However, you don’t have to replace the battery right away. If you have to charge your phone constantly, it is not always due to a weakening battery. There are various reasons why your battery drains so quickly. In this article we show you when to definitely replace a battery replacement.
How to find out why your battery is draining so fast
To find out why your battery is draining way too quickly, you have to get to the bottom of the cause. In the best case, this step will save you from having to replace the battery. It is therefore worthwhile to investigate!
Reason 1: Obvious power guzzlers
The display is one of the biggest power guzzlers in a smartphone and makes your battery draining. The backlighting of this large component costs a lot of energy. Also, if you use an OLED instead of an LCD, you should be aware that the brighter you set the display, the more power it requires.
Here’s what you can do about it:
- Turn the display brightness down or use automatic brightness adjustment
- Avoid animated backgrounds
- Activate the screen timeout so that your phone automatically switches to the lock screen when not in use
- Use the dark mode for OLED displays
Reason 2: Hidden power guzzlers
Besides the most obvious energy waster, there are also many things you don’t even notice: updated apps can suddenly consume more power than before the update. And even when you install new apps, you should take a look at how power-intensive they are.
Here’s what you can do about it:
Check your settings to find out if an app uses a lot of battery power even though you don’t use it that much.
- You have an Android phone? Go to: Settings > Battery & Device care > Battery
- You have an iPhone? Go to: Settings > Battery
Once you know which apps consume the most power or run in the background, you can take action: Uninstall apps that are active in the background but you don’t really use anymore. You want to keep the app? Disable background activities and avoid push notifications.
Reason 3: A decreasing battery
A deteriorating battery is one of the most common reasons for battery replacement. With each charging cycle, the battery capacity decreases slightly. If you charge your phone once from 0 to 100 percent, that counts as one charge cycle. If you only charge from 30 to 80 percent, that’s half a cycle.
Whether your battery is “too old” is very individual and depends on how often you charge your phone and how you personally rate the performance. Basically, you can look out for the following signs of a weak battery:
- Battery drains quickly and charges again quickly
- Battery no longer charges to 100%
- Device can no longer be switched on
Apple states that an iPhone battery should still have 80% of its original capacity after 500 charge cycles. You can check the battery status in the settings menu under Battery > Battery status. Even though you do not get any information about the number of charging cycles, the info is an indication of how powerful your battery still is. Android does not yet offer this option in its settings by default.
Here’s what you can do about it:
If you are dissatisfied with the performance of your battery despite our optimization tips, replacing the battery is the only thing that can really help you. Installing a new battery is usually not as difficult as you might initially think. In our repair guides, we show step by step how you can do the replacement yourself. This saves money and you can start right away with the new battery. A short-term solution might be a power bank. This can also be useful if your battery is actually still in good shape, but you are often on the road.
Reason 4: A defective battery
The battery can be damaged by water or a technical defect. One sign of this is that the battery swells. But even if your phone simply switches off because the battery cannot hold the energy, it is apparently broken.
Here’s what you can do about it:
If you suspect that your battery is defective, you should react quickly. Turn off your phone and stop charging it. You can contact the manufacturer within the warranty. Alternatively, you should make sure that you remove the battery from the device as soon as possible.