Nobody likes being left high and dry with a flat battery. Luckily there are loads of simple steps you can take on the Nokia N8 to make sure it never happens to you. Read on for all the details.
Running out of power on your Nokia smartphone is first and foremost an an inconvenience, but there are other things to consider, too. Long-term a phone that consumes power inefficiently will need its battery replaced sooner, while there's also the everyday cost involved in charging mobile devices, plus the impact on the environment.
Follow these 10 simple steps, however, and you can rest easy that you're squeezing every bit of value from your precious power – without sacrificing any of the Nokia N8's performance or versatility in the process.
1 Use Power Save mode
Several Nokia smartphones – including the Nokia N8 – actually have a power-save mode designed specifically to optimise your phone's power use for maximum battery life.
2 Switch off 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
Just because your Nokia N8 has all kinds of fancy features on board doesn't mean they need to be switched on all the time. If you're not actively using them, switch off the likes of Bluetooth, 3G and Wi-Fi – all they're doing is using up the battery.
3 One task at a time
The more programs, apps or tasks you have open at one time, the more resources your Nokia N8 is using. Be more disciplined and close apps you're not using, or alternatively download App Stop from the Ovi Store and it'll do it for you.
4 Drop the brightness
It takes power to light up the Nokia N8's AMOLED screen, but you can reduce how much it takes by quite a bit by lowering the screen's brightness.
5 Keep temperatures down
An interesting fact about Lithium Poly Ion batteries, such as the cell inside the Nokia N8, is that they're most efficient at room temperature, and run out faster the hotter they get. Keep a cool head and you won't be caught short.
6 Lower the volume
Like the screen brightness, the higher your volume the more power it takes to produce sounds, so remove message and notification tones you don't really need, or set the volume as low as you're prepared to live with.
7 Disable push email
The upside of push email is that it can constantly check for incoming email in the background without you having to worry, but the downside is it takes power to do it. To extend battery life, either disable push email altogether, or reduce the frequency of email refreshes.
8 Keep it black
Part of why the Nokia N8's AMOLED screen is such a stunner is that black pixels are actually switched off altogether, and so are true black. It stands to reason, then, that the more of them there are, the less power will be required to light up the rest, so set your background to plain black, or at least opt for a darker image, to save on battery.
9 Cut the vibrations
You can set your Nokia N8 to vibrate at everything from a new email to an incoming call, but every time it does so your battery takes a big hit. Switch off all vibrations and you'll more than likely notice an immediate difference.
10 Download Battery Extender Lite
The Ovi Store is home to a clever utility designed to help you use your battery more efficiently. Battery Extender Lite is free and can extend the standby time on your phone by up to 30% by cleverly tweaking your settings in the background.
Do you have any tips of your own that we've missed here, or perhaps an app that you've found helps you get maximum battery life from your Nokia N8? Let us know in the Comments.