Maximizing Your Samsung Galaxy S3: Improving Battery Life
Whether you recently received your Samsung Galaxy S3 over the holidays or have had it for many months now, there are certainly ways to make an already great phone experience turn into an excellent one.
That’s why Mobile Magazine while be taking a deeper look at the Samsung Galaxy S3 over the next several weeks with a new article series, “Maximizing Your Samsung Galaxy S3”.
For some users (especially those who have had their phones for a while) some of these topics might just seem like common sense. For others some of these tips might really help them get around the UI better, improve battery life, custom the start screen and much more.
Today’s topic is all about extending your battery life. Keep in mind that some of these tricks might only be useful when your phone is nearing the end of a charge and you need to just get a few more minutes out of the device in order to tide you over until you get to your charger.
Alright, so let’s dive in and take a look at just a few things that could potentially help you maximize your Galaxy S3′s battery life.
Power Saving Option
If you’ve had the S3 for a while now, or jumped in and played around– you probably already know all about the Samsung Galaxy S3′s Power Saving options. Enabling this mode will limit the maximum CPU speed, change background colors throughout your system apps and lower the screen power.
Go Dark with the Colors
Some screen profiles actually use a bit more power than others, particularly choosing a profile that is darker in color isn’t a bad idea. Using darker backgrounds can also help a little.
Also, you might want to head over to Settings>Display>Brightness and bring things down a bit.
Don’t go too crazy here though, as getting a little better battery life probably won’t mean much if using your phone becomes a pain because you are straining your eyes just to see what you are doing.
Screen Time Out
The Galaxy S3 has a special “motion detect” method that should automatically know whether you are looking at your phone or not and have your screen dim out according. Make sure this setting is on. If not, you can also go to “Screen Timeout” and make it so the screen turns off after a certain amount of time.
Turn Off Wi-Fi/Bluetooth When You Don’t Need Them
When you have no real need for extra radios like Bluetooth, turn them off. If they are on, they are constantly scanning and could be putting extra pressure on your battery.
Interactive Wallpapers and Fancy Ringtones
Believe it or not, both of these things can suck out extra juice from your battery. Turning off the interactive wallpaper can add a little extra life if you need it.
Additionally, use beeps and short tones for your ringer as opposed to vibrate or a long musical tune.
Going Beyond Stock Options….
Beyond the tricks listed above, there are also third party apps that can do even more for your battery life. Some of these apps include task killers like “Advanced Task Killer”. That being said, many techies across the web have put task killers to the test to see if they really help with speed and with battery life. The conclusion? It seems to be mixed, but for the most part you probably won’t find much gain here.
If you think that there is a specific app that might be bringing you massive battery drain, you can always use the built-in battery usage tool to check for sure: Settings > About Phone > Battery Usage
Looking a 3rd party app specific to increasing battery life? JuiceDefender Free or the more powerful Pro version might be worth a look. Keep in mind that the Pro version will set you back $5.
Since the Galaxy S3 has a removable battery, there is also the option of buying a 3rd party or even official larger battery for your S3, such as the S3 3000 mAh battery from Samsung.
Did I miss specific trick or excellent app that you feel could make a big difference in battery life? Perhaps you feel one of the suggestions really doesn’t do much for battery gain? Share with our readers (and us) below!
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