A little knowledge can go a long way in regards to keeping your phone battery charged and in good condition. And while there are countless tricks designed to help you preserve your precious battery, we’ve asked the experts to fill us in on what drains your smartphone battery the fastest.

From the temperature outside to screen brightness and auto updates, here are six things that are killing your battery power, plus how to fix them.

1.    Poor Signal
Even if you are connected to Wi-Fi and cellular data is off, bad signal can still suck up your battery like nothing else. This is because your phone is constantly using its power to look for a better signal.

As a solution, if you know you’re going to be in an area with poor reception, keep your smartphone on charge or on a battery pack, or turn it onto Airplane mode when you don’t need to use it.

2.    Low Temperatures
Unless you have a wide-temperature battery, which can maintain over 85% of capacity at -40℃ - 65℃, your phone is going to be severely affected by temperature.

But while hot weather can have a negative effect on performance and battery life, it’s the cold or low temperatures that will really kill your battery life. This is especially true for charging the battery at temperatures below 0°C.
The solution? Always try to keep your phone at room temperature when it’s on charge. It’s also important to not leave your phone frigid in cold temperatures, like in a parked car.  Instead, keep your phone close to you so it can absorb some of your body heat, like in a warm coat pocket, and always keep it in a phone case.

If you do need to leave your phone behind, turn it off and do not keep it on charge.

3.    Screen Brightness and Regular Notifications
The backlight on smartphones is one of the biggest drains to the battery, especially if you’re popular and get a lot of notifications through which will constantly switch on your display!

To solve this problem, keep your screen brightness on ‘Auto’ or dim your phone’s brightness. You can also switch off the notifications you don't have to see (shopping App sale promotions etc), or at least update your settings so your phone doesn't vibrate or flash with every notification.

4.    Your Choice of Apps
It sounds obvious, but some apps drain your battery much faster than others. Moreover, Apps that are poorly coded or have bugs can also rinse your battery – even when they’re not in use.

To fix this problem, go into your battery usage settings to find out which Apps are using the majority of your battery, and make sure to delete or uninstall them if you don’t use them regularly. It’s also important to remember to shut down an App and close it after you use it, as leaving it running in the background also drains your battery.

5.    Auto Updating
Automatic app updates are an awesome feature, but they also rinse your battery little by little. This is because when the auto update feature is set, your phone is constantly looking for updates and then downloading the newest version of the app whenever possible.

The solution? Turn off automatic app updates and select one day a month to check for updates.

6.    Gaming or Streaming While Charging
A parasitic load can occur on your smartphone when the battery is being significantly drained while being charged. This is through gaming, streaming or downloading a large app. Battery manufacturer advise against parasitic loads while charging because they induce mini-cycles and stress on the battery.

To avoid this, turn your device off while charging and avoid any strenuous activity. In other words, switch to a streaming device rather than trying to watch Netflix on your phone while charging it!