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    Your Old Android Phone Isn't Dead Yet. These Hacks Can Breathe New Life Into It

    You do not want the most recent Android flagship to get good efficiency out of your cellphone. Thanks to longer software program assist from manufacturers like Google and Samsung, older fashions can nonetheless run easily should you give them somewhat consideration. Clearing out unused apps, updating your software program, and tweaking just a few settings can breathe new life into a tool that feels sluggish. These fast fixes may help your cellphone last more and prevent from spending on an early improve.Before you begin searching for a alternative, attempt just a few easy changes. You may be shocked by how a lot quicker your cellphone feels when you liberate area, optimize battery use, and switch off background drains.Whether you employ a Samsung Galaxy, Motorola or OnePlus cellphone, likelihood is you possibly can nonetheless enhance battery life and total velocity with out shopping for one thing new. Just keep in mind that Android settings range barely from model to model, so the menus might look somewhat completely different relying in your cellphone.Don’t miss any of CNET’s unbiased tech content material and lab-based critiques. Add us as a most popular Google supply on Chrome. An overly vivid show will drain your battery extremely quick.  Óscar Gutiérrez/CNET Settings to enhance your battery life Living with a cellphone that has poor battery life could be infuriating, however there are some steps you possibly can take to maximise every cost proper from the very starting: 1. Turn off auto display brightness or adaptive brightness and set the brightness degree slider to beneath 50%The brighter your display, the extra battery energy it makes use of.  To get to the setting, pull down the shortcut menu from the highest of the display and alter the slider, if it is there. Some telephones might have a toggle for auto brightness within the shortcut panel; in any other case, you’ll want to open the settings app and seek for “brightness” to search out the setting and switch it off. 2. Use Adaptive Battery and Battery OptimizationThese options deal with studying how you employ your cellphone, together with which apps you employ and when, after which optimizing the apps and the quantity of battery they use.  Some Android telephones may have a devoted Battery part within the Settings app, whereas different telephones (taking a look at you, Samsung) bury these settings. It’s somewhat completely different for every cellphone. I like to recommend opening your settings and looking for “battery” to search out the correct display. Your cellphone can also have an adaptive charging setting that may monitor how rapidly your cellphone battery fees in a single day to protect its well being. Why you must use darkish mode extra typicallyAndifferent method to enhance battery life whereas additionally serving to save your eyes is to make use of Android’s devoted darkish mode. Any Android cellphone operating Android 10 or newer may have a devoted darkish mode possibility.  According to Google, darkish mode not solely reduces the pressure that smartphone shows trigger on our eyes but in addition improves battery life as a result of it takes much less energy to show darkish backgrounds on OLED shows (utilized in most flagship telephones) than a white background.  Depending on which model of Android your cellphone is operating, and what firm made your cellphone, you will have to dig across the settings app to discover a darkish mode. If your cellphone runs Android 10 or newer, you can activate system-wide darkish mode. If it runs Android 9, do not despair. Plenty of apps have their very own darkish mode possibility within the settings that you need to use, whether or not or not you could have Android 10.  To flip it on darkish mode, open the Settings app and seek for Dark Mode, Dark Theme and even Night Mode (as Samsung likes to name it). I counsel utilizing darkish mode on a regular basis, however should you’re unsure, you possibly can at all times set darkish mode to mechanically activate primarily based on a schedule, say from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. day by day, or enable it to mechanically swap primarily based in your location at sundown and dawn.  Using darkish mode on any cellphone is a simple and handsome strategy to save battery life.  CNET Keep your house display freed from muddle Planning to hit up the Google Play Store for a bunch of latest Android apps? Be ready for lots of icon muddle on your house display, which is the place shortcuts land each time you put in one thing. If you don’t need that, there is a easy method out of this: Long-press on an empty space of your house display and faucet Settings. Find the choice labeled one thing alongside the traces of Add icon to Home Screen or Add new apps to Home Screen and switch it off.  Presto — No extra icons on the house display while you set up new apps. You can nonetheless add shortcuts by dragging an app’s icon out of the app drawer, however they will not seem on your house display until you need them to. Read extra: Best Android Phones You Can Buy in 2024 Set up Do Not Disturb as a way to higher focusIf your cellphone routinely spends the evening in your nightstand, you most likely don’t desire it beeping or buzzing each time there is a name, message or Facebook alert — particularly while you’re attempting to sleep. Android gives a Do Not Disturb mode that can hold the cellphone roughly silent throughout designated hours. On some telephones, that is known as the Downtime setting and even Quiet Time. Head to Settings > Sounds (or Notifications), then search for Do Not Disturb or the same identify. If you possibly can’t discover it, seek for it utilizing the built-in search characteristic in your settings. Using the characteristic, you possibly can arrange a spread of hours while you need to flip off the digital noise. Don’t fear, any notifications you get whereas Do Not Disturb is turned on will nonetheless be ready for you while you get up. Also, you possibly can usually make an exception that permits repeat callers and favourite contacts’ calls to undergo. Turn that on. If somebody is looking you in an emergency, odds are they’re going to hold attempting. What somebody who finds a misplaced or stolen Android cellphone will see after you employ Find My Device to lock it.  Jason Cipriani/CNETAlways be ready in case you lose your cellphone or it is stolenIs there something worse than a misplaced or stolen cellphone? Only the information that you can have tracked it down should you had turned on Google’s Find My Device characteristic. To put together for a profitable restoration, here is what you’ll want to do: Open the Settings app after which seek for Find My Device. It’s often within the Security part of the Settings app. If you could have a Samsung system, you need to use Samsung’s Find My Mobile service, which is present in Settings > Biometrics and safety > Find My Mobile.  Once that is enabled, you possibly can head to android.com/discover from any PC or cell system and check in to your account. Samsung customers can go to findmymobile.samsung.com to discover a misplaced cellphone.  Losing a cellphone is rarely a enjoyable expertise.  Angela Lang/CNETIf you run into any bother setting any of this up, make sure to learn by means of our full information to discovering a misplaced Android cellphone. Assuming your cellphone is on and on-line, you must be capable of see its location on a map. From there, you can also make it ring, lock it, set a lock display word to inform whoever has it how you can get it again to you, or, worst-case situation, remotely wipe the entire thing. And at all times hold your cellphone updated As apparent as it might appear, a easy software program replace might repair bugs and different points slowing down your Android system.  Before you obtain and set up the newest software program replace, make certain your system is linked to Wi-Fi, or else this would possibly not work. Now, open the Settings utility and sort in Update. You’ll then both see Software replace or System replace — select both one. Then simply obtain the software program, look ahead to a couple of minutes and set up it when it is prepared. Your Android system will reboot and set up the newest software program replace accessible. Always hold your cellphone up to date to the newest software program to keep away from bugs and different points. CNETThere’s much more to find out about a brand new cellphone, after all. Here are the perfect methods to spice up your cell sign, and here is a flagship cellphone head-to-head comparability. Plus, take a look at CNET’s checklist of the perfect circumstances to your Samsung cellphone. More of an Apple fan? We have ideas for enhancing your iPhone’s efficiency, too.

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