Fast tips for slow phones

On your marks, get set, connect. We look at the reasons why smartphones slow down, and how to optimise phone performance.

There’s nothing like that feeling of unboxing a shiny new phone. It’s sleek, smooth and operates with the speed of a runaway ostrich.  But as time goes by, our shiny new toy, which we have grown very attached to, can slow down. 

Occasionally, apps will crash, messages take longer to send (or don’t send at all), and the most frustrating thing of all—the camera won’t open properly.   

With so many factors to consider, it can be confusing to work out just what is affecting the speed and response time of your device. 

That’s why we’ve put together a list of common factors (plus solutions) that can affect phone performance and device optimisation. 

When you’re running on low battery (under 20%), most phones will automatically switch to ‘low power mode’ to extend the battery charge. If emails are suddenly taking longer to fetch, send new mail or download files, it’s usually because we’ve ignored the low battery alert. Which, let’s face it, we all do. 

Solution: Turn off ‘low power mode’ in battery settings.

This will optimise your device and enable you to fetch emails in a hurry. Be warned: you will drain your battery faster. So, it’s best to plug it in when you can. That’s where portable chargers come in handy.  

We love our devices and smartphones. They travel with us everywhere. We can’t help to recklessly throw them in our bag at times, just to roll around with who knows what scratchy surfaces. We sit on them, drop them, scratch them, smash them. Considering the rough and tumble we put them through, they fair better than most items. But over time, that action can have an impact on device performance which can directly diminish the functionality of device hardware.  

Solution:

Invest in a quality protective phone case. 

Smartphones are part of modern life, there’s no way we can leave them at home when we think we’re going to have a busy active day. But we can protect them.

If you ever left your phone in the car on a hot day or in the sun during a dip at the beach, you might’ve experienced slow device performance, your phone crashing or, worse of all, data loss or corruption. Heat can cause serious damage to your phone’s internal components. The most common way phones overheat is when they’ve been left in cars. 

On any 29 degree day in Australia, a car can reach 60 degrees in just 20 minutes  . 

Solution:

Be careful. Avoid charging your phone in direct sunlight or leaving it in the car. 

If your phone heats up, switch it off. Or at least switch it to airplane mode. This will shut off any intensive programs which can contribute to it heating up.

Do you experience a lot of “black spots”? Do you see “SOS Only” in the top left corner a lot? This can have a big impact on the speed and connectivity of your phone. Being with a great network is the best way to make sure you stay connected. 

Solution:

Join a network with bigger, better, faster coverage. Allow us to humblebrag: our Mobile Network is one of the best in Australia, with 4G coverage reaching to up to 97.2% of the population - from capital cities to regional and rural towns. Stay tuned for our Optus Coverage Commitment.

Are you using your phone for work, Optus Sport and play? If you spend most days using your smartphone to run several things at the same time, or you’re switching between tasks rapidly, it can impact phone performance. It all has to do with RAM and memory space. When device optimisation is compromised in this way, your device slows down and apps take a while to start up or will crash entirely (at the most inconvenient time, of course). It can be very disruptive. 

Solution:  

Get a second device, especially if you’re using the same device for business stuff as you are for streaming movies. Your second device doesn’t need to be a smartphone, either. You can always share the load with a smartwatch or tablet.

Different apps require different features from your device. Some are feature-heavy like Instagram which uses your phone’s camera, microphone, internet and even GPS. Others have intense graphics, like games. These sorts of apps can take up a lot of processing power on your device, especially compared to the humble (but extremely useful) Notes app. This impacts the speed performance of your device. 

Solution: 

One solution might be upgrading to a new phone . One with an efficient and powerful CPU (central processing unit), has more storage space, and is optimised for the latest operating system.

There’s a myriad of things that can affect device performance. But one thing’s for sure, there’s always a solution.  

—Amanda M

All images are credited to iStock.