SDCC Tips: Keep Your Devices Powered Up

Only a few weeks until San Diego Comic-Con 2018! With so much to see and do at SDCC, we know you’re going to want to take tons of pictures and post all about it on social media, and while you’re waiting in the long lines, you’re going to want to use your electronic devices to keep you entertained. The problem with that is your batteries will likely run out of juice at some point throughout each long day! Read on as we offer some tips to help with that problem.

1. Turn Down Brightness, Turn Off Wi-Fi, and Turn Off Vibrate

Turning down your screen’s brightness will help conserve your device’s battery.  I usually have mine set to Automatic Brightness, but you might want to manually adjust your settings to a lower brightness level instead. Another way to help conserve power on your smartphone is to turn off wi-fi.  Even when you’re not using wi-fi, if it’s turned on, your phone will constantly be searching for a network to connect to, an action which uses up battery power. Although some entity often sponsors free wi-fi at SDCC (in the past, it has been MTV’s Teen Wolf), it is virtually useless, with so many people trying to use it at once. Additionally, if you have your phone set to silent, make sure that vibrate is off too. Vibrate actually uses more battery than ringtones. If you need the vibrate on, turning down the vibrate intensity can help a little.

2. Bring Power Strips

Your hotel room is most likely only going to have about two available outlets, and chances are that there are going to be more than two things that need to be charged, especially if you have four (or more) people staying in your room. The best solution to this problem is to bring a power strip or two with you to provide additional outlets so that everything that needs to get charged can get charged overnight (or in the few hours you’re at your hotel room before heading out to line camp).

3. Use a Battery Case for Your Phone

Alright, let’s talk about battery life now. If you have a Samsung Galaxy S7 (like Violet), the battery capacity is 3000 mAh, whereas if you have an iPhone 7 Plus (like Josh), the battery capacity is 2900 mAh.  However, if you have a non-plus iPhone 7, the battery capacity is only 1960 mAh. That means the iPhone 7 will die much quicker, because it doesn’t have as much battery life as the iPhone 7 Plus or the Galaxy S7 to begin with. No matter what phone you use, if you’re using only your phone’s built in battery, it will most likely drain by the end of the day during SDCC.  This is where a battery case comes in handy.  A good option for the Galaxy S7 is the Power Bear external battery case, which adds 4500 mAH, for a total of 7500 mAH. You can get it on Amazon for $29.95. As for the iPhone 7 Plus, a good choice might be the TQTHL battery case, which adds 7000 mAh, for a total of 9900 mAh. You can get it on Amazon for $23.80.  The only drawbacks for using a battery case are that it makes the phone much bulkier and heavier. Regardless of what type of phone you have, when looking for a battery case, be mindful of the mAh battery capacity in addition to the price.

4. Bring Extra Batteries and Battery Chargers

If you would rather not have your phone be weighed down by a battery case, you could bring backup batteries – that is, if your phone has a removable battery, which the iPhone does not have, nor does any Samsung Galaxy model starting with the S6 or later. However, if your phone does have a removable battery, you can easily find extra batteries for pretty cheap on Amazon. You’ll also want to have a wall charger so that an extra battery can be charging while you have a battery still in your phone.  The same thing goes for your camera. You’ll be taking tons of pictures and possibly video with your camera all day long, so the battery will drain quickly. You should easily be able to find extra batteries and chargers on Amazon for your particular camera. We suggest buying 2 extra batteries each for your phone (if applicable) and camera, that way you can always have a spare battery on hand, and can leave one behind charging at the hotel while you go out for the day. This is especially helpful if you only spend a few hours at the hotel each evening because you’re camping out in line all night.

5. Invest in a Portable Charger

We’ve been using the EC Technology Power Bank pictured to the right for a few years now, which is a great value at $32.99 for 22,400 mAh, and has 3 USB ports so that you can charge 3 devices at once. Depending on what your power needs are, when shopping for a portable charger, don’t just go for the cheapest. You have to be aware of how much mAh battery capacity it provides. This one could charge the Samsung Galaxy S7 or the iPhone 7 Plus over 7 times! If you want something that’s much more compact, the RAVPower Luster Mini Portable Charger might be better for you. It’s about the size of a lipstick tube, and provides 3,350 mAh battery power, so it could provide over one full charge for a Galaxy S7 or iPhone 7 Plus. It’s also a much cheaper option at $11.99.

Do you have any suggestions for preserving the battery life of your electronic devices at SDCC 2018? Let us know in the comments below!

Our other SDCC Tips articles:
Start Getting Comic Con Fit Now
Seating Capacity
How to Avoid Con Crud
Starbucks
Planning Your Schedule with Sched
Last Minute Tips