5 ways to make your Lumia battery last while travelling

It’s a business traveller’s nightmare.

You’re in a new country, waiting to meet a new client. In just a minute, you’re due to give an important presentation, which is on your Lumia. The map to the client’s office is on your Lumia, and the client’s phone number is… well, on your Lumia, too. The only trouble is, your battery is draining in front of your very eyes. To save you from this scenario, we’ve listed five ways to keep your Lumia up and running through those long travelling days. We hope they help.

1. Lighten the load with another mode

Until now, you might not have been too pleased to see that little shield icon in the corner of your Lumia’s screen. As you probably know, it means your phone is in battery saver mode and you’d better charge it fairly quickly. However, besides having Battery Saver turn on automatically when your battery is low, you can use it to save energy at any time. Though it turns off some services and you’ll have to go manual for checking your email, you’ll still get all your calls and texts. Go to Settings –> Battery Saver –> Advanced and choose either Now until next charge or Always. Just remember to change the settings back when you need all your phone’s functions again.

On the other hand, if you want to work on Microsoft Office documents on your Lumia but don’t have to make or take calls, switch on the flight mode. It’ll disable cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC, but you can turn any of those back on individually whenever you want.

2. Stop scanning for Wi-Fi

Did you know that using a Wi-Fi connection to go online uses less battery than a mobile data connection? That’s great news for travellers who also want to avoid the high data costs of roaming. Still, once you’ve added your airport, hotel or office Wi-Fi to your Lumia, make sure you stop the device from scanning for more networks in the background. You can do this from Settings –> Wi-Fi –> Advanced, by unchecking Notify me when new networks are found.

3. Accessorize to optimize

There are great accessories for Lumia smartphones a business executive should never travel without. The pocket-sized portable USB chargers like the and DC-18 will give your Lumia battery an instant top up wherever you are. For the Lumia 1020, the ingenious Camera Grip doubles as a rechargeable battery and lets you take up to 285 more amazing photos of your trip. What’s more, for the road warrior, the Nokia Wireless Charging Car Holder is a must have. And if you plan to play music, hold a teleconference or watch videos while away, your Lumia battery will be ever grateful if you pack wired headphones rather than using the phone speakers.

4. Download at home

One of the greatest things about your Lumia when traveling is the offline maps on the preinstalled HERE Maps. Updating those maps on the road is a battery-consuming process, but if you preload the ones you need before you leave the office, you’re all set for finding your way around the globe. On top of this, there’s a fair chance that updating your device’s software and apps will make your battery work even more effectively. To make use of any new bug fixes and optimizations, check that your Lumia is running the latest versions of everything before your trip.

5. Avoid accidental multitasking

One of the key principles of our Smarter Everyday philosophy is to avoid multitasking as it tends only to give you the feeling of being efficient. However, unlike us our Lumias can run several apps and tasks at the same time effectively. Just make sure your device doesn’t multitask when you don’t want it to. When you’re finished with an app – such as HERE Drive to find your way to the client’s premises – make certain you keep tapping the back button until you get all the way back to your start screen, as otherwise you’ll keep it running in the background.

Of course there’s a whole host of other ways to keep your Lumia’s battery consumption to a minimum, too, such as dimming the brightness of your screen or placing it on a Nokia Wireless Charging Plate on your work desk when you don’t need your Lumia. What we wanted to focus on this time were the ways to keep your device going specifically when you’re on the road. Do you think we covered all the top tips? Or do you have a secret that keeps your travelling Lumia running longer than ours? In either case, please share your comments with us and your fellow professionals down below.

image credit: Rob Nunn