Despite some of the leaps in performance and camera tech brought to this year’s Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, the South Korean firm didn’t mess too much with the batteries in either handset.
As with the Galaxy S8 range, the smaller Galaxy S9 has a 3000mAh battery while the larger S9 Plus has a 3500mAh power pack. And it’s little wonder the company didn’t want to fiddle with the batteries too much, following the fiasco Samsung faced when batteries in the Galaxy Note 7 began exploding in 2017.
READ NEXT: Samsung Galaxy S9 review and Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus review
To boost battery in the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, Samsung has made improvements to the chipset and the software, to make the phones more power efficient. That said, the batteries aren’t perfect and there is a number of tweaks you can make to boost this battery life even further.
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We recently began a series of pieces on how to boost the battery life of specific handsets, to add to our collection of stories on how to boost battery life generally across smartphones and laptops. We started with how to boost your iPhone X’s battery life, and below we’ve explained how to eke out more power from your Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
In summary:
- Check your individual battery usage
- Stop apps refreshing in the background
- Enable Power saving mode
- Get rid of bloatwre
- Manage your screen’s brightness levels
1. Check your individual battery usage
Before we dive into more general tips about boosting your Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus battery life, it’s worth checking which apps or services are sucking the most power from your devices.
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Android comes with controls to stop apps using system resources in the background but getting a better idea of which apps are to blame, and if a particular app update has caused any problems, you can check your unique battery usage stats.
Go to Settings | System | Device maintenance | Battery. In this menu you’ll see which apps have been using the most power in the past 24 hours.
2. Stop apps refreshing in the background
Although Android will automatically disable some background app features, you can quickly stop all apps running in the background with a single press. While in the Battery menu (accessed via Settings | System | Device maintenance | Battery) click the Save power button. This will clear all apps running in the background.
3. Enable Power Saving mode
Without doubt, the best way to save power on your Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus is to enable Android’s built-in Power Saving mode. It’s not unique to the Galaxy S9 range, having been available in some form or another on Android on the Galaxy S8, S7 and S6.
On the S9 there are two power-saving modes to choose from: Mid and Max. These options can reduce the screen resolution to FHD+, can throttle the processor, will automatically disable background app refresh, stop auto downloads and will reset the lighting options to maximise battery life.
To enable, Mid mode, go to Settings | Power saving mode. Turn on Medium power saving mode by selecting MID, apply which power saving mode settings you want and hit APPLY. Do the same if you want to select the Max mode. Both options can be disabled in the same menu.
4. Get rid of bloatware
Samsung is notorious for loading up its phones with pre-installed apps and services, many of which you may never use.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus come with Samsung’s own calendar and messages app, which can’t be disabled, but there is a number of third-party pre-installed apps you can remove. This will prevent them taking up storage space as well as using your battery.
To remove any app you no longer want or need, press and hold on the app’s icon and select Disable. You can also manage your list of apps in Settings | Apps.
5. Manage your screen’s brightness levels
Simply tweaking how bright your Galaxy S9 or Galaxy S9 Plus screen is can work wonders for your battery life. The extra light used to illuminate the screen requires a fair amount of energy which drains your battery.
The lighter it is outside, the more light you’ll need on the screen, and vice versa. To manage this on your Samsung device, go to Settings | Display | Brightness. You can also control this brightness from the control centre accessible from the home screen.
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