Nokia Lumia 800: 10 ways to prolong battery life
By Jon Mundy on February 6,
 2012 at 00:00,

So you've got your Nokia Lumia 800 and you're putting it to the fullest use possible - streaming playlists through Nokia Music, navigating to appointments with Nokia Drive, playing Plants vs Zombies... the only trouble is, using it so extensively places additional strain on the battery. What to do? Follow these 10 tips, for a start.

Nokia Lumia 800 Ultimate User Guide

One of the most frequently asked questions on Nokia's UK website is 'How can I prolong my battery life on my Nokia with Windows Phone?', so Nokia Lumia 800 users are clearly finding it difficult to put their phones down! Fear not - by following a few simple tips, you'll be able to keep your phone juiced up for longer.

Use Battery Saver

Yep, there's a Battery Saver mode in the Settings menu. Turn this on and your phone will not longer automatically receive emails or calendar updates. Live Tiles won't be quite so, er, live either, and certain apps will no longer be allowed to run in the background.

Disable Wi-Fi

It's easy to forget this when you leave your house, but your Lumia 800 will continue scanning for Wi-Fi connections when out and about, which eats up precious battery juice. Remember to go into the Settings menu and turn Wi-Fi off to prevent this.

Turn off 3G

There are a number of spots in the UK where a decent 3G signal isn't easy to come by. Spotty 3G performance proves quite a drain on battery performance, believe it or not, because you phone is constantly losing and then searching for a new high speed connection. Go into Settings>mobile network and turn 3G off.

Reduce email synch frequency

Do you really need your Lumia 800 to push you emails as they arrive, or could you stand to have them every 15 or 30 minutes? Go into Settings>email+account, select your account and change the Download new content setting to a lower frequency.

Use dark theme

Bright themes require more power to display, especially on the Nokia Lumia 800's AMOLED display, where pixels are individually lit. Select Settings>theme>Background>dark, and do the same for any apps that offer a dark them option.

Lower screen brightness

Most people instantly crank up the brightness on their screen to really see what it can do, but this sucks power something chronic. If you want to be really stingy, go into Settings>brightness, disable the Automatic setting and lower the brightness to low.

Turn off location

It's nice to have location turned on, because a number of apps request it and it also helps Nokia Maps zone in on your position quickly. It eats juice though, so go to Settings>location and flick the setting to off when you're not using it.

Kill Xbox Live

It's easy to forget this, but your Nokia Lumia 800 automatically connects with your Xbox Live account to upload scores and achievements and to display your gamer profile info. Go into Xbox LIVE and select Settings, then turn Connect with Xbox Live off.

Turn off Vibrate

Do you really need your Nokia Lumia 800 to rumble as well as ring? Probably not, unless you want to know when you receive a message while on silent. When not the case, go into Settings>ringtones+sounds and flip Vibrate to Off.

Switch to flight mode overnight

If you're like us, you use your Nokia Lumia 800 as your alarm clock for getting up in the morning. This requires that you keep the phone turned on, of course, so minimise the power used by switching to Flight mode in the Settings menu. You won't have any network connections, but your phone will remain on.

Are there any other ways to save battery life that you've found to be effective? If so, do let us know in the Comments section below.

  • phoenixjyb

    with Symbian, you can still use the alarm even the phone is turned off. lol

  • phoenixjyb

    with Symbian, you can still use the alarm even the phone is turned off. lol

  • Anonymous

    0. Buy a different phone.

  • Anonymous

    0. Buy a different phone.

  • http://twitter.com/BMA_DDM BMA/DDM

    If you do all this, why bother having a smart phone?

  • http://twitter.com/BMA_DDM BMA/DDM

    If you do all this, why bother having a smart phone?

  • Someone

    Only by switching to manual brightness the three windows keys don’t light up anymore!

  • Someone

    Only by switching to manual brightness the three windows keys don’t light up anymore!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Bruyneel/683872944 Mike Bruyneel

    I have about 10hours life time with have of your suggestions turned off. Sorry but that´s just not enough.

  • Retroracer

    I just picked up a 800 last week, battery barely lasted a working day (ie 8 hours) with everything as default, lovely phone great OS but what is the use of a smartphone if you have to either keep switching features on and off to preserve the battery or carry a power cable everywhere. Both my previous HTC’s lasted over 18 hours with everything as default. Sorry Nokia but this is going on EBAY and I’m back to Android.

  • jimmy

    I also had issues with battery life with a new Lumia 800. However after updating then performing a reset to factory settings and then switching the data connection to Edge instead of 3G it easily lasts 3days and I have all other features turned on. The problem for me is that 3G coverage is poor in most countries thus causing a massive drain on the battery.

  • Anonymous

    @retrorace Bwahahahahaha … battery life reason and you go android, that sounds stupid.

  • Retroracer

    @ekadoken Yep daft as it sounds my Desire S would last for 24 hours on a full charge during the week and 2 days at the weekend as did my HTC Hero before that, I never had a battery problem with single core Android phones. Although after turning off the windows phone locator service the Lumia lasts from 8am till about 10pm so is now usable.

  • kirn kumar

    plz say how can change network settings .we buy in london this mobile in india

  • Saeed Khalid

    There is an application available in market place, you need to use that.