Apple iOS 7.1 In Review: 5 Ways To Extend Battery Life On iPhone Or iPad

When Apple released iOS 7.1 on Monday, people clamored to get the update. The ad network Chitika measured the adoption rate at 6 percent in the first 24 hours and 12 percent by hour 45. However, as users jumped on the newest version of iOS, they found that while it brought fixes to issues that they were forced to deal with for the six months between updates, some iPhone users are now complaining about the updates effect on their iPhone’s battery life. In a recent poll done by 9to5mac, almost 60 percent of users (at the time of writing) stated that they have seen diminished daily battery life. One user tweeted, “iOS 7.1 is seemingly terrible on battery life.”

When iOS 7.1 dropped, Ars Technica took the time to perform tests, measuring the battery life on Apple devices all the way back to the iPhone 4s. The site found statistical battery life loss on all of the devices except for the iPhone 5 and iPod Touch, which both had a slight gain. The iPad Mini Retina remained the same, but all of the others dipped, with the non-Retina iPad Mini taking the hardest hit and losing almost an hour of overall usage.

While the battery life is not critically low, if you are experiencing any loss, you may want to adjust your settings or usage to improve your iDevices longevity. Here are five tips to increase your battery life after the installation of iOS 7.1.

Turn Off Extra Services

The iPhone and iPad offer an array of great services that help the average person. Bluetooth can connect different devices wirelessly, like headsets, car stereos and home speakers. GPS and location services can guide users around an unfamiliar city or provide on-the-go mapping programs. But these services take a lot of juice. Consider turning them off when they aren’t being used. Even Wi-Fi can be a power muncher when it’s not connected as it continues to search for a connection and drains your power.

Reduce the screen’s power consumption

The screen is probably the biggest culprit for power consumption. From playing Crazy Taxi to inputting calendar events, the screen gets a lot of use. However, a few minor tweaks can save you a bunch of battery power. Turn down the brightness in darker areas. The iPhone has an auto-brightness setting, enabling that will help a bit. But if you want real savings, go into your settings and adjust the brightness manually. Or, alternatively, just swipe up from the bottom of the screen and a brightness slider appears near the top of the quick access menu.

Another way you can save battery life is to turn off the active background and zoom animations. While iOS 7.1 optimized the zooming feature, making it quicker and snappier, if you are really feeling the hurt in the batteries, you can turn it all off in the settings on the iPhone 5s. However, iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s do not possess that capability so stick to the brightness feature.

Airplane mode or power off when not using it

Whether you are in the theater, in the car or on the subway, there are times when your phone just doesn’t need to be active. Considering that a subway ride can take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half, if you put your phone in airplane mode (again easily accessible on the quick access menu mentioned above) the battery will thank you in the long run. Or if you plan on not using it at all, no games or music, try turning it completely off; it only takes a minute and will save you when you need it later on in the night. Also, turn it completely off at the movies. Be courteous to others; no one needs to check sports scores that badly.

Reduce power hungry app usage

Apps take up the majority of the battery when used. Heck, even when they are sitting in the background they consume power. When I looked, I had 23 forgotten-about apps open that I used from as far back as three days ago. Double tap the home button, and swipe the apps up to close them completely. Running only the apps that you are actively using is a great way to save juice.

Video player apps like Youtube or Safari can consume a lot of power. If you are the type that will play cat video after cat video, perhaps you, not your phone, are the problem. Think of your phone as a necessity and the cat video as an indulgence. Save those precious times for when you have access to a power supply. One video is great; one hour of video will eat your battery like a hungry hippo. The same thing goes for social media. Sometimes Facebook or Instagram can be fun, but when you start obsessing over what your friends are posting on the big blue brother, you might have a problem. Limit yourself to only checking a few times and watch your power meter not change.

Baground App Refresh allows apps to refresh their content while running in the background. I know, it’s a confusing name. You can disable this feature in the settings, under general, for either all or individual apps. “Turning off apps may preserve battery life,” states the settings.

Consider a battery backup

If you just can’t bother to part with your precious cat videos or Vines, and must see them at full brightness, consider buying a backup battery for your iDevice. Mophie makes some great battery cases for the iPhone and iPad. The Space Pack retails for $149.95 and not only adds a full extra battery, effectively doubling your iPhone 5s’ life, it also gives you an additional 16GB of space for extra pictures, videos and documents. If extra space isn’t your thing, they also offer the Juice Pack line with anywhere from 80 percent to 120 percent extra life, ranging from $79.95 to $119.95. They offer the Powerstation line for the iPad and iPad Mini.