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Facts on Phones

6 Things People Do That Ruin Their Phones

9 min read August 31, 2016
things that ruin your phone
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You may not be aware of certain practices that could be ruining your phone’s battery life and overall performance. Here are a few that we see more often than we’d like: 1. Charging It With Different Chargers Do you remember the charger that came with your phone? That’s the one you should be using to charge […]

You may not be aware of certain practices that could be ruining your phone’s battery life and overall performance. Here are a few that we see more often than we’d like:

1. Charging It With Different Chargers

Do you remember the charger that came with your phone? That’s the one you should be using to charge it. Not that one that came with your friend’s phone that you plugged your charging cable into. Using any charger that isn’t specifically made for your phone can harm your battery since that exact electrical specifications don’t match yours.

2. Leaving the Screen Brightness At 100%

This one should be fairly obvious and there’s not better way to drain your battery life but many people are guilty of this. There’s no set in stone rule regarding what level of brightness you should keep your phone at, but it is safe to assume that you can turn it down below 50% when you are laying down in bed before falling asleep. Leave the maximum brightness for when you are in an extremely bright environment or set your phone to automatically adjust the brightness.

3. Leaving the Device in Direct Sunlight

If you want to ensure that your touchscreen continues to function properly, then it is crucial that you avoid keeping it in direct sunlight for extended periods of time. Your screen is extremely sensitive to light, touch, and temperature. By bombarding it with light and heat you run the risk of literally burning out the screen.

4. Downloading Sketchy Apps From Third Parties

Most people don’t think about it this way, but their phone is really just a powerful miniature computer. Just like any other kind of computer, it is possible to come across viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, etc. These can do anything from completely crashing your device to simply slowing it down to unbearable speeds. To avoid these problems, just ask yourself if an app looks questionable and . You don’t need another brick-stacking game anyway.

5. Water Resistant Does Not Mean Waterproof

You may have seen the commercial with certain celebrities pouring champagne or other liquids on their phone and then answering it without a problem. You could possibly replicate this, but chances are that you will end up with a dead phone. Some of these “water proof” phones are equipped with a hydrophobic layer that repels liquid, but this layer can only do so much. Don’t push it.

6. Charging When It’s Not Needed

Most people have the tendency to charge their phone even if the battery life is well over 50%. Ideally, you want to charge your phone whenever the charge goes below 10%. Occasionally, you want to let the battery completely discharge and then charge it all the way up to help condition the battery and extend it’s life.