So you've gotten off the upgrade treadmill, but you're still a little jealous of all those people getting the new iPhone 5. Or maybe your Galaxy S II doesn't feel as shiny when the new Galaxy S III is making big waves. This weekend, take some time to clean up your old phone and make it feel like new.
For you lucky ducks that have already nabbed yourself a new phone, check out the cool things you can do with your old one while the rest of us make do with our old beaters.
Clean Up the Outside
Let's start with the outside. If you're nice to your phone, it's probably gotten just a little wear and tear around the edges. If not, it probably looks like it got run over by a truck. There isn't a lot you can do about that, but you can make sure your screen and buttons are clean and shiny, and replace any parts that are truly broken. Heck, even a 10-year old can fix an smartphone screen for $22, so you know it won't be hard. Alternatively, if you just have a button or two that isn't working, you can apply a few software tweaks to make up for them. If you have a case, you should take that off and give it a good cleaning, too?you'd be surprised what kind of gunk can build up in there. You don't need any kind of heavy-duty solvents to clean your phone, either?just a little bit of water and vinegar. If you really want, you could use a dab or two of rubbing alcohol too, but don't go overboard!
Speed Up the Software
If your phone's running a little slow, you can speed it up by uninstalling old apps, freeing up some space on your hard drive or SD card, and (if you're on Android) a number of deep settings tweaks. If your phone has specific problems, like crappy GPS, we have ways for fixing that too. If you're jailbroken, you can probably speed up your phone by cleaning up some of your jailbreak tweaks. And if your phone isn't even turning on in the first place, don't worry! It isn't necessarily bricked yet. We've covered ways to revive seemingly bricked iPhones and Android phones before, so try those out before you toss it in the trash!
Make Your Battery Last Longer
Batteries, sadly, don't keep the same charge after a few years, which means your phone probably has a few battery annoyances by now. Turning off notifications, quitting open apps, and tweaking location settings can help quite a bit (especially if you have an app that's constantly using location services). Check out our guides for improving battery life on the iPhone and Android phones for more info.
You'll also want to make sure you're doing as much as you can to preserve your battery's health. That means performing shallow discharges, not leaving it fully charged, and discharging it about once a month?not to mention keeping it away from extreme heat. The better you treat your battery, the better life it'll have a few years down the road.
Give It Some Pizazz with a New Theme, Case, or Tweak
Okay, now that all that technical stuff is out of the way, let's have a little fun. Honestly, one of the best ways to really make your phone feel new and fun again is to give it a little extra pizazz. We've showed you how to customize your iPhone inside and out, how to find awesome Android ROMs and themes, and we even show off a new, snazzy iOS or Android home screen every week in our Featured Home Screen series, so check those out for inspiration. Chances are you'll have to root or jailbreak your phone for the best tweaks, but it's well worth it.
We've covered many of these tweaks in one way or another over the years, but it never hurts to double-check your phone and see if it's running optimally?especially if you're feeling bored with an old device. For more ways to speed up and revive an old phone, check out our Spring Cleaning series for iOS and Android.
Photo by Peter Werkman.
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