Samsung Galaxy S4 mini tips and tricks

The

Samsung Galaxy S4 mini

may play second fiddle to the company's flagship, but it's still packed with features. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of it.

Tip 1: Improve battery life (Disable radios and use dark wallpaper)

Samsung is certainly generous when it comes to features out of the box and the Galaxy S4 mini is jam-packed. However, with all the radios, sensors and features on board, it's no surprise that the Battery life can take a hit, especially when you're not using all of the phone's features to begin with.

First, you can immediately improve power efficiency by choosing a dark black or ideally black wallpaper. The phone's AMOLED screen effectively uses zero energy on black pixels. you can disable a number of S4 mini features, including NFC, Bluetooth, WiFi, Smart stay, and S Beam, while enabling power saving.

Tip 2: Lock screen widgets (multiple widgets)

As the S4 mini runs Android 4.2.2 - one of the latest iterations of Jelly Bean, it supports lock screen widgets, which allow you to access certain features and services without having to unlock the phone. .

By default, lock screen widgets are disabled, but if you go to the My device tab in your settings, open the Lock screen menu and check the Multiple widgets box, then you will have access to this feature.

Swiping down from the clock or welcome message (whichever you chose) on the main lock screen will then allow you to swipe right to reveal additional lock screen panes. the “+”, then choose from the menu the widget you want to display and you are done.

Tip 3: Silence Touch Sounds

The Samsung Galaxy S4 mini likes to make noise, when you lock it, unlock it, and more persistently every time you touch the screen.While the lock/unlock chimes are please, the same sound effect repeated dripping can get a bit irritating.

Luckily, it's easy to turn it off by going to the Settings menu, tapping the My device tab at the top, choosing Sound options, and unchecking the Touch sounds box. You can also turn off keyboard and lock sounds. screen from this menu.

Tip 4: QuickPic

Samsung being Samsung, you will struggle to find many stock Android apps on the Galaxy S4 mini, including the Gallery app. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, all the latest S4 handsets, including the S4 mini, suffer noticeable lag when opening this particular app, which is both a bit confusing and frustrating, but that's why we suggest an alternative like QuickPic.

QuickPic is free to download from

GooglePlay Store

, is ad-free and offers a super-fast interface. The app offers a number of different display layouts and even has an Explorer mode so you can browse files and folders stored internally or on your card removable microSD.

Tip 5: Camera Modes

The 8-megapixel camera on the back of the S4 mini produces decent shots when set to auto shooting, but it's worth playing around with the additional modes to get the most out of it. Launch the camera and at the top the mode button at the bottom right. You can scroll through the 10 different shooting modes on the right side of the screen or tap the grid icon at the bottom left to see all 10 at once.

Shooting modes such as Sound and Shot can only be viewed properly on other Samsung devices or exported as a video.