You’re out on a long road trip and you’ve been using your Android tablet to keep yourself entertained. However, the battery is starting to die and you don’t have a car charger with you.
Or maybe you’re in the middle of a Zoom meeting and your tablet battery is draining fast, but you don’t have a charger nearby.
Sound familiar?
No one wants to deal with a dead battery in an important moment, which is why I recommend looking at the average battery life of Android tablets and how you can make your battery last much longer.
The good news is there are lots of easy ways you can extend the battery life of your tablet and keep doing whatever it is that you need to do.
Main Components That Drain Your Battery
There are few things worse than grabbing your Android tablet and finding that you forgot to charge the battery.
The only worse situation is if the battery dies when you’re in the middle of your best game or having a long chat with a close friend.
Looking at the main factors that cause the battery to dry or drain can help you see what to do to avoid dealing with a dead battery.
One factor is talk time, which is the amount of time that you spend talking on the tablet. Your battery will drain even faster if you use an app that lets you video chat. The time that you spend browsing or surfing the web will also drain the battery. This includes checking your email and online shopping.
Your video and audio playback can also drain the battery. While video playback refers to anything that you watch on your tablet such as YouTube videos and Netflix movies, audio playback can refer to songs that you download and listen to while doing other things.
I also wanted to address the issue of standby time. When you buy a new Android tablet, the manufacturer will often list the average life of the battery along with the standby time. The average battery time tells you how long it will last when you do different things. Looking at the standby time tells you how long the battery will last if you leave the tablet turned off and do not use it. This gives you an idea of how long you can go between charges.
Factors That Affect Battery Life
Even the best battery won’t last forever.
Certain factors determine how long the battery lasts when you don’t charge it such as the ambient temperature of the surrounding room. If you use your Android tablet on a hot day, you can expect the battery to die faster than you thought it would. The same thing happens on a cold day because the cold temperature can freeze the battery.
The built-in camera is another factor that affects your battery life.
If you use the camera to take pictures or video chat, it will drain the battery. Even if you don’t use the camera, it can still shorten your battery time because it runs in the background.
You also want to look at the size of the battery, which manufacturers list in milliamps. A battery with a higher mAh will last longer than a smaller one.
Make sure that you consider your display settings, too. I noticed that larger tablets don’t last as long on a charge as smaller tablets do because of the power required to show the display. The resolution that your tablet has may also affect the battery as higher resolutions need more power. Your display settings affect how bright the screen looks and how quickly it refreshes the things that you see. Brighter tablets will drain a battery faster as do those with a higher refresh rate.
I also encourage you to take a look at the connections that your tablet has. Even if you don’t use the connections, your tablet still needs to draw power for them.
This includes the connections you have to your wireless internet and phone along with any set to your stereo or other electronics.
The chipset also matters as modern designs use less power. If your Android tablet comes with other types of hardware, those features can affect your battery. This may include a feature that lets the tablet vibrate to inform you of updates and apps that run in the background.
Some people complain about planned obsolescence, which is when manufacturers make products and know that they will become obsolete in the future. This is especially true when it comes to your tablet’s battery. An older battery will not last as long as a newer one does. You may find that it takes longer to charge the battery and that it doesn’t last as long as you need when fully charged.
You also need to think about all of the apps that you use. Active apps are those that you use regularly such as Facebook or your email server. Many apps use more power than you might expect because they require other apps to run at the same time. For example, a chat app may use GPS to find your location and your camera to pull up a video chat. Your operating system and tasks that run in the background also affect the overall battery life of your tablet.
You can stop worrying about how long it takes to charge your favorite devices with this video.
Now that you know more about charging, you can find out how long most batteries last.
Average Battery Life of an Android Tablet
The average battery life of your Android tablet depends on how often you use it. Most tablets have a run time that ranges from 3 to 10 hours. Cheaper models usually require more charging than expensive tablets do.
If you only use the tablet once or twice a day, it may last for a week or longer between charges. Those who use their tablets more often may need to charge their devices at least once a day. I’ve even heard from some readers who use their tablets so much that they charge them several times every day. When used in standby mode, Android tablets can last for up to 90 days. Though some apps may run when the tablet is in standby mode, they won’t require as much battery power.
13 Tips to Extend Your Android Tablet Battery Life
Here’s the good news — there are lots of easy things you can do to extend the battery life of your Android tablet.
