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How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer

Cell phones have come a long way in terms of features and styling, but the issue of battery life, or having enough of it, remains strong. Yes, you can keep your battery juiced up for days if you don't talk on the phone ever, but what's the use of that? And sure, you can carry your admittedly portable charger with you to work, but try taking it out with you for a night out on the town -- it's just not practical. Luckily, all hope is not lost -- with a quick adjustments here and there, you can extend the battery life of your phone by hours and sometimes even days. We've compiled a list of tips and tricks to keep your phone battery running longer -- take a look, follow a few, and you'll never have to say "sorry, my phone battery died" again.

Turn your cell phone off to save battery life

Turn your cell phone off.

Sure, it might seem obvious, but when was the last time you actually shut off your phone when not using it? Well, do it next time, and you'll see just how much longer your battery lasts. When you're asleep, while you're in a dead cell phone reception area, or, the next time you're at the movies....Next time you find yourself in a theater as the previews start, try turning your phone off instead of putting it on silent. You shouldn't be checking your phone during the movie anyway.

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Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Wireless features such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth may let you get your e-mail faster and free you of cords, but they're also slurping down lots of juice while they're on. The radio frequency that Bluetooth works on doesn't take too much power, but it will cut into your battery time if you leave your phone settings to 'discoverable' all the time. So, if you aren't planning on using a wireless headset or speakers, turn off Bluetooth on your phone when you don't need it. The same goes for Wi-Fi, particularly in a moving car or walking around, since your phone will use up precious battery power as it scans for everchanging Wi-Fi hotspots. Wi-Fi is best used if you're in a fixed location and plan to use your phone for surfing the Web, checking e-mail or downloading files. If you must use the data connection and are either low on battery or happen to be moving around, then use the cell phone's mobile data network (EV-DO, HDSPA, EDGE, or GPRS), which uses less power and is available over wider areas.

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Turn off vibrate

The motor that runs the vibrate function is a huge battery drain, especially if you're constantly getting calls. Although vibrate is a great function for silently alerting you to calls, it's not worth missing calls because you vibrated away your battery. Switch to a nice ringtone, or even a song. And then make your own vibrations to your new ring.

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Avoid flash photography

Hey, we know it's a hard thing to do when the paparazzi are always following you around, but seriously, the little flashes on your camera phones can be surprisingly powerful -- and energy-draining. And along with flash photography comes a huge drain on your precious battery life. Try to avoid taking tons of flash photos in a row, since this uses up more energy, or turn off the flash feature entirely and keep your photo shoots to areas with good lighting.

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Turn down screen brightness

Much like your laptop, most of the battery power of your phone is sucked up by the LCD screen (or, in many cases, screens). As with the power saving settings on a laptop that dim the screen's brightness, cell phone screens can be dimmed to save power, which makes them a lot easier to see in bright sunlight anyway. Check in your phone's settings area to find screen controls. Your phone may also have a power save function or profile, which you would find in the general settings area.

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Download your e-mails manually

Setting your phone to automatically check for mail every 20 minutes -- which requires a power-sucking Wi-Fi or mobile data connection -- will run down your battery in no time. Instead, set your phone to let you check your e-mail manually.


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And lastly....
Even if you do as much as possible to extend the life of your battery, you can't make it live forever. But when your battery dies, don't just chuck it in the trash, since today's batteries are made with some heavily toxic chemicals that leach out of land fills and can make their way into our food and water supply. Most electronics stores and cell phone operators have recycling programs in place. Ask your cell phone operator what to do with your old battery (or old cellphone), so these toxins don't end up in your glass of water.

Nine Phones With Long-Lasting Batteries

Some days, we all just like to talk on the phone a lot. We also sometimes forget to charge our phones before we leave the house. And let's face it, carrying our cell-phone-charger around with us all day (or overnight) is often impractical. So what phones are ideal for the sort of person that often finds themselves in charger-less jams? Take a look at our roundup, in which we picked ten standard phones (i.e., non-smart-phones) that have impressive battery life, both for talk and standby modes.



The latest version of the Motorola V195s has now been updated by T-Mobile to include Yahoo! and AIM messaging, Bluetooth connectivity, and longer-lasting battery life. T-Mobile also includes the convenient My Faves free frequent calling program, so you can use the eight hours of talk time wisely. The phone also has up to 17.5 days of standby time.


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With Bluetooth, VZ Navigator (Verizon's GPS navigation software), and a VGA camera the LG VX5400 clamshell comes with quite a few features for an inexpensive phone ($29.99 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract). The phone also has a nice battery life with 400 hours of standby and 4.8 hours of talk time. The buttons are well spaced and have a firm feel while a dedicated speakerphone button and voice dial capabilities keep the phone easily hands-free.



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As a handy alternative to all of the overly feature rich phones out there comes the Samsung jitterbug. Aimed at an older crowd for whom making a simple call is the only priority, the jitterbug simplifies the complexities of other handsets by calling whomever you want for you via a concierge service (translation: live operators). With a talk time of four hours and standby time of up to four days, the jitterbug comes in two models, one with only seven buttons including, 911 emergency. In addition, both models feature padded earpiece and hearing-aid compatibility. Service starts at just $10 a month for ease of use and piece of mind.

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The 1208 GSM phone by Nokia is perfectly suited to those seeking simplicity, long battery life, and a few innovative extras. Designed with rural users in mind, the sturdy phone has a dust-resistant dial pad, built-in flashlight, and seven hours of talk time with the power saver mode (and 365 hours in standby). The phone also comes with Cost Tracker, which monitors your call costs and can also be set to limit your call costs by stopping calls that go over your pre-set limit (a nice function, if parents are paying the phone bill for the kids...). It's available from SunCom and Cincinnati Bell Wireless.



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The Sony-Ericsson Walkman W580 slider for AT&T Wireless boasts an excellent 9 hours talk time and standby time of up to 370 hours. The W580 is also packed with features one would expect from the Walkman line -- an impressive 30 hours of music listening, Bluetooth 2.0 wireless stereo capability, and a 2-megapixel camera. We also really love Shake Control, which lets you shuffle up your music selection with a simple shake of the phone.


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The Helio Ocean is a dual-slider phone (keypad and QWERTY keyboard) that has extensive connectivity options and impressive battery life to boot. It has 5.1 hours of talk time and 7 days of standby time, but take that with a grain of salt, since the Ocean also boasts some battery-hogging extra features -- including MySpace, GPS with Google Maps, and full Web browser with fast 3G speeds -- that may affect how much power you have. We love the innovative Buddy Beacon system that maps where your Helio friends are located in real time. All that will only set you back $415.

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The Alltel Pantech PN-218 flip phone is subcompact at 3-by-2-inches, but doesn't skimp on battery power with 4.7 hours talk time and up 326 hours of standby time. Even though it's about the size of a box of Tic-Tacs, it still has some great features like a VGA camera, a powerful speakerphone, and two unique landscape-oriented displays.


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If you're looking for something a bit more rugged with great battery life the Sprint Sanyo SCP-7050 is perfect for an off-road adventure. Built to military specs (810F which sounds official) that meets criteria for dust, shock, and vibration the 7050 the also sports independent GPS to get you out of the adventure that took a wrong turn. And with 4.4 hours of talk time you can tell all your friends about your narrow escape.






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