Smartphone battery use

Many people spend hours each day actively engaged with their smartphone.  In addition, the smartphone interacts with other information sources many times a day without our intervention.  All of this activity uses a lot of power during a typical day, requiring frequent cell phone charging.  Managing your settings and use patterns can reduce the power draw on your battery so you don’t have to charge it as often and so use less electricity.  Some of the settings and use patterns can also keep your battery healthy longer so it doesn’t need to be replaced.  I found some good articles packed with information on how to evaluate which use patterns and app functions are using the most energy so that you can adjust settings and how you use your phone.  The first article addresses both iPhones and android phones.  The second article is specific to  Android phone and the third is specific to iPhones. As is typical for many topics I research, sources sometimes contradict each other on some points, but these articles have a little information on why their suggestions make sense, so you can evaluate the information yourself. A few thoughts:​

• My smartphone does not have a lot of ability to customize features.  It has a battery optimization on/off setting that wants to do all the work for me.  This is good if I don’t want to spend the time going through each of dozens of apps, but since I don’t know what the phone is actually doing when the optimization setting is on, it may make decisions that I wouldn’t make knowing my own use patterns.
• It appears from looking the data use section that I have apps that I never use but still potentially use background data.  Background data uses power.  According to my phone, there are two places where I can restrict background data.  One is in the data usage center and the other is in the settings within each app.  My phone recommends using the settings within each app to make sure your particular use factors are taken into account.  
• Some of the settings reduce background data use when you are using the cellular network but not when you are using WI-FI.  If you spend a lot of time hooked to WI-FI, these settings may not significantly reduce your power use.

https://thewirecutter.com/blog/what-you-should-and-shouldnt-do-to-extend-your-phones-battery-life/#big-battery-suckers

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/25319/complete-guide-to-maximizing-your-android-phones-battery-life/

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/iphone/how-improve-iphone-ipad-battery-life-3513323/