Patrick Rhone, on dealing with his iPhone 5’s poor battery life:

Thankfully, I have another option available to me that other might not even consider. One that might be helpful to others as well. One that may help the battery last throughout the day or, at least, longer than it otherwise has been without the battery case… Use the iPhone less. Less “checking in” on Twitter. Less taking photos. Less using it to write. If the battery does die, prematurely, before I’m able to connect it to a power source, learning to be comfortable with that. Let it die.

Sound advice. Your life doesn’t end with your phone’s battery.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to get a bit more battery life out of your aging iPhone, either. If that’s your case, you have another option: replace the battery yourself. You can buy an iPhone 5 battery replacement kit on Amazon for just $19, including the battery itself and all the tools you’ll need. Also, this iFixit guide shows you every step of the way. Trust me, it’s not as hard as it looks.

User reviews on this particular battery kit seem to be good on average, but of course, there are the usual scary stories sprinkled in there for good measure. Try it at your own risk, but in my experience, this is usually a very good way to extend the useful life of your devices.

And if you don’t feel like you can do this all by yourself, chances are you can find a shop in your city that offers a battery replacement service. Coincidentally, my dad owns an iPhone 5 just like Patrick’s, and after more than three years of use his battery was almost dead, too. He had it replaced at a local shop a couple weeks ago, and he couldn’t be happier.

My advice is, go for it. The risks are relatively small, and even if everything goes horribly wrong and you end up with a dead phone, you can always take comfort in the fact that it has already lived a long and happy life.

In the wise words of Mr. Lando Calrissian: “Here goes nothing”.