Are you constantly running out of battery on your Google Pixel phone? There are a few settings you can change and practices you can follow to maximize your Pixel’s battery life and significantly extend the time between charges.
Smartphone batteries degrade slowly as they age and charge/discharge. There are a couple of steps you can take to slow down the inevitable damage or wear to your phone’s battery regardless of the manufacturer. These principles apply to iPhone, Samsung, Google, or any other smartphone with a lithium-ion battery.
- Control the temperature of the battery
- Charge using the proper charger and cables
- Monitor the apps you’re using and keep them updated
Key Takeaways to Extend Your Google Pixel’s Battery Life
– Don’t let your battery overheat or charge while freezing
– Use the correct charging cables and adapters to ensure proper, efficient charging.
– Enable Adaptive Charging and Adaptive Battery features to optimize power usage and prevent overcharging.
– Utilize Battery Saver mode and background restrictions to limit background activity and conserve battery power.
– Lower screen brightness, enable Dark Theme and set shorter screen timeout to reduce energy usage.
– Regularly check battery usage, disable or uninstall battery-draining apps, and seek assistance from app developers.
Controlling Your Battery’s Temperature
Heat is a phone battery’s worst enemy. Charging an overheated battery can damage the health of the battery, reducing its ability to hold a charge. As a rule of thumb, don’t leave your phone in an extreme temperature environment. Don’t leave it in a hot car in summer or a freezing car in the winter.
Here’s a scenario that can damage your phone’s battery reducing its life and accelerating its aging process.
Your phone is mounted on a dashboard holder in your car. It’s 80 degrees outside and sunny. The phone is charging (wireless or wired) in the mount. Charging the phone heats up the battery. Combined with the heat of the sun in the car, the phone quickly reaches its thermal limit and shuts down. In this state with the phone overheating while charging, your battery can be damaged reducing its ability to hold a charge. In this scenario, heat is artificially aging your battery which will eventually require you to replace the battery or phone.
While the cold wont negatively affect the battery health like the heat, you should never plug in and charge a freezing battery. Let the phone rise above freezing before charging it. If you charge it while it’s frozen, it can be damaged.
The same general temperature guidelines apply to all lithium-ion batteries, not just the one in your phone.
Use the Proper Power Adapters and Cables
Pixel phones use USB-C cables with USB 2.0 power adapters and cables.
You can use a USB-A (power adapter) to USB-C (Pixel charge port) adapter/cable combination but your phone will charge slower than a USB-C to USB-C connection.
Google recommends using the Google 30 Watt USB-C power adapter or any Programmable Power Supply (PPS) power adapter rated for 30 Watts or more. You can also use other USB Power Delivery (PD) adapters rated for 15 watts or more.
In addition to wired charging, you can charge Pixel phones after the 5 wirelessly.
Note: Pixel 6a, 5a, 4a (5G), Pixel 4a, Pixel 3a, Pixel 2, and Pixel (2016) phones can’t be charged wirelessly.
Visit Google’s Pixel Phone page if you’re wondering what accessories originally came with your Pixel.
Google Pixel Screen Adjustments to Save Battery
Adjusting display settings can have a significant impact on battery life. Lower the brightness level of the screen and enable Dark Theme to reduce energy usage and help your battery last longer. You can also turn off Smooth Display and Live Wallpapers as well as the settings of your Lock Screen.
Adjust Screen Brightness
Reducing the brightness level of the screen can extend the life of your current battery charge.
- Swipe down on the screen.
- From the Quick Settings menu, swipe down again.
- Adjust the slider to adjust the brightness of the screen.
Enable Dark Theme
Invert your display so it is primarily dark colors.
Settings > Display.
Toggle the switch to enable Dark Theme.
In addition to saving power, Dark mode is easier on the eyes in a dark room. While no sleep doctor will recommend browsing your Pixel in bed, using your Pixel in dark mode is a much more enjoyable experience when compared to a harsh bright white screen.
Turn off Smooth Display
By turning off smooth display, you lower the screen’s refresh rate to 60hz. Sixty hertz is still a great experience and unless you’re using applications that benefit from a higher screen refresh rate, you probably won’t be able to tell the difference.
Go to Settings > Display > Smooth Display and toggle the slider off.
Turn off Live Wallpapers
Use a standard static image as your wallpaper rather than the dynamic moving Live Wallpaper image. Moving wallpapers are beautiful and mesmerizing to look at but they do use additional battery power.
From the Home screen, press and hold an empty space on the screen.
Select Wallpaper & Style.
Select Change wallpaper > My photos.
Note: If you don’t want to use one of your own photos, you can use a curated photo
Adjust Lock screen settings
You can set your Pixel to have the screen always on but that feature does use battery.
You can turn off the always-on Lock Screen feature
Settings > Display > Lock screen
Turn off Always show time and info.
(On a Pixel 4, go to Settings > Display > Lock screen > Idle lock screen > Off)
Adjust Screen Timeout
Control how long the screen stays on before it sleeps.
Settings > Display
Select Screen timeout.
Adjust the time to the desired length.
