Did you get your new Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus? As for me, the new flagship is great overall, but the biggest disappointment might be the battery life. The device ships with a 3000 mAh battery, which is the same size with its predecessor. As such, squeezing as much life out of each charge is something many of us will ultimately face. With just a few tweaks to settings and features, you can get the most of the S9’s battery.

1. Disable Always-On Display

Indeed, the S9’s Always-On Display (AOD) is convenient to quickly check the time or view notifications, but there’s a small problem: Eat the battery. While Samsung does all it can to limit how much battery it uses up, it’s still sipping on power as it runs. Luckily, you can disable AOD with just a few taps:
Open Settings > Lock screen and security > turn the Always On Display switch to the Off position.

2. Leave screen resolution low

The Galaxy S9’s display is capable of putting out a stunning resolution of 2,960×1,440 (WQHD+). At this setting, just about everything shown on the display looks better. However, it comes at the cost of battery life. Rendering more pixels on a display uses more processing power, which in turn decreases battery life.
Samsung has three different screen resolution settings, two of which will save battery life. Open Settings > Display > Screen Resolution and select either FHD+ (2220×1080) or HD+ (1480×729). Finally, tap Apply.

3. Put apps to sleep forever

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 has tools monitor which apps are running in the background and using your battery. You can go about using the Device Maintenance tool a few different ways.
The first way is to go into Settings > Device Maintenance > Optimize. Your phone will automatically look for apps it can close and free up extra storage.
Secondly, in the Device Maintenance section, select Battery in the lower-left corner. A section called App power monitor will suggest apps that you can put to sleep, preventing the app(s) from using any battery by running in the background until the next time you open the app.
Lastly, if you scroll to the very bottom of the Battery section you will find options to put a list of apps to sleep whenever in the background by selecting the Always sleeping apps option.

4. Shorten screen timeout

The longer the display is lit up on any phone, the more battery it’s going to use up. In an effort to increase battery life, set the screen timeout feature to its lowest setting, 15-seconds.
Open Settings > Display > Screen timeout > 15 seconds.

5. Power saving mode

Should you find yourself in a situation where you have a low battery and it’s imperative your phone is on and able to receive messages or calls, use one of the power saving modes built into the S9 and S9 Plus.

Go to Settings > Device Maintenance > Battery. Once there, pick from either Mid or Max. When selecting either mode, a pop-up will display the changes it will make and the added time in minutes each feature will give you. Adjust any of the suggested changes to better fit your needs and then apply the power saving mode.

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