Advertisement

Say Goodbye to Snail-Speed Smartphones

jeremy chew
Updated ·4 min read
0


If you did not realize by now (which you should), maintaining your mobile phone is no different from maintaining your car or room. Imagine the negative effects on your car if you did not send it for regular servicing, the cost to repair your car will cost more than maintaining it. Imagine not cleaning your home regularly, and let it be a breeding grounds for unwanted 'guests'. Surely I do not need to elaborate more for you to get my point. The same goes for your smartphone. Proper maintenance of your phone can ensure that it always runs just like how it was when you first bought it.

Do this properly and soon you'd realize why you don't need to buy the iPhone 7 when you have the iPhone 6. Here's how you can do it:


Clear Cache Data

For the non-geeky mobile user, cache data is like that wrapping paper from your birthday present. Once you tore it open, it is of no use. Rather than just leaving it on the floor, you dispose of it. Same concept here. Cache data are leftover files from your previous browsing session, app usage, or residue of apps you've once installed. These files can hide inside the system folders of the phone and are not easily detectable through the phone's native file scanning capability.

Get a performance optimizer or file cleaning app for this, like the Clean Master (Android) or Dr. Cleaner (Apple). Apps like these two will make a thorough system scan of your phone and will determine files and will make it really easy cleaning up your phone of useless 'wrapping paper'.


Delete Unnecessary Apps

Here's an important point, the more storage space in your phone consumes, the clunkier it gets. Delete unnecessary apps to save your frustrations (especially bloat wares!). Bloat wares are preinstalled apps that phone makers decided to throw into their phones based on what they think you need. More than often, you know yourself better than anyone do!

So delete that Stocks app you don't need, or that Chrome app when you only use Safari. Do what you can to free up more space and allow the phone to work in your favor.


A Thorough Clean Up Method for Your RAM

Apparently, cleaning up your RAM by closing your recent apps is not enough sometimes. The most efficient way of making sure that there are no more sneaky files or apps that are eating it up is by using a RAM cleaner app. These apps will not only make sure that your phone is no longer slowed down by background apps, but it also optimizes your battery. The fewer apps and files making your phone move a muscle, the lesser battery it will burn. Apps such as Clean Master for Android and Dr. Cleaner for iOS can help you clean up your RAM effectively.


Force Shutdown Background Apps

This is a no-brainer tip but sometimes regularly ignored by conventional users. If you don't know what I'm saying, you're probably thinking pressing the home button once you're done shuts down the app. But in truth, the app is not entirely shut down, instead, they're just paused until they're launched again. These apps become background app and will continue to consume your phone's RAM until they are entirely shut (unless you have amazing RAM like the OnePlus3 with 6GB of ram!)
With that being said, in order for you to fully end an app and here's how to do it:

iOS

  • Double click the home button. It will zoom out from the home screen and showcase all the running apps side by side.

  • Flick the app that you want to end upwards.

Android

  • Press the multitasking (overview) button or long press the function key for phones with buttons like the Samsung Galaxy Note series. It will open all the running apps in the phone which you can't see.

  • Flick the apps sideways in order to force close them.


Avoid Animated Wallpapers

Animated wallpapers look beautiful, but they are RAM draculas. Unless you have a phone with high-caliber specs, animated wallpapers are a no-no if you want a phone that operates like a Ferrari.


Software Updates

And finally, updates are to ensure your phone's performance is constantly optimized to optimal performance and to fix bugs. Phone & software developers today listens to consumers' feedback (and complaints) and take it as important consideration for the updates. Most importantly installing updates is vital to prevent your phone from cybercriminals who are always evolving. Criminals can get creative & identify security loopholes.

Anything else I missed? Let me know if I missed out any other methods to speed up your phone.
Article written by: Marc Adrian Padillo