Cell phones have become a major part of our daily lives. We use them to stay connected to co-workers, family, and friends, shop online, order takeaways, online banking, and so much more. If your cell signal is poor, your mobile has to work harder to keep you connected. At the same time, if your battery is low, it can affect your ability to get and maintain a stable connection.
As robust as our cellular devices may seem, they are not indestructible. As phones begin to age they lose their ability to hold charge, and poor reception accelerates this loss of capacity. If you find that you constantly need to charge your phone, then it’s time to locate the cause for rapid loss in charge. Here are a few tips to help your cell phone keep its energy.
What Causes Weak Cellular Reception?
Low bars and dropped calls are signs of a weak reception. It’s may not be your network providers fault. Let’s look at some of the common causes of weak cell signal.
Densely Populated Areas
Cell phone towers are designed to facilitate immense traffic, but from time to time, the demands on them are too great. Even in built up city areas, every cellular device is competing for a spot. If your mobile tries to connect to a tower that’s low on bandwidth, then you’ll likely get dropped calls and weak signal.
Trees and Mountains
In areas surrounded by dense forrest and large trees will likely experience poor reception. Hilly or Mountainous regions are susceptible to weak signal because the cellular reception from the closest cellphone tower may diminish as it travels through rocky terrain. If you have a hill or mountain between you and the nearest cell phone tower, this will also likely cause weak reception.
Dead Zones
There are still many areas in South Africa that the Network providers have not covered yet. Some areas are dead zones with no cell towers in sight. Dead zones can result from obstructions between the user and the closest cell phone tower as well. Your network provider has a cell tower map that can show you if you are in one of these unfortunate areas.
Inclement Weather
Cell phones receive and transmit radio waves. Adverse weather conditions such as wind, high humidity, thunder, lightning, rain, heavy cloud cover, and snow can scatter these waves. Hence, the signal between your phone and the tower may get blocked.
Solar Flares
Eruptions on the sun’s surface send shock waves through space, sometimes disrupt cellular phone service. These solar flares affect the planet's magnetic field and scramble satellite signals. Hence, cellular devices across the globe seem out of order for a bit.
Ways to Help Your Phone
While you there are many things you cant control, like mountains, dead zones and solar flares, you can take action to preserve your device's battery. Here are several tips that give your phone an instant extension of energy.
Enable Battery Saving Mode
The low power or battery saving mode on your cell phone reduces or shuts off non-essential features. Many mobile devices automatically activate this function when your battery level reaches a certain percentage, but you can turn it on manually at any point to retain some power. The battery saver mode typically stops apps from syncing (including email) and dims your display brightness.
Unplug When Fully Charged
Once your phone has reached full charge, keeping it plugged in won’t help the charge last longer. In fact, this weakens the battery over time. Research suggests that when reaching full charge while still plugged in, some lithium-ion batteries in cell phones heat up an extra 9 degrees, potentially affecting their ability to carry a charge.
Adjust Your Screen Brightness
Keeping your screen’s brightness at its brightest setting can strain your eyes, and depletes your battery. Turn the brightness and OLED settings to their lowest levels your eyes can handle. Try inverting the colours, using dark themes instead of lighter themes, or increasing the text size to make reading easier and decrease battery use.
Avoid Extreme Heat
Avoid leaving your cellular device in places where it could overheat, such as in direct sunlight. Extreme heat can destroy your devices internal components. It can cause a loss in data and could slow down your cell phone over time. Heat can also lead a forced shutdown or a battery leakage.
Time Out Sooner
Check on your screen time out setting. This determines how soon your screen shuts off after not getting any input, ranging from one minute to never. You’ll extend your battery life by using the shortest timeframe possible.
Turn on the Airplane Mode
Your phone is constantly searching for a signal, working nonstop to obtain a stronger one. This is strenuous work that drains your battery. If you don’t need cellular reception for a couple of hours, then switch on your airplane mode to disable your cellular service. Some devices leave Wi-Fi access on in airplane mode, allowing you to still get some reception while saving your battery.
Customise Auto Updates and Notifications
When you connect to a Wi-Fi network, all your apps automatically update at the same time, straining your battery. App notifications that wake up your display screen are tiny but drain your cell phones battery. Set your auto-update and notification settings to manual for all but your most important apps. You’ll need to check each app for updates, but your battery will benefit from the relief.
Tap Into Wi-Fi When You Can
Although connecting with Wi-Fi is more efficient than with cellular data, leaving your Wi-Fi enabled when you aren’t using it can also drain your battery. When your Wi-Fi capability is turned on, your battery’s power depletes the same way it does when searching for a cell signal. If you aren’t near a Wi-Fi network, turn Wi-Fi off to help prolong your battery life.
Download Music and Movies
Streaming services such as Apple Music, Disney +, and Netflix require your phone to keep an active wireless connection, which takes up a lot of energy. These providers let you download playlists, series, and movies so you can watch and listen offline without a battery-draining internet connection. Be sure to download while on Wi-Fi and plugged into a charger to save even more power.
Use Paid Apps
Many free apps offer their program to users with no additional charge by allowing advertisers to display adverts on their platform. These adverts strain your mobiles battery. Apps also drain your phone’s battery power when they are idle. It might be worth it for you to invest a few extra Rands for paid versions that save your battery. keep an eye on your battery settings to see which apps are draining your battery the most.
Keep Apps You Need Up to Speed
Many app updates come with bug fixes that improve your phone’s efficiency so they don’t use as much battery power. Remove programs you don’t use that are accelerating your energy consumption, such as those games you downloaded and forgot about.
Get a Booster
In areas with weak signal, your cell phone uses more energy to search for a reception. An amplifier can pick up and strengthen the poor signal so that your phone doesn’t have to exhaust its battery in constant searching.
How May We Help You?
Bolton Technical is a leading provider of cell phone signal boosters, devices that amplify 4G & 3G LTE for any phone with any carrier for home, office, or car. We’ve boosted over 1,000,000 m² of signal for homes, buildings, and vehicles across America and Canada and now that same power is boosting signal across South Africa.
- Free consultation (ask us anything) with our South African-based customer support. Email us or Call us today.
- Free shipping over R500 to Major South African cities. Usually ships same day.
- 30-day money back guarantee. You want to make sure you're satisfied.
Our goal is simple: keep people connected. Ask us anything and we'll be glad to help.
