Battery Life For iPhone X: Genius Tips

Quick Summary:
Maximize your iPhone X battery life with simple tweaks! This guide offers practical tips on adjusting settings, managing apps, and optimizing usage habits to keep your iPhone X powered up longer throughout the day.

Is your iPhone X battery draining faster than a leaky faucet? You’re not alone! It’s a common frustration when our trusty smartphones can’t keep up with our busy lives. But don’t worry, we can get that battery back in fighting shape.

This guide is here to help you understand why your battery might be running low and, more importantly, give you straightforward, easy-to-follow tips to make it last longer. We’ll cover simple adjustments you can make right now, from tweaking settings to managing your apps. Get ready to reclaim your day without constantly searching for a charger!

Understanding Your iPhone X Battery

Your iPhone X, like any smartphone, uses battery power for everything it does. From the glowing screen to buzzing notifications and the powerful processor working behind the scenes, it all adds up. Over time, the battery’s ability to hold a charge can naturally decrease.

But there are many factors that can speed up this drain. Sometimes, it’s a specific app using too much power, or perhaps a setting that’s always on when it doesn’t need to be. The good news is, identifying these culprits is the first step to solving the problem. We’ll break down exactly what’s using your battery and how to manage it effectively.

Factors Affecting iPhone X Battery Life

Several things can play a role in how long your iPhone X battery lasts on a single charge. Understanding these can help you pinpoint the issues and make informed choices about how you use your phone.

Screen Brightness: A brighter screen uses more power.
Background App Activity: Apps constantly refreshing in the background consume energy.
Location Services: Apps that track your location can be big battery users.
Push Notifications: Frequent alerts wake up your phone and use battery.
Signal Strength: A weak cellular or Wi-Fi signal makes your iPhone work harder.
Software Updates: Sometimes, new features or bugs in iOS versions can impact battery.
Battery Health: Over time, the battery’s maximum capacity naturally degrades.

Genius Tips to Boost Your iPhone X Battery Life

Let’s dive into some simple yet effective strategies to extend your iPhone X’s battery life. These tips are designed to be easy to implement, even if you’re not a tech wizard. We’ll start with the most impactful changes and move on to more nuanced adjustments.

1. Master Your Display Settings

The screen is often the biggest power hog on any smartphone. Making smart choices about how your display operates can have a dramatic effect on your battery life.

Lower Screen Brightness

Manually adjusting your screen brightness is one of the quickest ways to save power. If it’s too bright for your surroundings, it’s wasting energy.

Go to Settings.
Tap on Display & Brightness.
You’ll see a brightness slider. Slide it down to a comfortable level. For a truly automatic setting, ensure Auto-Brightness is turned on. This allows your iPhone to adjust brightness based on ambient light.

Enable Auto-Lock

Setting your iPhone to automatically lock after a short period of inactivity means the screen turns off sooner, saving precious battery life. It’s a small change, but it adds up!

Go to Settings.
Tap on Display & Brightness.
Scroll down and tap on Auto-Lock.
Choose a shorter time, like 30 seconds or 1 minute.

Use Dark Mode

Your iPhone X has an OLED screen. For these types of screens, dark mode can save a significant amount of power because black pixels are essentially turned off. This means less light is emitted, and therefore, less battery is used.

Go to Settings.
Tap on Display & Brightness.
Under Appearance, select Dark.
You can also set a schedule for Dark Mode to turn on automatically at sunset or a custom time.

2. Tame Background App Activity

Many apps are designed to refresh their content in the background so they’re ready with fresh information when you open them. While convenient, this constant refreshing uses battery power.

Identify Battery-Draining Apps

Your iPhone tracks which apps are using the most battery. This is a crucial step to understanding where your power is going.

Go to Settings.
Tap on Battery.
Scroll down to see a breakdown of battery usage by app. You’ll see both screen usage time and background usage time.
Pay attention to apps that show a high percentage of battery usage, especially if you haven’t been actively using them.

Limit Background App Refresh

Once you’ve identified apps that are using too much battery in the background, you can stop them from refreshing.

Go to Settings.
Tap on General.
Tap on Background App Refresh.
Here, you can choose to turn off Refresh for specific apps, or turn it off entirely for Wi-Fi only, or never. It’s often best to turn it off for apps you don’t need constantly updated.

3. Optimize Location Services

Location services are super handy for maps and finding places, but keeping them on for every app can be a major battery drain. Many apps request your location much more often than needed.

Review and Adjust Location Settings

You can control which apps can access your location and when.

Go to Settings.
Tap on Privacy & Security.
Tap on Location Services.
Here you’ll see all the apps that have requested access to your location. For each app, you can choose:
- Never: The app can never access your location.
- Ask Next Time Or When I Share: You’ll be prompted when the app needs location.
- While Using The App: The app can access your location only when it’s open and in use.
- Always: The app can access your location even when it’s not open (use this sparingly!).
Turn off location access for apps that don’t truly need it or set them to “While Using.”

Location-Based Alerts & System Services

Scroll down to the bottom of the Location Services screen. Here you’ll find ‘System Services.’ Many of these, like “Location-Based Alerts,” can be turned off if you don’t use them. Apple’s own services also use location. You can disable things like “Location-Based iAds,” or “Popular Near Me” if you don’t find them useful. For a thorough check, you might find resources from Apple helpful: visit Apple’s support page on Location Services.

4. Manage Notifications Wisely

Every time your phone’s screen lights up for a notification, it uses battery. Too many notifications can add up very quickly.

Reduce the Notification Flood

Go to Settings.
Tap on Notifications.
Go through each app and decide if you really need instant alerts. You can turn off notifications completely for most apps, or choose to have them delivered silently to the Notification Center instead of appearing as banners on your lock screen.
For apps like messaging or important emails, keep them on. For games or social media you don’t check constantly, turning off banners and sounds can save a lot of battery.

