Most of us use our smartphones for pretty much everything. But it does come at a price.

Turn on all the features, and use them a lot, and battery life will suffer. It’s not often that we’re using all the options simultaneously, however, and it’s possible to double the battery life of your Lumia with some careful tweaks to the settings, and by turning off the features you’re not using.

Location

The inclusion of GPS on your Nokia Lumia is great when you’re looking at maps or using HERE Drive, but it also eats away at your battery life when you’re not using it. There are other apps that can use location aware services as well – such as Facebook – but if you’re happy to avoid these features then you’ll get an additional couple of hours out of your Lumia by turning off GPS. Simply open Settings, press ‘Location’ and then switch the toggle to off. Turn it on again the next time you want to use it.

Bluetooth

The same principle applies to Bluetooth, which is a great feature when you need it, but it’s easy to turn off when you’re not sending files or making hands-free calls. Open Settings and ‘Bluetooth’, and there’s another toggle to turn the feature on and off.

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NFC

Many of the features on your Nokia Lumia are similar, in that they offer a lot when you need them, but there’s no point in having them turned on when you’re simply sitting at home waiting for a phone call. When you’re not using NFC, open Settings, click ‘Tap and Send’ and then switch the toggle to off.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is another feature that can be easily turned off and on, and if you’re out and about using your 3G or 4G connection, there’s no need to have both activated. Click Settings and then Wi-Fi, and once again make sure the toggle is turned off.

Connectivity shortcuts

Connectivity Shortcuts can make it even easier to turn the options above on or off, especially if you use Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or location services more frequently. Simply download the app, and then you’ll be able to add live tiles to your homescreen, including tiles for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Location, Cellular and Airplane mode.

Screen brightness

There are also plenty of options available for eking out more battery life without turning off features. Screen brightness is a great place to start – click Settings, scroll down and tap ‘Brightness’. You can choose from three different settings – Low, Medium and High. Tap ‘Low’, followed by ‘Automatically adjust’. The screen will be darker than it is using ‘Medium’ or ‘High’, helping you to get better battery life.

Lock Screen timing

It makes sense to make sure the Lock Screen turns off in the minimum amount of time. Open Settings and click ‘Lock Screen’. Scroll down, and make sure the ‘Screen times out after 30 seconds’ option is ticked.

Screen background colour

You can switch the background colour of your Nokia Lumia between ‘dark’ and ‘light’, but the latter has more impact on battery life. For the more power efficient option, open Settings and tap ‘Theme’. Under ‘Background’, choose ‘Dark’.

Battery tracking apps

Picking options to turn on and off is just the start, and knowing when you need to start getting more aggressive with the settings could help you to get an extra few hours out of your phone when you need it most. Battery Pro+ provides a wealth of detail, including exactly how much battery you’ve used up, how much time you have left to go, and the range of your battery usage in the past 48 hours.

Using 2G for calls

Using a 3G or 4G connection is fantastic for downloading apps, browsing the Internet and using a lot of your Nokia’s other features, but it does have an impact on battery life. If you’re heading into a very long call and you’re unlikely to need other features, it’s possible to switch to a more power-efficient but slower 2G connection.

Click the Cellular option using Connectivity Shortcuts (or open Settings, followed by ‘Mobile Network’) and under the ‘Highest Connection Speed’ box, tap ‘2G’. When you’ve finished the call, or when you decide you want to use your phone for emails, data or anything more demanding, simply switch back to 3G or 4G again.

Battery saver

Perhaps the simplest option of all, however, is Nokia’s own Battery Saver function. Click Settings, and scroll down to ‘Battery Saver’, and there’s a simple toggle for turning the feature on or off. Battery Saver stops apps from running in the background, along with turning off automatic sync for emails, again helping you to enjoy another couple of hours from your Nokia Lumia.

You can also change the way Battery Saver is used, by clicking ‘Advanced’. You can choose for it to activate every time the battery is low, from ‘Now until the next charge’, or always on. The latter option does mean that you’ll always have to sync your emails manually, however.

We’d love to know how long you’ve been able to make a single charge last on your Nokia Lumia, so leave a comment below.

image credit: Rob Nunn