A slow smartphone is always a source of deep frustration and hustle, and it’s common when you’ve had the same smartphone for a few years. You will always notice the device becoming slower over time and before you break the wallet for a new smartphone, there are a number of things you can do to give your old handset a speed boost.
While there is no hard and fast solution to fixing a slow phone, we hope that following these steps will help make your phone run as quickly and efficiently as possible.
1. Clear cached data
The cache is your phone’s storage system that gives the device data from the previous usage before carrying out an action. When a cache is full, the device will have to scan its entire memory for the required data, which can be a big drain on loading times.
Simply clearing space in a phone’s cache will have a noticeable impact on the time it takes to open web pages, run apps and complete actions.
To clear the cache on your iPhone, go to Settings>Safari>Clear History and Website Data and confirm the Clear History & Data.
On an Android, clear your cache by going to Settings>Storage>Other Apps. Find the app you want to clear, click on it and select Clear Cache.
2. Update to the latest operating system
If your phone is using an old operating system, it can slow your device down. Carrying out regular recommended updates will ensure that your device will always be running the most up to date browser, noticeably improving your browsing experience. In May, we reported about TECNO Spark 3 Pro would be among the list of eligible devices that will be able to get the newest Android updates for Android Q.
On iPhone to check for updates, navigate to Settings>General>Software Updates If there are any updates, it will automatically install and restart your phone.
On an Android phone, go to Settings>About Device>System Updates and allow the updates to install if updates are available.
3. Replace the battery
Replacing your battery can help to give your old smartphone a speed boost. Modern phone batteries do much more than just powering the handset, as they are integral to how a phone operates. Because of this, an old or inefficient battery can cause performance issues and should be replaced to ensure the handset runs as efficiently as possible.
For Tecno, Infinix and itel users, your battery can be updated when you visit Carl Care centre at Kampala Road or visiting any certified outlet for the brand
4. Manage your apps
If your apps aren’t managed effectively, they can drain your phone’s performance. Deleting any unused apps will help to free up memory, which in turn improves your handset’s processing power.
This is because when apps update, the previous version is not deleted but overwritten by the new update, and over time this can increase the amount of memory taken up by the app.
So it’s better you keep only those apps you actively use and ditch the others that just sit around filling up your storage. Most recent Android phones come with the feature that allows you to freeze and unfreeze unused apps which can be pretty much useful to speed boost the phone performance, especially when set it to automatically do so.
5. Performance-enhancing apps
There are several apps you can download to help improve your phone’s performance. Downloading a task manager app, for example, can help give you control over which apps are activated as part of the bootup process every time you turn your phone on.
Limiting the number of apps that are activated upon starting up will shorten the amount of time it takes your device to ‘wake up’ once you’ve switched it on. You can also find apps that help to clear cache space, as mentioned above.
6. Use Lightweight Apps on Android
Android Go apps are specially designed for low-end devices and when your old smartphone starts misbehaving, the quickest way to enhance performance is to switch allegiance to the optimized version of apps that have been proven to run well in such circumstances. You can check out the list of top 6 lightweight apps you can use on Android and the new lightweight Google Go search app which was made available for global downloads yesterday.
