Faizel Patel – 24/06/2020

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Photo: Popsci

The  COVID-19  pandemic in South Africa has severely impacted the economy leaving man people bearing with many people needing to stretch their budgets as far as possible.

Many South Africans are also working from home, relying on their smartphones and technology to get the work done.

While electronic devices, especially smartphones are important during these perilous times, it need to be care for to ensure that its lifespan can be prolonged.

Alcatel has provided a few simple tips to make your phone last longer:

1. Get a good phone case and screen protector

All it takes to bring a smartphone to an untimely end is a direct impact to the touchscreen from a fall from a metre or two above the ground. Even if it’s possible to fix the screen, it will usually be expensive to do it. A tempered glass screen protector will help protect your screen should your phone hit the floor. And if you keep your phone in a sturdy case, you’ll add even more protection for the screen and help protect the rest of the device from scratches and scuffs.

2. Look after the battery

The lithium batteries used in smartphones degrade over time as you use your device. You can extend their lifespan by following good charging practices. Don’t make a habit of letting your battery run completely flat and then recharging it to 100%. Rather try to keep your device consistently charged between 20% and 90% — 50% is a good number. You’ll get more battery charge cycles if you charge it up before it gets flat.

3. Keep it clean

Keeping your smartphone clean will help ensure that it looks good even if it’s a couple of years old. Use a soft, slightly damp cloth to wipe it down regularly or invest in some wipes designed for cleaning glasses or screens. Be careful not to push too hard, so that you don’t scratch the screen if there’s dirt on it. From time to time, use a toothpick to clean out lint or dirt that has accumulated in the charging port.

4. Delete unneeded apps and data

If your smartphone is starting to feel slow and sluggish, it might help to get rid of all those old videos, photos and apps you don’t need any more. You can transfer the stuff you want to keep to the cloud or your PC. You might find that your smartphone is faster and more responsive after this storage spring clean.

Flushing your cache might also help. After a while, your phone’s cache might become crammed with data and files that drag down performance. Go to settings on your Android phone, tap storage and then cached data, and then clear the cache. Switching off widgets and animations can also give you a performance boost.