You Can Extend Your Phone’s Battery With a Few Settings and a Wallpaper Change

Improving battery life on a phone is often a big focus, especially as we increasingly use our phones for everything from watching movies to experimenting with generative AI features. And we know people are looking for solutions to help extend their battery life, whether it’s finding new phones with better batteries or making use of power banks. A CNET survey from May 2026 found that 58% of smartphone owners are frustrated with their device’s battery life. In fact, longer battery life (52%) is the second biggest driver (after price at 55%) of their decision to get a new phone.

But as phones and other electronics keep getting more expensive, you may want to look into other ways to get more use out of the phone that you have — including ways to improve its battery life. The good news is that if your phone happens to have an OLED or AMOLED display, there are a few simple tweaks you can make to help cut down on how fast its battery drains to power that screen. And there’s a good chance you indeed have a phone with this type of screen tech: According to a Counterpoint Research report from May, about 87% of smartphones in the US do. 

Can these two settings really help save battery on OLED smartphones?

The display is the most active part of your smartphone — and to save battery, we need to find ways to reduce its workload. An easy way to do this is by adding a black wallpaper and enabling dark mode on your device.

The OLED panel then draws very low power because of its structure. It works on a per-pixel basis as opposed to having a constant backlight to light up the pixels (LCD), which consumes around 30% higher average current than Dynamic AMOLED, according to a paper published in IEEE.

If you add a black background to your homescreen, it will turn off most pixels on an OLED-equipped smartphone, allowing it to last longer on a single charge. Some might believe it to be a myth, but according to another research paper from IEEE, black color consumes the lowest power (~250 mW). In comparison, white is the most power consuming color on an OLED display, taking up around 1,250 mW of energy from the battery.

You’ll notice a significant difference in battery efficiency between light mode and dark mode when you’re using the phone in direct sunlight. With the brightness cranked up to the maximum, dark mode (and its dark background on apps) consumes significantly less power, as compared to light mode and its white background.

However, setting a deep black background on the home screen could result in higher contrast and readability issues for some people. A 2025 study from the University North, Croatia, found that the background color on a digital system has a significant effect on readability. It found a specific shade of dark grey (#121212) to “significantly reduce the number of reading errors,” whereas dark blue (#15202B) led to faster reading of text.

If you want the best of efficiency and readability on your OLED display smartphone, you should opt for a dark grey background in dark mode. Here’s how to set up both settings on your iPhone or Android device.

How to turn on dark mode on an iPhone

All current iPhone models on the market — from the iPhone 17E to the iPhone 17 Pro Max — have an OLED display. That means you can turn on dark mode to save battery on your iPhone. This also includes most iPhone models released since the iPhone 12 line, barring the iPhone SE. Here’s how you can find and enable this setting:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll down to Display & Brightness.
3. Select Dark to turn on the dark mode.

However, not everyone likes dark mode at all times. I prefer my iPhone to be in light mode during the day, so I’ve scheduled dark mode from 6 p.m. to 11 a.m. on my device. You can set it up to turn on automatically at your preferred time by simply switching a toggle and adding a schedule. Here’s how: 

1. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
2. Below the Light and Dark options, there’s an Automatic toggle. Turn it on.
3. Tap Options and set your preferred schedule.

If a schedule doesn’t work for you, I recommend adding a dark mode toggle in the Control Center for easy access. This way, you can simply swipe down from the top of your home screen and turn on dark mode with a tap. To do this:

1. Open Control Center on your iPhone.
2. Touch and hold a blank space on it.
3. You’ll find an Add a Control option at the bottom of the screen. Tap on it.
4. Search for Dark Mode and tap on the setting.
5. Drag and drop the icon where you want to place it in the Control Center.
6. Tap anywhere in the blank space to save this position.

How to add a black or dark wallpaper on an iPhone

Before you go through the following steps, you first should find a dark wallpaper that you’d like to use. There are many options out there, whether you find one with a solid background or a nearly black wallpaper with some designs. When you pick the wallpaper you’d like, download and save the image to your iPhone. Once you’ve done so, you’re now ready to add a dark background to your home screen and lock screen. Here’s how:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll down to find Wallpaper and tap on it.
3. Tap on Photos and select the image you just saved.
4. If you want, you can customize it with widgets. Once done, tap on Add.
5. Tap on Set as Wallpaper Pair, so it’s added to both your home screen and lock screen.

You’re now all set! The combination of dark mode and near-black background should help your iPhone last longer on a single charge.

How to turn on dark mode on an Android phone

The settings menu on an Android phone can vary based on the brand you’re using. For instance, the setting could be placed under a different menu on a Samsung Galaxy phone versus a Google Pixel device. However, it’ll always be some variation of going to Settings > Display and turning on the Dark theme toggle. A few Android manufacturers, including OnePlus and Oppo, have them under Settings > Display & brightness > Dark, similar to the Apple iPhone.

You can enable dark mode on your Android phone by following these steps:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Scroll to find Display or Display & touch, depending on the phone.
3. Tap on Dark.

Like the iPhone, you can schedule dark mode on your Android phone. I’ll break it down into two broad categories:

Schedule dark mode on Samsung Galaxy phones:

1. Go to Settings > Display.
2. Under Light and Dark, you should find the Dark mode settings option. Tap on it.
3. Select Turn on as scheduled.
4. Tap on Custom Schedule. This will allow you to add your preferred time to this setting.

Schedule dark mode on Google Pixel phones:

1. Go to Settings > Display & touch.
2. Tap on Schedule.
3. Now, you can add a custom time by selecting Turns on at custom time.

4. Add your preferred time to automatically turn on dark mode every day.

How to add a black or dark wallpaper on an Android phone

Like other settings, changing a wallpaper differs from one Android phone to another. Some might also offer solid color options, so you don’t need to download this image. But for the sake of this tutorial, I’ll stick to a single process. I recommend saving the image to your gallery.

To change the wallpaper on your Android phone:

1. Long-press on a space on your home screen.
2. Tap on Wallpapers at the bottom.
3. Select Choose a photo (this option might vary depending on your phone. Tap on the option that allows you to select a photo from the gallery).
4. Select the recently downloaded photo.
5. Tap Preview > Apply.

Like the iPhone, you can always add widgets and adjust the look of your clock after setting this wallpaper. Your Android phone is now all set to save battery through display efficiency.