These days, smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S5 have huge screens, faster processors for apps and games, and continue to be packed with features. One thing we are constantly concerned about is how these affect battery life.
The brand new Samsung Galaxy S5 has been on the market for less than a month, but we are already getting a lot of questions from users and potential buyers regarding some of the highly launched features in the new phone.
When announced on stage in February, Samsung happy to introduce A new feature called Ultra Power Saver mode that promises to keep your smartphone going for days. Of course, you won’t have a fully working device, but this feature can come in handy as well as save lives in an emergency. For those who may or may not know the Ultra Power Saver mode on the Galaxy S5, read on to learn more and learn how to enable it yourself.
Essentially, what Ultra Power Saver mode offers is an experience that limits your smartphone to only offer the essentials, but leaves you with a device that can last more than 10 days on a single charge. Cooldown and usage time will vary, but this can come in handy when camping or in many other scenarios.
Ultra Power Saver mode puts the phone in grayscale black and white mode and disables most features. However, users will still be able to use the device as a “smart” phone and browse the web and even Facebook for calls, texts and emails as well as these social butterflies.
Samsung claims that even 5% battery life in standby mode will last around 8 hours (or overnight) if you’re using Ultra Power Saver mode. This is extremely useful for nights when you don’t have a charger when camping and especially in emergencies. A quick video for a visual explanation of what it offers and how to enable it.
As you can see, the phone becomes a basic phone, but will still offer web browsing and a few other essential features. Location, GPS, colors, and tons of other sensors and features are disabled. Many users love everything the Galaxy S5 has to offer, but if you don’t need them or you’re in a dead end, this Ultra Power Saver mode can come in really handy.
So, while the phone isn’t very useful, Samsung provides a few key features to still be accessible even if it affects battery life. WiFi can be enabled and accessed for faster connection, Bluetooth is in the options and users can continue to control brightness, volume and ringtones. That’s about it though, because everything is disabled to keep your device powered on for days and days, not hours.
While the video above should have explained everything perfectly, we will once again learn how to enable it exactly. Swiping down with two fingers from the top of the screen is a trick that brings you to the quick settings rather than the usual notification pop-up bar options. Simply “U. Tap the “Power saver” icon and select “OK” to activate this mode. It’s that easy and just a few steps away.
However, users can also navigate to the settings menu by normal means to enable Ultra Power Saver Mode. Pull down the notification bar and hit the gear-shaped icon in the top right. From here you will see a list of icons and settings. There should be a green battery icon labeled “Power Saver” on the bottom right.
Once selected, you will get a popup confirming that you want to switch to Power Saver Mode; this is appreciated considering it takes more than a few seconds for your device to switch. Once complete, users will notice the grayscale screen and all these popular features will be gone. However, it’s all about preserving that battery life.
Should You Use This?
The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a beautiful 5.1-inch 1080p HD display, a fingerprint scanner inside the home button for enhanced security, a great 16-megapixel camera and runs the latest version of Android. It is one of the best Android devices and smartphones available in 2014, but none of these will work once this is enabled.
Of course, Ultra Power Saver mode isn’t something consumers will use on a daily basis, so it’s entirely up to buyers whether they use the feature or not. Ultra Power Saver mode is the perfect solution if you’re on road trips, camping, out late at night, or want better battery life in an emergency. If you’re looking for better battery life without losing any features, perhaps buying a long-term battery is a better option.
Ultra Power Saver mode is certainly not designed for daily use by users, but many will find it useful in certain situations. Try it on your next vacation and you’ll be amazed how long the Galaxy S5 can last on a single charge.
