Yes, your battery does drain faster when you travel. You can chalk it up to taking more photos or your dependence on Google Maps, but roaming is also playing a part to drain your battery.
When you’re roaming your device is consuming more power than normal because your phone is spending more time trying to obtain a signal and switching between cell towers compared to when you’re at home using your home provider. This is often the case when you’re in a more remote area where the signal is weak.
Tips to save your battery life
Set your phone to search for only one carrier
If you’re using KnowRoaming’s Global SIM Sticker or Global SIM Card, you can set your phone to only search for one carrier so the SIM won’t be continually searching and draining your battery. Our support team can help make sure you’re connecting to the strongest network in the area, drop them a quick email at info@knowroaming.com.
Android: Settings > Mobile network > Network operators
Apple: Settings > Carrier > Disable automatic
Just remember to switch it back on to automatically connect when you travel in other countries.
Turn off background services/features
Check to see which apps are using your battery the most and see if you can stop them. Some of the biggest battery drainers are, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC.
Android: Settings > Battery > Battery Usage
Apple: Settings > Battery
Pro Tip: Turn on power saving mode here
Lower the brightness on your screen
Android: Settings > Display > Brightness (uncheck ‘Automatic brightness’ and manually adjust the brightness)
Apple: Settings > Display & Brightness
Monitor your battery drain with third party apps
We like the Battery Doctor, available for both Android and iOS. It is a free app that tracks down which apps and processes are draining your battery the most, with the option to instantly stop them. It also provides you with battery time estimations.
Use an external battery
Our favorite are the Mophie cases—specifically their line of Juice Pack cases because they don’t add a lot of bulk to your phone and they give your phone a 60% boost. If you need more, they offer a variety of external packs including a wireless charging pad for the iPhone 7.
How do you prolong your device’s battery life? We’d love to hear it. Comment to let us know.