1. Turn Off Location Services
This feature finds your location no matter where you go, but turning it off helps you save your battery life for more important things. Location services allow your tablet to track your current location and send data to the apps that you use. While it might be helpful if you want to check in when visiting your favorite stores or restaurants, it results in a battery that may only last for a few hours.
2. Avoid High Temperatures
An easy way to extend your battery life is to avoid using it in high temperatures. This includes letting it sit in your hot car or keeping it stuffed in a hot bag when you travel. You also want to avoid quick charges. Though they work quickly, they produce enough heat that they can drain or kill your battery.
3. Change the Screen’s Brightness
Many people use the default brightness settings on their tablets without realizing how much it affects their battery. You can access your settings and turn down the brightness to make your battery last longer. As your tablet automatically adjusts the screen’s brightness as you change this feature, you can easily see which level is comfortable.
4. Keep an Eye on Your Charge
Do you wait for your tablet to die and shut down before you charge it? Though you may not realize it, this can cause serious damage to the battery and even kill it. If you turn on the save mode that many tablets have, yours will shut down before the battery dies. You also want to keep an eye on the battery level when you charge it. Unplug your tablet as soon as it reaches a 100% charge.
5. Turn Off Notifications
Your tablet sends notifications to alert you about different things such as when you finish downloading a game or update a new app. Unless you need to know that information, you can disable the notifications and get more life out of your battery.
6. Stop Automatic Updates
Automatic updates help you easily update all of your apps. As long as your tablet has an internet connection, it will check in with the marketplace to find updates and automatically download them. Not only can this drain your battery, but it may result in updates that you don’t want or need. Most Android tablets let you adjust your settings to prevent automatic updates. You can let the tablet search for updates and notify you before downloading them or stop checking for updates.
7. Shut Off WiFi and Bluetooth Connections
Bluetooth and WiFi connections let you use your tablet on your home’s wireless system and sync it with different Bluetooth devices. If you don’t need those connections, you can turn them off to save your battery.
8. Close Some Apps
Taking a few seconds to look through your running apps can show you what apps you don’t want to use and which ones drain your battery. You can manually shut down the apps that you aren’t using through the settings menu.
9. Shut Down the Always-on Display
Also known as AOD, this feature allows you to check your tablet when you’re not using it. You might find that you can tap the power button or a spot on the screen to see the current time and weather along with other information. If you do not need this feature, you can turn it off, which will extend your battery life.
10. Change the Time Out
Android tablets have a screen time out feature. This tells you how long the tablet will remain on until the screen closes. If you have a time out set to 10 minutes or longer, change it to three to five minutes. You can save on your battery life without making major changes.
11. Delete Apps
Do you find yourself downloading new apps that you want to try and then forgetting about them? I recommend that you go through all of your apps and delete any that you no longer use. Not only will this give you more internal storage, but it will also keep those apps from running in the background and draining your battery. Some tablets come with pre-loaded apps that you cannot delete. You have the option of disabling those apps to keep them from running.
12. Limit Auto-Synchronization
Many Android tablets feature auto-synchronization, which will sync your tablet to other linked devices each time that you use it. This can be helpful if you need to use school or work data on multiple devices or if you want to use the same apps on your phone as you do on your tablet. The feature uses more power than you might expect though, which is why it’s helpful to turn it off or limit it.
13. Activate Energy Mode
Check your tablet for an energy mode or a low energy mode. This is a built-in feature that allows the tablet to use less power to make your battery last longer.
If you wonder how different modes affect your battery, give this video a quick watch.
Now that you know about light vs. dark modes, you can try changing the mode on your tablet.
Check out these simple tips to see how you can improve your battery.
Even using just one or two of these tips can significantly improve its life.
Useful Resources
- What to Do When Your Phone or Tablet Won’t Charge
- How to Speed Up Your Slow Tablet So It’s Running like New
- Why Do Tablets Get Hot? 8 Reasons Why And How To Fix it
- My Android Tablet Does Not Charge
- Why is my charger hot?
Conclusion
Android tablets are a great way to use mobile services on the go and may even replace your old laptop. You can use yours to play games and do some online shopping as well as watch movies and read books. Charging stations and storages are perfect for all users who want to keep their devices ready for the day, especially teachers and students.
I also recommend checking out some of the things that drain your battery and looking at how to improve your battery life to get more than the average battery life of your Android tablet.
