10 ways to save battery life on your Samsung phone
Published 21/08/2026
4 minute read
Overview
Is your Samsung Galaxy’s battery life not lasting as long as it used to? Battery degradation is unfortunately a part of your phone’s lifecycle, but here are 10 ways you can prolong and improve your daily battery life.
1. Switch on adaptive brightness
Adaptive brightness changes the brightness of your phone’s display depending on the environment you’re in. If you’re in a well-lit area, adaptive brightness will reduce your screen’s brightness to save battery.
How to switch on adaptive brightness: Settings > Display and toggle on Adaptive Brightness
2. Turn off or schedule Always On Display
Always On Display (commonly referred to as AOD) is a popular feature of many Samsung smartphones, as it allows you to see the time and notifications without picking your phone up. However, it does drain battery life. If you enjoy the feature and don’t want to switch it off completely, try creating a schedule so it’s on for part of the day, for example, 9am until 5pm.
To create a schedule or to turn off AOD: Settings > Lock screen and security > Lock screen and Always On Display
3. Change your screen’s resolution
A great feature of Samsung Galaxy phones is the ability to change your display resolution. Depending on your device, you’ll be able to change your ‘motion smoothness’ and/or ‘screen resolution’. While this will make the screen display less sharp and smooth, it will help extend your battery life.
To change motion smoothness: Settings > Display > Motion smoothness and toggle to Standard
To change screen resolution: Settings > Display > Screen resolution and toggle to HD+
4. Close or stop apps running in the background
Even if you’re not using an app, it could be running in the background. It’s a good reminder to close any apps once you’ve finished using them. If there’s a certain app you don’t want to run in the background, you can turn off its permissions in your app settings. If you want to get technical, you can go into your device settings and see what apps are using your phone’s RAM (this is your phone’s short-term memory that helps quickly run and load apps smoothly).
To close apps running in the background: Tap the Recent Apps button (which looks like three lines, at the bottom of your screen) to see and close all apps in the background.
To stop an app running in the background: Settings > Apps > Choose your app > Battery and change the setting to Restricted
To clear your RAM: Settings > Device care > Memory > Clean now
5. Archive unused apps
Don’t want to completely delete an app and lose all your data? Archiving can help free up space while maintaining your app’s data. This will help free up space on your phone, while giving you the option to restore the app later.
How to archive an app: Settings > Apps > Choose your app > Archive. To restore an app, you just need to find it in your App Drawer and tap it to re-download.
6. Power saving mode
A great way to help preserve your battery life is by using a feature called power saving mode. Turning this on will turn off Always On Display (AOD), reduce your phone’s processing power, reduce your screen brightness by 10%, and restrict background app activity. It’s a good option if you don’t want to manually configure settings and just want an overall fix.
How to turn power saving mode on: Settings > Battery > Toggle on Power saving
7. Try using dark mode
Dark mode is a popular display setting that will change your phone’s colour scheme to dark backgrounds with light text. It can help to reduce eyestrain in low-light environments and save battery on Samsung phones with OLED or AMOLED displays. You can create a schedule so you can have dark mode come on at a certain time, for example, in the evening past 8pm.
To turn dark mode on: Settings > Display > Dark or Dark mode settings to create a schedule
8. Disable nearby device scanning
Nearby device scanning on your Samsung phone helps to detect accessories close by, like Galaxy Buds or smartwatches, and also connect to larger devices like Samsung TVs. It runs in the background to help find these devices, which can affect battery life. If you turn this feature off, you’ll still be able to connect to your devices through manual set up.
To turn off nearby device scanning: Bluetooth Settings > Connections > More connection settings > Toggle off Nearby device scanning
9. Try Samsung’s Modes and Routines
Formerly referred to as Bixby’s Modes and Routines, you can create routines on your Samsung phone that turn on power-saving functions when your battery level drops below a certain percentage. Power saving functions are customisable, but you could include turning on dark mode, restricting screen refresh rates, and turning off background app refresh. Modes and routines are fully customisable so you can choose the settings you need.
How to set up a routine: Settings > Modes and routines > Custom routine
10. Check your battery health
If you’ve tried everything else in this article and your battery is still draining fast – it may be worth looking at your phone’s overall battery health. It may be worth considering a battery replacement or a phone upgrade if your battery health is low and can no longer hold a charge. If you’re a Vodafone customer, you can take advantage of our phone battery replacement service
There are a few different ways to check your battery health. The Samsung Members App will tell you if your phone’s battery condition is ‘Normal’, ‘Weak’, or ‘Bad’, while Settings will show you your battery health percentage, cycle count and battery history.
Samsung Members App: Support > Phone diagnostics > Battery status and run test
In settings (available on phones running One UI 7.0 (Android 15) or later): Settings > Battery > Battery information