FAQ: Should You Turn Off Your Smarthone?

For most people, the idea of turning off a smartphone is ludicrous or simply hasn’t occurred to them. So, generally, whenever I mention turning off smartphones, I get sheepish looks or dismissive shrugs and comments that if the smartphone is off, no one would be able to reach them. So, that made me stop and think. Do you really need to shut down your smartphone? How often? Well, I looked into it so you don’t have to. The logic of turning off a smartphone is that the device needs a break to clear out memory, background processes and generally just reset everything, much like your computer. But, as it turns out, experts tend to have conflicting ideas about whether or not a smartphone really needs the same kind of downtime that a computer does. And, after doing a bit of research, I basically came across two distinct lines of thought:

Why you need to turn your smartphone off

Smartphones can do just about everything. They are incredible machines, capable of doing an immense amount of tasks and computing. Couple that with how frequently most people reach for and use those devices, and you have a maelstrom of nearly-constant data and activity. Since few people really use any kind of dedicated task manager to destroy background processes, this can be pretty taxing on your smartphone. Restarting the device will stop everything that’s currently running and taking up valuable RAM. Personally, I find that my Android runs faster if I restart it every once in a while.

Why you don’t need to turn your smartphone off

The argument against the need to shut down your smartphone is that companies are aware of how users tend to use their devices. Your smartphone (especially if its an iPhone) will manage extraneous tasks automatically, the argument goes, so shutting down the device is mostly unnecessary–especially if you’re using a good task killer or task manager. Theoretically, you should be able to keep that sucker running constantly for the year or two that you own it, and it should be fine. So don’t worry.

Well, which is it?

Personally, I think it comes down to how you use your phone and what kind of phone you have.

If you’re a savvy user and you frequently utilize task killers to get rid of apps (or you know how to exit apps properly) then you might not need to really restart your phone unless it’s glitching or something is wrong.

If you have an iPhone  which is designed to kill an app once you exit, chances are you don’t really need to worry over much. Unless it’s acting up, I would say you’re probably fine.

If you have an entry-level Android then you most certainly need to restart your phone at least once a week just to keep things running properly. These phones tend to have less built-in app management and smaller RAM which means it will become filled far more frequently. You don’t have to completely shut it down, but restarting the device is a good idea.

So, do you shut down your device once in a while? Check out these great reasons for turning your phone completely off if you’re looking for more motivation than actual phone usability.]]>