How to Improve Battery Life of Windows 10 Mobile

Looking at the state of updates & Bug Fixes  rolling out for Windows 10 Mobile, and what existing users are experiencing, chances are one or the other feature is effecting your battery life. A couple of people who switched to Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL has reported the same. A lot of phones have been recently upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile, and might be facing the same.

In this post I am sharing some tips to improve the battery life of your phone.  These tips work well in general, and come in handy depending on your daily usage, and commuting habit.

Battery Life Windows 10 Mobile

Wait for 2-3 Recharge Cycles:

It’s common for a new phone to perform poorly until the battery gets charged 2-3 times. If you have a new phone, don’t panic. Give it a couple of days, and things should improve over time. If you are getting good results, you can manage it on your own without removing, disabling and literally not doing anything.  However, if you still aren’t very happy, read-on.

Disable Hey Cortana:

The new generation devices like the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950 XL comes with “always listening” Cortana. So all you need to say is Hey Cortana, and ask your query.  It works even with your phone locked. A lot of people have reported in various forums, that this is consuming a lot of battery, and turning it off helps saving it. I will suggest doing the same.

  • Launch Cortana, and tap on the hamburger menu on top left.
  • Select Notebook > Settings > Disable Hey Cortana.

Enable Battery Saver:

Windows 10 Mobile comes with an inbuilt battery saver which kicks-in when battery goes below a certain percentage. The default is at 10%, but you can manually change it to, lets say 30%.  When battery saver mode turns on, it limits all background activity except for the one that is allowed.

  • Open Settings, and type Battery Saver in the search box.
  • Tap to Open when it appears.

Battery Saver Windows 10 Mobile 1 Battery Saver Windows 10 Mobile 2 Battery Saver Windows 10 Mobile 3

Limit Background Apps:

The same battery saver app gives in depth detail on what is consuming battery & which apps are running in the background.  You can see details of Screen on Time, WiFi, Cellular network, Apps in background, and so on.  Apps like Edge, Lock Screen, Store etc should be disabled from running in background.

I have explained about Battery Saver & Background Apps in much detail here . It is easy, and straight forward. If you wish to run few apps in background, and even when you are in battery saver mode, add them to the exception list.

Manually Close Apps :

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Windows 10 Mobile allows more than 10 apps to run in the background. I am sure that even when you are multi-tasking, running so many apps in background won’t make sense. It is better if you manually close the apps you don’t need any more. Long press on the back button on your phone, and it will pop-up the list of running apps. Select the close icon next to each preview, and close the apps.

Windows 10 Mobile Multitasking

Reduce Data Speed from LTE/ 4G to 3G or turn it off:

The more powerful a network is, the more it drains the battery, because you tend to use it more often. Life Over 2G was the best, while on 4G, it’s just the opposite. Well that should not be limiting you from using a faster data network you paid for, but you can choose to switch to only 3G mode.

  • Settings > Type Mobile and SIM > SIM Settings > Mobile Network > Select 3G from Highest Connection Speed.

Data Speed Settings Windows 10 Mobile 1 Data Speed Settings Windows 10 Mobile 2 Data Speed Settings Windows 10 Mobile 3

This is handy when you just want to get your emails, and don’t want to go on social mission.

Disable WiFi & Location:

When I was on a road trip to Goa last month, I was on Mobile data only, and chose to disable WiFi and Location. This resulted in improved battery life compared to when I have both turned on. If these are not the necessary features for you, turn them off.

Limit Display Idle Time & Glance

  • Make sure to set idle disable time as 1 minute.
  • Disable Glance if possible.

Set Brightness to Low:

The automatic brightness works best. It will automatically increase the brightness depending on the amount of light in the ambience which delivers excellent reading experience.  However, a couple of users reported that there is a bug around this, and automatic brightness isn’t working as expected.

Secondly, if you aren’t switching your location often, chances are that a particular level of brightness will work for you. Manually set it to medium and low for best results.

Use Either Ringtone or Vibration

Unless you are moving around in a very noisy area, volume of your phones ringtone is enough to tell that you have a call or notification to attend. I highly recommend you to use withe the vibration or ringtone for saving battery.

Windows 10 Mobile Vibration Toggle

Here is how to do it:

  • Press the volume down rocker to reduce volume. Press till it goes zero, and  you feel a vibration.
  • A pop-up displays when you are doing this. Tap on the arrow down on top left.
  • This gives you access to Vibration On / off Toggle.

These are some of the top tips for saving battery on your Windows 10 Mobile. Let us know in comments how you are doing it, and we will add some of the interesting ones here.