Optimize Your Google Pixel Battery Settings
To maximize the battery life of your Google Pixel phone, there are several settings you can optimize. The settings you will be changing can significantly change your experience using the Pixel phone so we recommend trying them out to see what works for you.
Enable Adaptive Charging
This feature adjusts the charging speed based on your usage patterns, extending the battery lifespan. Adaptive charging needs 14 days to learn your charging habits. If your charging habits vary, Adaptive Charging may not turn on.
It will keep your battery at 80% throughout the night and will charge to 100% one hour before you typically unplug it.
Settings > Battery > Adaptive Charging.
Note: When Adaptive Charging is turned on, a notification is displayed showing the time your battery will be fully charged.
Enabling Adaptive Battery
In the settings menu can prioritize frequently used apps and optimize power consumption, ensuring your Google Pixel phone lasts through the day. Adaptive battery uses machine learning to determine what apps are most important to you. The less important apps don’t need to be constantly running in the background. The apps you use more frequently are kept in memory for faster access.
Enable Battery Saver or Extreme Battery Saver
We recommend having Adaptive Battery enabled. It should enabled by default on your Pixel but if it’s turned off, turn it back on.
When your battery is low, enabling Battery Saver limits background activity and conserves power, allowing your Pixel phone to last longer. Battery Saver will turn off apps you’re no longer using automatically to help save some juice.
Features like Wi-Fi and background activities like application refreshing and notifications are turned off when Extreme Battery Saver mode is enabled. Unless you desperately need to hold on to whatever charge is in your battery, we recommend not using the Extreme Battery Saver mode.
Disable Motion Sense
This feature is the Pixel’s ability to control the phone via hand gestures. With Motion Sense enabled, a sensor is constantly scanning for motion in front of the screen to control functions like waking up your phone or changing songs on a playlist.
Settings > System > Motion System.
Manage Your Google Pixel’s Apps
You can effectively manage your apps to optimize battery life on your Google Pixel phone by checking battery usage and disabling any excessive battery-draining apps. By identifying and addressing apps that consume a significant amount of power, you can help your battery last longer.
To assist you with this process, Google’s Pixel phones offer a feature called Adaptive Battery, which manages your app’s battery usage. Here is a list of some steps you can take to manage your apps effectively:
- Check Battery Usage – Use the Battery Setting feature to identify apps that are consuming excessive battery power.
- Enable Adaptive Battery – Turn on the Adaptive Battery feature in the Battery Adaptive preferences menu to prioritize power allocation based on app usage.
- Disable Battery-Draining Apps – Once you have identified the culprits, disable or uninstall them to prevent unnecessary battery drain.
- Utilize Background Restriction – Enable the background restriction feature for selected apps to conserve battery power.
- Contact App Developer – If you notice a specific app causing significant battery drain, consider reaching out to the app developer for assistance or reporting the issue. There may be a bug that’s causing excessive power drain.
- Close phone apps when not in use – Battery Saver mode can do this task for you.
- Keep your phone and its apps up to date – developers patch and fix issues constantly that can affect your battery life.
- If the app has a dark mode, enable it and use dark mode to squeeze a little more battery life out of a charge.
- Learn what apps use the most battery – video and gaming apps can draw a lot of power as well as apps that are constantly pinging your location or requesting updates.
Frequently Asked Questions – Google Pixel Batteries
Does the Pixel 6a have wireless charging?
No, the Pixel 6a phone does not have the ability to charge wirelessly. Most of the ‘A’ series line of Google Pixel phones do not have the hardware necessary to charge the device wirelessly. The exception is the 7a which does have wireless charging.
If you want to add wireless charging to a Pixel 4a, 5a, or 6a, you can purchase a wireless adapter that physically plugs into the Pixel’s USB-C port to charge the phone with a wireless charger.
Does the Pixel 7a have wireless charging?
Yes, the Pixel 7a does have wireless charging but it is at the slowest Qi standard of Baseline Power Profile (BPP). So, you will not be able to charge your Pixel 7a with fast wireless charging like you could with a Pixel 8 or 8 Pro.
Should I charge my Pixel phone while it’s freezing?
No, you should never charge a lithium-ion battery when it’s below freezing (32F). Charging a frozen phone battery can permanently damage it.
How long should a Google Pixel battery charge last?
Your Google Pixel battery should last for a full day of normal use. To maximize battery life, close battery-draining apps, adjust display settings, manage background app refresh, avoid fast charging, and keep your software updated. If your Pixel’s battery doesn’t last for a day of normal use, the battery capacity may be reduced due to age or damage.
How much does it cost to replace a Google Pixel battery?
It can cost between $70-$100 to replace a Google Pixel battery depending on the model. While you can change the battery yourself, we recommend using a local repair shop or send it to Google to replace the battery. Find a local repair shop to replace your Google Pixel battery.
How long does a Google Pixel battery last before needing replacement?
The typical battery lifespan of a Google Pixel phone battery is 2-3 years before you start seeing a significant reduction in performance. The battery doesn’t need to be replaced until the phone starts randomly shutting down or restarting. If you see signs of wear like battery swelling, you should discontinue using the device until you can get the battery replaced.