Phone software updates are necessary. They tend to fix issues and they might even introduce new features. While not every update needs to be revolutionary, the least we can expect is that these updates don’t have a negative impact on our phones.
One common problem I noticed and received lots of questions about is the Samsung One UI. It seems that it can drain the phone’s battery pretty quickly, particularly with the Galaxy S9, Note 9 and now on the Galaxy S10 too.
I’ve put together a list of things you can do to deal with that issue and prolong battery life.
Turn Off the Non-Essentials
You really don’t need all connectivity features to be turned on all the time. Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, WiFi just put a drain on your battery so simply turning them on when you need them is simple enough to do.
This doesn’t just apply as a One UI fix, but to all phone owners in general. Use what you need, switch off what you don’t.
Device Care
From Settings, you’ll find an option called Device Care. Open that feature, followed by the drop-down menu at the top right corner and click Auto Optimization. This option will shut down all apps that aren’t essential but are running in the background using up your battery. You can set a certain time for your phone to automatically do this.
Another feature at Device Care is Auto Restart. Again, you can choose for it to happen late at night/early morning (eg: 3:00 am) when you’re not using your phone. Auto Restart will reboot your phone improving battery life and clearing the operating system from things it doesn’t use. Just like its good practice to shut down your computer not just have it on standby, so you should do with your phone.
Battery Power Mode
By going to Battery then Power Mode, you’ll get a list of 4 power saving settings that you can choose from. These are: high performance, optimized, medium power saving, and maximum power saving. Each mode has its own settings, but what I like about them is that they’re customizable rather than rigid power saving modes.
I usually leave my phone on optimized, since high performance will drain the battery faster, while medium and maximum power saving modes can slow down the OS. Use those in a pinch when your phone is really low on power and you still need it to Uber home.
Night Mode
Select the phone’s night mode to save battery on brightness. This applies to the phone’s general theme and to specific apps. The One UI’s night mode can be selected from the dropdown notification bar. In order to save even more on brightness, you can go to apps like Twitter and YouTube and enable their night modes.
Essentially, the less power the screen draws, the longer the battery will last.
Reduce Animations
Go to Settings, Advanced Features, then click on Reduce animations. Now when you open an app it’ll simply open without any zooming in/out or any type of animations.
Compare what your phone looks and feels like before and after using this feature, and you’ll see the difference plus your battery will love you for doing that.
So in summary
The One UI update has bothered a lot of people because of its effect on battery life, but there are several ways to reduce the battery drain. Try one or a combination of the options and see what works best for you and your phone!
