Samsung, the settings to change to make the most of its smartphones

If you intend to make your smartphone last for several years (and you should), then the imperative is to protect the battery. Try to keep your phone always between 50 and 80 percent of charge, as letting the battery run down completely, or keeping it always at maximum charge, can reduce its efficiency over time. Samsung has a feature that can help with this: go up Settings > Device & battery care > Battery > More battery settings and activate the option Battery protection. In this way the maximum charge will be limited to 85 percent, thus prolonging the life of the phone. The consequence of course is giving up 15 percent of your battery every day; However, I suggest you try this function for a few days in order to understand how much it affects your use.

Activate Dolby Atmos

Samsung boasts that its phones support Dolby Atmos for richer audio, but the feature is turned off by default. To activate it, go up Settings > Sounds and vibrations > Sound quality and effects and enable the voice Dolby Atmos. I usually set it to Automatic, and I notice a slight difference in audio quality – music usually sounds a bit louder and more robust. Here you will also find other sound settings that you can play around with, such as the Equalizer and Adapt Sound to adjust the sound to your ears.

Delete unnecessary apps

Years ago, Samsung didn’t allow you to uninstall many superfluous applications or applications that you didn’t want to use (the so-called bloatware). Today, fortunately, it is possible to do this in most cases. Simply touch and hold the application in the app drawer or home screen and press Uninstall. If you can’t – like with the Calendar app – at least you can deactivate so that they disappear from view.

If you can’t uninstall or disable an app, your best bet is to hide it. Open the app drawer, tap the three dots icon at the top right, tap Settings and scroll down to Hide apps on Home and App screens. Tap the app you no longer want to see and that’s it!

Enable Windows logon

Do you have a Windows PC? You can connect your Samsung phone to make and receive calls from your computer, view text and photos, and even use phone apps right in Windows. From Windows, open the Microsoft Store application, search for and install Phone Link. On your Samsung device, go to Settings > Connected devices > Link to Windows. Follow the on-screen instructions to pair the two devices using the QR code.

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