How to make your iPhone battery last longer with a settings change
People who own an iPhone 12 or later model may unintentionally be draining their phone's battery, but there's an easy fix.
5G, while designed to virtually connect everyone and everything with machines, objects and devices, can often be the source of a draining battery.
However, Apple offers a way to prevent you from losing your battery life too quickly and it involves a simple customization setting.
Owners of iPhones 12 or later that have 5G technology can start by going into Settings, Cellular, and then Cellular Data Options - or Settings, Mobile Data, and then Mobile Data Options.
Anyone who is using a Dual SIM can also do the customization by selecting Settings, Cellular or Settings, Mobile Data.
Owners of iPhone 12 or later models can make their batteries last longer by choosing how their cellular device uses 5G technology.
The Voice & Data section in one's settings lets you choose between three options: 5G Auto, 5G On and Long Term Evolution (LTE).
Anyone who selects 5G Auto will activate Smart Data mode - a feature that allows iPhones to switch to a lower frequency, like LTE, to save battery life.
5G On is similar to the Auto option, except it will only utilize the 5G network on a phone whenever it's accessible, and can drain your battery more quickly.
The last option, LTE, is a standard option in 4G mobile devices that's used for wireless telecommunications, and will also save you time before your battery needs a recharge.
Besides these data-changing settings, Apple suggests that iPhone carriers enable Enhanced Data Usage on their 5G cellular devices to improve the phones' performances.
This option will activate advanced data enhancements and improvements for an iPhone's applications and system functions.
The enhancements may help in making FaceTime calls have a higher-resolution, increase definition in Apple TV content, access to high-quality Apple Music songs and videos, receive IOS updates, and iCloud backups.
This setting will automatically switch the iPhone to 5G rather than Wi-Fi, which will help phone users without internet access.
This feature may already be enabled on an iPhone depending on unlimited data plans, but for those who do not have this option activated, they must navigate to Settings, Wi-Fi.
Although this setting will improve the phone's quality, unlike the options in the Voice & Data option, this will result in an iPhone data increase.
The bottom line is that those looking to preserve their battery life first need to check if they have 5G, and from there, a switch to 5G Auto or even LTE might be the best path forward.