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The HTC One XL smartphone is a nice looking handset that runs the latest mobile operating system from Google. The screen is bright and large, which means it is going to be using plenty of battery power. The battery is sized just a few mAh over many smartphones ( 1800 mAh ) but with that LCD screen, a few videos, and the FM radio blaring, you can be sure it will need charging soon. There are some things you can do to not feel so attached to a wall outlet. Here are a few tips.

The first thing to do to save battery life on the HTC One XL is a "common sense" choice. If you do not have to have it on, turn it off. This is the most powerful way to make sure the battery lasts longer. Since most people do not use their smartphone while they sleep, turn it off at night. If that is not a choice for you, the second most powerful way to save battery life is to turn down the brightness of the screen. The LCD2 screen has plenty of clarity, which means plenty of those LCDs. Turning them down in the menus is a smart way to save power. From the home screen, bring up the settings menu. Then, select the "display" option. From there you will see the "brightness" option. Choose it and adjust the brightness from there.

Those who use the brightness setting may as well use the other menu setting for the display. In the same menu location as the brightness setting you will see a "screen timeout" selection. Choose it and adjust it down to the lowest setting you can stand. If you really do not need the screen to stay turned on for a complete minute after you are done using it, turn it down. Your battery will thank you for it with longer life in between charges.

The HTC One XL smartphone is equipped with a smorgasbord of connective radios. From bluetooth to Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, NFC ( Near Field Communication ) with a Wi-Fi hotspot feature to boot. You can be sure that most of these need some attention to keep them from using the battery. Constantly looking for a Wi-Fi connection may be a nice automatic feature, but the XL also uses battery juice while it does so. The same menu settings in Android will turn off the wireless features. From the home screen, go to "settings", then "wireless controls" and finally "Wi-Fi". Turn them off if you know you will not be using a Wi-Fi connection and while you are in the same area of the menu, you can turn off other radios. Bluetooth is under the same "wireless controls" section. GPS also uses a radio that is constantly being used. Turn it off in a different section of the menus. From the home screen, go to "settings", then "security and location" then to the "enable GPS satellites". Turn it off and you will still be tracked by the cell towers. But you will be saving battery life also.

The option of turning off the ringtones and using the vibrate function is no doubt useful in an office or cinema atmosphere. But the vibrator in the HTC One XL smartphone is actually a small motor. It is a huge user of battery energy. It can be turned off in the menus like the other things above. You will find it under "settings", "sound and display" and then "phone vibrate". Turn that battery monster off and use a short quiet ringtone in its place. Perhaps download an app that will flash the screen if you will have the smartphone out in the open. Also, using long ringtones is another battery eating habit. Get shorter ones and you will stay away from wall outlets longer.

This HTC smartphone uses 4G networks and they use up plenty of battery juice. If you know you will not be using the 4G or 3G networks, or they are just not in your area, you can tell the smartphone only to use 2G networks. The way to do this is, again, in the menus. Go to "settings", "wireless controls", "mobile networks" and you will see the option to "use only 2G networks". Select it and enjoy a few more minutes of battery life out of your handset.

There are battery management apps on the market if you want to take that route. Android comes equipped with the "battery use" screen to keep track of what programs are using how much battery power. But doing the above will no doubt help you to extend the battery life of the HTC One XL smartphone.