The Pokémon craze has gone global and all of a sudden, our favorite game requires us not only to get outside, but also to hammer our smartphone's battery as well. In fact, your hunts may have already been cut short by battery life, which can obviously be very frustrating, but thankfully there are some fairly inexpensive ways to hunt Pokémon all day.
Pokémon GO is a battery hog for several reasons. It uses your smartphone's GPS chip to find your location and identify several aspects of the game such as PokéStops and the whereabouts of Pokémon themselves. It will use the chip often along with mapping data so it can be similar to navigation apps in this regard - also known to drain your battery quickly. As you're outside, there's also a need to run your screen at full brightness. Most smartphones are set to boost brightness automatically too. As the game uses augmented reality and requires some rendering power, it also uses your smartphones built in processors heavily top, just like any other 3D game would.
All the combines to a tough time for your smartphone and if you haven't encountered the joys of the fact that smartphones desperately need longer-lasting batteries, the fact you're reading this means you've probably just joined the club. Thankfully there are some things you can do to prolong your Pokémon GO sessions. Some are free while others may cost $10 or $20 but could see your smartphone lasting several days between charges.
- Use a battery charging case
This would be the best option if you find your current device falls well short of dealing with Pokémon GO for a few hours. They're protective cases for your smartphone that sport built-in batteries and can double the battery life of your device. When your smartphone is running low, simply switch on the battery case and it will charge your phone, giving you many hours more playing time.
There are a huge amount available for all manner of devices from Apple, Samsung and HTC. Amazon is a good place to look but there are some below for the iPhone 6 that I've tested and found to be particularly good.
xLife Battery Case with wireless charging (iPhone 6/6S)
xLife Battery Case - Image credit: Antony Leather
The Xlife battery case is my favorite battery charging case for a couple of reasons. Firstly it has a 3000mAh battery that can fully charge my iPhone 6 from flat and has some juice left over. It's also not too large and even gives your iPhone 6/6S wireless charging, which I find very useful.
xLife Battery Case - Image credit: Antony Leather
The best part, though, is that the battery section detaches so if you don't need the bulky battery section, you can remove it and the device becomes only a little larger and heavier than using a normal protective case. You can buy it from Amazon for $35 and see my full review here.
iBattz Mojo Invictus
iBattz Mojo Invictus - Image credit: Antony Leather
Another of my favorite battery cases is the iBattz Mojo Invictus. This doesn't offer wireless charging like the xLife case, but it does have a big advantage in terms of battery life - a replaceable battery.
iBattz Mojo Invictus - Image credit: Antony Leather
The case uses the same battery as Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 - a 3200mAh model that costs less than $8 on Amazon. The case includes one battery so getting two would only add a little to the case's $50 asking price, but you'd triple your iPhone 6/6S's battery life - enough for probably two solid days of Pokémon hunting. See my full review here.
3. Use a portable power pack.
This is for hardcore Pokémon GO players, or for those that don't want the hassle of using a battery case. Portable power packs offer many times the power capacity of your average battery case and can literally charge your smartphone ten times or more if you get a large model.
JDB Quick Charge 2.0 - Image credit: JDB
If you just need one for Pokémon GO use, then something between 5000-10000 mAh is what you need, such as the JDB Quick Charge 2.0, which costs $23, offers a massive 10,000mah capacity (enough for three or four full charges of most smartphones) and has two USB ports for charging so you can dish out power to two smartphones at once if you have a friend that needs some power too.
KMASHI External Battery - Image Credit: KMASHI
A cheaper, lower capacity option is the KMASHI External Battery, which offers a 5,000mAh capacity (enough for around two recharges), is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and costs just $9.
3. Turn off unneeded features
There may be several ways you can boost battery life by simply switching off features you're not currently using. Bluetooth and WiFi are unlikely to be needed when you're hunting Pokémon - presumably using your data allowance so if you can switch both of these services off.
I spoke earlier about your smartphone's backlight - this is actually one of the biggest power draws so if you can reduce the brightness, even a little, this will definitely give you extra battery life although out in bright sunlight this may obviously be tricky. Depending on your device, it may also help to close other background applications. Navigation apps can often use processing power in the background as well as playing music or uploading photos.
If you're struggling with battery life, try disabling these while you're playing Pokémon GO. Finally, using 3G rather than 4G/LTE can provide a small boost to battery life - a good 3G signal is enough to play Pokémon Go and while 4G may load different aspects slightly faster, it can potentially use a lot more power.
You can see more Pokémon GO battery tips in this article and more battery case reviews in my iPhone 6/6S roundup here.
