If you find the QuickTalker Freestyle has low battery life, this guide will help you make changes that can help it last throughout the day.

Causes

Low battery life can be caused by various factors, usually poor device settings. Please note that as lithium batteries age and are used, they lose total battery capacity. This is normal. The recommended settings below can help you maximize your battery life as this happens.

Recommended Settings

The below settings contribute the most to unnecessary battery drain.

• Adjust Brightness
  • Found in Display & Brightness in the Settings App
  • Adjust brightness to as low as possible while still being able to see the screen
  • We find that adjusting this setting to half brightness (50%) can help decrease battery consumption and still maintain high visibility to the screen. 
• Turn off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (when not actively using)
  • Found in the Notification Center of your device
  • You can tap on each option’s icon to turn it on/off as needed
• Turn off notifications
  • Found in Notifications in the Settings App
  • Adjust and set your notifications per app as you prefer, however turning Notifications to Off saves battery most
• Set Auto-Lock
  • Found in Display & Brightness in the Settings App
  • Find Auto-Lock, and adjust this setting for the minimum time necessary to have the screen active at one time
  • We recommend 2, 5, or 10 min. The option for “Never” is not recommended, as this will keep your screen on all the time, or until you tap the power button

Additional Settings

These settings can also improve your battery performance; however, they will not have the same amount of impact as the above settings.

• Turn Off Unnecessary Location Services
  • Found in Location Services in the Settings App
  • Set all apps to Never
• Turn Off Background App Refresh
  • Found in General in the Settings App
  • Find Background App Refresh and set it to Off
• Turn Off Unnecessary System Services
  • Found in Privacy in the Settings App
  • Find Location Services, then System Services, and turn off everything except Find My iPad
• Turn off Share iPad Analytics
  • Found in Privacy in the Settings App
  • Find Analytics and turn off all options for gathering data
• Set Mail from Push to Fetch (only effective if using the Mail app)
  • Found in Mail in the Settings App
  • Find Accounts, then Fetch New Data 
  • Set the Push option to Off
  • Set the Fetch to Manually
• Turn on Reduced motion
  • Found in Accessibility in the Settings App
  • Find Motion and turn on Reduce Motion
• Turn Off Unnecessary Widgets
  • Dependant on your device, you can either tap the Home Button or swipe up to get to the home screen, then swipe right until you get the app widget screen to appear
  • Tap edit and remove all Widgets

Next Steps

If you properly manage your battery life with your QuickTalker Freestyle, it should last the whole day. If you are using the device for tasks other than just AAC communication it may not last as long. In these situations, or if you won’t have consistent access to power during the day, we recommend keeping a power bank/battery backup with your device to keep it charged.

If you feel the device is not lasting as long as it should and have followed all the recommendations of this guide, you can make a warranty claim and receive a replacement device with a newer battery here.

If you have any additional questions, please contact the ableCARE Product Success Team for further assistance.