Despite all the great features and conveniences that come with an iPhone, I think that we can all agree that we want more battery life.

Over the years a number of tricks and tips have been doing the rounds about how to increase or save battery life, with some of them bordering on mythology.

To help you sort the truth from the trash, Business Insider compiled a list of the top five common myths about iPhone battery life, what you can do about them, and where you can find more info.

Myth #1: Closing apps you’re not using can save battery life

It’s commonly believed that if you shut off the apps that you aren’t’ using, you’ll save battery life. In fact, the opposite is true. Shutting down apps not only doesn’t save battery, but you could end up using more power when you re-open them.

According to Apple “you should force an app to close only when its unresponsive”.

Myth #2: Charging your phone overnight can hurt the battery

This myth might have made sense with some older iPhone models, but technology has come a long way since then. Your battery lifespan depends on the number of times that you charge it over its lifespan:

Modern smartphones, including the iPhone, have advanced power management that means that they won’t take in more current than is necessary to charge them — meaning that leaving it plugged in after it reaches 100% won’t have any effect.

“All rechargeable batteries are consumables and have a limited lifespan — eventually their capacity and performance decline so that they need to be replaced,” Apple writes in a support document.

Myth #3: Apple’s R430 battery replacements are guaranteed to improve your device’s battery life

If your battery is dying, then yes. If your battery is fine, then no, not necessarily. Best to check with an iPhone technician before getting a new battery.

You can also check for yourself:

To check if your battery needs a replacement, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health (Beta).

If you don’t see it, you probably need to update your iPhone software.

If your “maximum capacity” is under 80%, you might want to change it. Otherwise, if you’re only missing a few percentage points, you can probably wait.

Myth #4: Turning off settings like Bluetooth and WiFi will always save your battery life

When Bluetooth and WiFi are not in use, they don’t use any power, so turning them off is pointless.

…if you are in an area with a bad cellular connection, that can negatively impact your battery life. Turning on Airplane Mode in these kind of situations can save battery life. In fact, WiFi uses much less power than a cellular network, so Apple recommends keeping WiFi on at all times.

Myth #5: Letting the iPhone adjust brightness automatically hurts battery life

While it might seem logical to manually control your screen brightness when you need a bit of extra juice, Apple says that their auto-brightness setting is the way to go if you want to conserve power:

To turn it on, go to Settings > General >Accessibility >Display Accommodations > Auto-Brightness. You can also dim the screen manually in Control Center, which does use less power. But you might also forget to turn it back on, and you’ll be stuck squinting at a very low-power screen.

Hope that was helpful. Happy scrolling, people.

[source:businessinsider]