How to Extend Samsung Galaxy S3 Battery Life

Earlier, we showed you how to extend the battery life on your iPhone 5S and today, we take a look at some of things that you can do to save your Samsung Galaxy S3 battery from winding down too quickly. While many of the steps will be common to the iPhone 5S, there are some features in the Galaxy s3 like the Smart Screen that you may not realize are eating into your battery. Let’s take a look. This test is done on a Samsung Galaxy S3 running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

How to Improve Samsung Galaxy S3 Battery Life

1. Turn Off Smart Screen Settings

Smart Screen is a feature that makes the screen stay on as long as you are looking at it and rotates according to the orientation of your face. This feature makes use of the forward facing camera and does take a fair bit of power to perform its operations. You can start your smart battery saving steps by disabling it to reduce power usage. Go to Settings->My device and tap on Smart screen to disable it.

2. Switch Off WiFi and Auto Sync

Its always better to switch off WiFi, when you have no plans to use it. This is because even if there isn’t a WiFi signal around, the feature will be working, searching for a signal.  Apps such as email and Facebook tend to auto-sync using the mobile or WiFi network. Turning them off can extend battery life.

3. Close Background Apps

Many apps that you open, use, and dismiss actually run in the background draining your battery. Long press the Home button and swipe to close the ones you are not using or tap Close All to quickly close all the apps.

4. Disable Vibrations

Turning off vibrations can also help conserve battery life. Head over to Settings –> My device->Sound and turn off vibrations.

5. Avoid Live Wallpapers

Live wallpapers look great, but take a toll on your battery life. Change your wallpapers to static images ( you can check out some great material design wallpapers here) or just go plain black to conserve battery life.

6. Play Store Updates

Set your Play Store to update only when you are in WiFi range. If you prefer, you can disable auto updates and manually do an update once a day. To do this, open the Play Store app. Tap the Play Store Menu (at the top of the screen) and choose Settings. Tap Auto-update apps and choose an option.

7. Turn Off Bluetooth and NFC

If you are not actively using services such as Bluetooth, and NFC, turn them off.

8. Adjust Screen Brightness

Lighting up your Samsung Galaxy S3 means you’re going to be using more battery life. You can always minimize the effect by going for a less brighter display. Head over to Settings->My device-> Display and adjust the brightness.

9. Set Screen Timeout

Adjust the timeout of your screen to something like 30 seconds so that the display turns off when you aren’t using it.

10. Enable Power Saving Mode

Samsung has a useful power saving mode that can help improve battery life, so consider using it. Head over to Settings-> My device to turn it on. This will limit the maximum performance of the CPU, use low power level for the screen and turn off haptic feedback, but you can disable any of these options at your discretion.

Make use of these tips and you’ll be sure to notice an improvement in your Samsung Galaxy S3 battery life.