5. Improve Your Cellular and Wi-Fi Connection

When your iPhone has a weak signal, either from your cellular provider or Wi-Fi, it has to work harder to maintain a connection. This extra effort drains the battery faster.

When You’re in a Bad Service Area

Consider turning on Airplane Mode if you’re in an area with no service. This prevents your iPhone from continuously searching for a signal, which is a huge battery saver. You can still use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth features in Airplane Mode once they are manually re-enabled.
If your Wi-Fi is weak but your cellular signal is strong, you might get better battery life by turning off Wi-Fi and using your cellular data instead. You can toggle Wi-Fi on and off from the Control Center or Settings.

6. Optimize Fetch New Data Settings

Email and other apps can be set to check for new information automatically at regular intervals. Frequent checking means more battery usage.

Adjust Fetch Intervals

Go to Settings.
Scroll down and tap on Mail.
Tap on Accounts.
Tap on Fetch New Data.
Here, you can change Fetch to “Manually” for accounts you don’t need constant updates from. For others, you can increase the interval from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes or hourly.
You can also opt for “Push” for only the most critical accounts and “Fetch” for the rest. Push means your email server sends new emails to your phone as they arrive, which can be more efficient than fetching at set intervals.

7. Use Low Power Mode

Low Power Mode is a fantastic built-in feature designed to quickly save battery when you need it most. It reduces background activity and visual effects to extend your battery life until you can charge up.

When and How to Use Low Power Mode

Your iPhone will prompt you to use Low Power Mode when your battery reaches 20% and again at 10%. You can also turn it on manually.
To turn it on:
1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap on Battery.
3. Toggle on Low Power Mode.
Low Power Mode turns off features like automatic downloads, mail fetch, background app refresh, and some visual effects. The screen may also dim slightly faster.

Note: Low Power Mode automatically turns off when your iPhone is charged to 80% or more.

8. Keep Your iPhone X Updated

Apple often releases software updates that include improvements for battery performance and bug fixes. Making sure your iPhone X is running the latest version of iOS can help maintain optimal battery life.

Update Your Software

Connect your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network.
Go to Settings.
Tap on General.
Tap on Software Update.
If an update is available, tap Download and Install. Ensure your iPhone is charged or plugged in during the update process.

9. Manage System Services

Your iPhone has many system services that use battery, some of which you might not even be aware of or need. Reviewing these can free up significant power.

Adjusting System Services

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services.
Scroll all the way down and tap on System Services.
Here, you can toggle off services you don’t use. Essential services like “Find My iPhone” and “Emergency Calls & SOS” should remain on. However, you can likely turn off options like:
- Homescreen Clock format
- Location-Based Alerts
- Location-Based iAds (if available)
- Popular Near Me
- Setting Time Zone
- Share My Location (unless you actively use it)
- System Customization
- Wi-Fi Networking (can sometimes drain battery when searching for networks, but be cautious if you rely on Wi-Fi)

Feature	Impact on Battery	Recommendation
Screen Brightness	High	Lower manually or use Auto-Brightness.
Background App Refresh	Medium to High	Disable for non-essential apps.
Location Services	Medium to High	Set to “While Using” or “Never” for most apps.
Push Notifications	Low to Medium	Reduce for non-essential apps.
Cellular Signal Strength	High (when weak)	Use Airplane Mode in no-service areas.
Fetch New Data	Low to Medium	Adjust intervals or set to Manual.
Low Power Mode	Significant saver	Use when battery is low.

10. Manage Your Battery Health

Even with the best practices, battery capacity naturally degrades over time. Your iPhone X has a built-in feature to check your battery’s health.

Check Battery Health

Go to Settings.
Tap on Battery.
Tap on Battery Health & Charging.
Here, you’ll see “Maximum Capacity.” This percentage indicates your battery’s capacity compared to when it was new. A lower percentage means the battery holds less charge.
If your Maximum Capacity is significantly reduced (e.g., below 80%), you might consider a battery replacement. Apple recommends service if the capacity falls below 80%. You can find more information on battery service from Apple Support.

11. Consider Power Management Settings (iOS 15 and later)

With newer iOS versions, there have been further refinements in how power is managed. While many of the previous tips are still relevant, ensure your iOS is up-to-date to benefit from Apple’s latest optimizations. Beyond just Low Power Mode, the system itself learns your usage patterns to optimize charging and background activity. Ensuring your phone has the latest software is the best way to leverage these advances.

12. Reduce Motion and Transparency

Visual effects like animations and transparency can use more processing power and thus more battery. While they make the iPhone X look sleek, disabling them can offer a small but noticeable boost.

Adjust Visual Effects

Go to Settings.
Tap on Accessibility.
Tap on Display & Text Size.
Turn on Reduce Motion. This will disable many of the screen-wide animations.
Scroll down and turn on Reduce Transparency. This makes some background elements on menus and apps more opaque, which can save GPU and battery resources.

13. Turn Off Raise to Wake

The “Raise to Wake” feature automatically turns on your screen when you lift your iPhone. While convenient, this means the screen can light up unintentionally in your pocket or bag, wasting battery.

To disable it:

Go to Settings.
Tap on Display & Brightness.
Scroll down and toggle off Raise to Wake.

14. Use Wi-Fi Instead of Cellular Data When Possible

As mentioned briefly before, Wi-Fi connections are generally more power-efficient than cellular connections. When you have a strong Wi-Fi signal available, switch to it.

Prioritize Wi-Fi Connections

When you’re at home, work, or in a café with Wi-Fi, connect to it.
You can quickly toggle Wi-Fi on and off from the Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner on iPhone X and later) or by going to Settings > Wi-Fi.