years for older models. Samsung has also extended its operating system updates to seven years starting with its flagship S24 device launched earlier this year.

Apple doesn’t spell out how long it will support iOS updates for devices, although older devices like the iPhone 6s released in 2014 and the iPhone 8 were still getting security updates this year.

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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

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