5 Ways To Save Battery In IOS 8

So as we know, with Beta software comes poor optimisation. Take our very own Darren Butz, who managed to use 75% of his battery life in just 3 hours and 10 minutes of usage!

That’s some pretty poor performance right there, and the trend is visible across the board. It’s well known that surrendering yourself to Beta testing leaves you vulnerable to chronic battery shortage issues.

This will improve in time, and will most likely be a non-issue when iOS 8 is released to the public in September, but right now, I thought I would take you through some top tips to save battery in the iOS Beta.

But don’t turn away if you’re not running the Beta, as these tips can be applied to any version of iOS, and because of better optimization in public releases, they may actually reap greater rewards! Check them out below! Most of these are common sense tips, but there are a few you might not have considered.

Reduce Motion

Sure, the Parallax effect sure looks cool when you tilt your iPhone, but does it look as cool as the white ring of death as your iPhone powers down unexpectedly? Head into Settings > Accessibility > Reduce Motion to turn of the Parallax effect.

You’ll also notice that apps now fade into view, as opposed to their normal animation, which actually makes opening apps quicker.

Brightness

Apple’s Retina display sure looks great at full brightness, but if you want more hours of usage, this is one of the most basic ways to achieve them. More importantly, this choice doesn’t have to ruin your viewing experience.

Reducing your screen’s brightness to 50% doesn’t have massive effect on the screen, but it will save battery. You’ve probably noticed that most of the brightness drop-off comes when you lower the brightness below 50%, so the half-way mark makes for a decent compromise.

Background App Refresh

This feature was a great addition to iOS 7, and for many is a very important feature. That being said, Background refreshing is applied to all your apps by default. Chances are, you won’t need the feature serving all of the apps it currently does. Head to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and consider some apps which you can afford to switch off.

Push Email/Notifications

Push Email is nice, but I reckon some people might be able to live without it! Head to Mail in the Settings App, and set your email to check for new mail every 15 minutes, 30, minutes or even an hour.

Bear in mind that a 15 minute interval may actually cause your phone to check for mail more often than it might have done so under the push setting. Carefully consider your email activity, and then make a decision accordingly.

You may even find that the manual refresh setting is the best option for you! This can also be applied to app notifications, you don’t have to disable them all, but disabling some that you don’t need will certainly help!

Don’t quit multitasking apps

Contrary to popular belief, closing all of your apps isn’t necessarily the best way to save battery. On some occasions, closing and reopening an app each time you need it can consume more power than leaving it to run idly in the background.

This point my require some experimentation on your part, but just be aware that frequently closing all your apps to save battery may be doing you more harm than good.

These are some of the best ways to save battery running iOS 8. Of course, airplane mode, when cellular service is not required, or indeed unavailable, is another great way to save battery. Do you have any battery-saving tips for iOS 8? Share them in the comments below

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