Ten easy ways to make your Galaxy Note 8 battery last longer
Hello Android fans! Welcome to today’s #GalaxyNote8 article. In this post, we provide some useful tricks and tips on how to improve the general performance of your Galaxy Note 8 battery.
How to improve battery performance on your Galaxy Note 8
The Galaxy Note 8 is expected to fare better than the Galaxy S8 in terms of battery performance, at least on paper. In most cases though, any Note 8 user will be lucky to be able to use his or her Note 8 for 8 hours in a day before charging it again. If you’re wondering how to squeeze more power out of your Note 8 battery day in and day out, doing our suggestions below might help.
Tip #1: Lower screen brightness
If there’s one thing that makes flagship phones like the Galaxy Note 8 so visually appealing to millions, it’s the display. With the Note 8’s huge 6.3 inches screen, it’s a beast in its class. In fact, it’s the one that makes the Note 8 so attractive as well. With the right color combinations, the Note 8 screen is a miniature high definition TV in your palm. However, the thing that makes the display so bright and colorful is also one of its weaknesses. In order to work, the screen gobbles up power so fast that even a fully charged battery won’t be able to last 8 hours. In order to enjoy your Note 8 a little longer everyday before charging it, try to lower screen brightness level to something you are comfortable with. This depends on every user’s preference but generally, the dimmer the screen is, the better it is for battery performance. Don’t overdo this though. Try to pick the lowest comfortable brightness level. Too dim and you may be straining your eye too much.
To change brightness level of the screen, just go under Settings>Display.
Tip #2: Use Dark theme
By design, AMOLED and OLED displays use more power when white or bright colors are being rendered. While power is still consumed for dark or darker colors, it’s still is not that big compared to bright ones so utilizing dark themes and wallpapers can give your battery a boost day in and day out. Remember, themes and wallpapers are activated the moment you turn the screen on so even a trickle of power saved every minute can eventually add up in a day.
Tip #3: Don’t use unnecessary gestures
Samsung Galaxy devices tend to collect “gestures” over the years. Some of them may be useful, but majority are not that necessary at all. We don’t know how many users use certain gestures on their devices but if you don’t, we suggest that you make sure they’re not enabled. Examples of gestures you may not use are Pop-up view gesture, Magnification gesture, etc.
Gestures are found under Settings>Advanced Features.
Tip #4: Use lower resolution
Just like screen brightness, the higher your display’s resolution is, the higher power consumption becomes. While we think Samsung’s attempt to provide users with options when it comes to screen resolution is good, there’s not enough attempt to educate users of the downside when using higher resolution. There are three screen resolutions that you can use:
- HD (1480 x 720)
- FHD+ (2220 x 1080)
- WQHD+ (2960 x 1440)
Keep in mind that the higher the number of the resolution you use, the more pixels your screen uses. The higher the pixels the screen has, the more power is required to display the image or video. While higher screen resolution is very useful when viewing an image or video in bigger screens like TV sets, the difference between resolutions in an 6.3 inches screen is not that significant for most users. Unless you’re constantly using your Note 8 to work on sensitive graphics-heavy tasks, using HD (1480 x 720) resolution is not so different as when you’re using
WQHD+ (2960 x 1440) visually. At least that’s our opinion.
By default, the Galaxy Note 8 screen resolution is set to FHD so it’s okay. However, if all you do for the most part for the day is view emails, read and send texts, make or receive calls, and occasional social network site visits, consider using HD (1480 x 720) resolution.
To change screen resolution, just go under Settings > Display > Screen resolution.
Tip #5: Block accidental touches
Formerly called Keep screen turned off feature, Block accidental touches is turned by default. What it does is that your Note 8 senses if it’s inside your pocket or bag so that the screen remains off. It’s a very useful feature that should save a lot of power when you’re on the move, or when you’re not using the device inside your pocket or bag. It also prevents accidental dialing or opening of stuff on your phone if you forget to lock the screen before putting it in your bag or pocket.
To check Block accidental touches, go to Settings > Display > Block accidental touches.
Tip #6: Turn off Nearby Device Scanning
Turning off Bluetooth on your Note 8 does not necessarily mean that it’s totally off. By default, your device is still actively scanning for other Bluetooth device and functions even if you’ve already toggled the Bluetooth switch off, thanks to Nearby Device Scanning feature. Although this features uses only Bluetooth Low Energy scanning, it still is consuming power for 24 hours. To give a tiny boost to your battery everyday, consider turning Nearby Device Scanning off. To do that, go to Settings > Connections > More connection settings.
Tip #7: Disable S Pen animations/gimmicks
One of the main reasons why Galaxy Note devices tend to have shorter battery life compared to Galaxy S devices is the fact that it uses an accessory — the S Pen. While it’s definitely more handy to take notes and scribble important reminders to yourself using S Pen, it also has a few gimmicks that are not that necessary. For example, we really don’t find it useful if the S Pen makes a sound or vibrates while in use. Sure, there are other settings that are certainly necessary but try to visit your S Pen’s settings menu and disable features that are not that useful at all. To do that, visit Settings > Advanced Features > S Pen.
Tip #8: Use shorter screen timeout
While Samsung does provide options how long your screen darkens after being left unused, we suggest that you use the shortest possible screen timeout option if you want to save battery power as much as possible. Just remember, the longer the screen turns on, the faster the battery drains. You can change Screen Timeout under Settings > Display > Screen timeout.
Tip #9: Use Power saving mode or App power monitor
Power saving feature has been around with Samsung mobile devices so you’ve probably heard about it before. Basically, this feature tweaks some of your devices functions in order to conserve power. For example, the processor will be slowed down and screen brightness will be lowered, among other settings, if you enable Power Saving Mode.
On the other hand, App power monitor is a handy tool to allow your device to automatically put apps you haven’t used in 3 days to sleep. While on sleep mode, apps won’t be able to receive new updates or do what they’re supposed to do, even when in the background. Ideally, you’re supposed to put apps to sleep when you don’t use them but since it can be tedious if you keep on doing that all the time, Samsung designed to incorporate App power monitor to do the job.
To check these two options, go to Settings > Device maintenance > Battery.
Tip #10: Install apps you only need
A lot of Android users don’t realize the fact that the more apps they install (and later forget) the more it can potentially lead to issues like fast battery drain and lack of storage space. In general, we recommend that you uninstall apps you don’t use very often. Some apps may continue running in the background even if you haven’t opened them for ages so if you have a lot of these apps, you’re really wasting precious battery for something you don’t need.