Southwest Airlines is implementing a strict safety change, and you should be aware of it before your next flight. Starting April 20, passengers flying Southwest will only be allowed to bring one portable charger or power bank with them.
Not only that, but you also cannot place the charger in the overhead bin or checked luggage, and it must stay within sight at all times when in use. The rule is stricter than what the International Civil Aviation Organization recommended last month, which capped portable chargers at two per passenger.
Why is this suddenly a big deal?
According to an AP report, lithium battery fires on planes are becoming more common. The Federal Aviation Administration recorded 97 incidents in 2025 alone. UL Standards and Engagement, the organization that sets guidelines for portable chargers, said that it hears about two battery incidents every week.
Anker 165W Power BankAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
The risk is real, and anyone who remembers the January 2025 Air Busan fire knows how fast things can go wrong. A fire broke out on the plane while it was still on the ground at a South Korean airport, forcing all 176 passengers to evacuate before the flames burned through the roof.
The only silver lining of the incident was that it occurred on the ground. We can’t even imagine what would have happened if the fire had started mid-flight.
Should you be worried about your next flight?
Not right now, but it’s worth paying attention. Southwest says it won’t be searching bags or confiscating chargers, but it will ensure passengers are told the policy at the time of booking and at the airport.
Andy Zahn / Digital Trends
The company will also equip flight attendants with fire-resistant bags and insulated gloves to handle overheating devices. Southwest’s Vice President of Safety, Dave Hunt, says the new rule will strengthen the airline’s ability to contain battery incidents before they escalate.
To make the transition easier, Southwest plans to install in-seat power across its entire fleet by mid-next year. So you’ll have one fewer power bank, but at least you’ll have somewhere to plug in.
Smartphones have amazing cameras, but I’m not happy with any of them out of the box. I have to tweak a few things. If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, these settings won’t magically transform your main camera into an entirely new piece of hardware, but it can put you in a position to capture the best photos your phone can muster.
Turn on the composition guide
Alignment is easier when you can see lines
Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek
Much of what makes a good photo has little to do with how many megapixels your phone puts out. It’s all about the fundamentals, like how you compose a shot. One of the most important aspects is the placement of your subject.
Whether you’re taking a picture of a person, a pet, a product, or a plant, placement is everything. Is the photo actually centered? Or, if you’re trying to cultivate more visual interest, are you adhering to the rule of thirds (which is not to suggest that the rule of thirds is an end-all, be-all)? In either case, having an on-screen grid makes all the difference.
To turn on the grid, tap on the menu icon and select the settings cog. Then scroll down until you see Composition guide and tap the toggle to turn it on.
Going forward, whenever you open your camera, you will see a Tic Tac Toe-shaped grid on your screen. Now, instead of merely raising your phone and snapping the shot, take the time to make sure everything is aligned.
Take advantage of your camera’s max resolution
Having more pixels means you can capture more detail
I have a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. The camera hardware on my book-style foldable phone is identical to that of the Galaxy S24 released in the same year, which hasn’t changed much for the Galaxy S25 or the Galaxy S26 released since. On each of these phones, however, the camera app isn’t taking advantage of the full 50MP that the main lens can produce. Instead, photos are binned down to 12MP. The same thing happens even if you have the 200MP camera found on the Galaxy S26 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
To take photos at the maximum resolution, open the camera app and look for the words “12M” written at either the top or side of your phone, depending on how you’re holding it. The numbers will appear right next to the indicator that toggles whether your flash is on or off. For me, tapping here changes the text from 12M to 50M.
Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek
But wait, we aren’t done yet. To save storage, your phone may revert back to 12MP once you’re done using the app. After all, 12MP is generally enough for most quick snaps and looks just fine on social media, along with other benefits that come from binning photos. But if you want to know that your photos will remain at a higher resolution when you open the camera app, return to camera settings like we did to enable the composition guide, then scroll down until you see Settings to keep. From there, select High picture resolutions.
Use volume keys to zoom in and out
Less reason to move your thumb away from the shutter button
Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek
Our phones come with the camera icon saved as one of the favorites we see at the bottom of the homescreen. I immediately get rid of this icon. When I want to take a photo, I double-tap the power button instead.
Physical buttons come in handy once the app is open as well. By default, pressing the volume keys will snap a photo. Personally, I just tap the shutter button on the screen, since my thumb hovers there anyway. In that case, what’s something else the volume keys can do? I like for them to control zoom. I don’t zoom often enough to remember whether my gesture or swipe will zoom in or out, and I tend to overshoot the level of zoom I want. By assigning this to the volume keys, I get a more predictable and precise degree of control.
To zoom in and out with the volume keys, open the camera settings and select Shooting methods > Press Volume buttons to. From here, you can change “Take picture or record video” to “Zoom in or out.”
Adjust exposure
Brighten up a photo before you take it
Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek
The most important aspect of a photo is how much light your lens is able to take in. If there’s too much light, your photo is washed out. If there isn’t enough light, then you don’t have a photo at all.
Exposure allows you to adjust how much light you expose to your phone’s image sensor. If you can see that a window in the background is so bright that none of the details are coming through, you can turn down the exposure. If a photo is so dark you can’t make out the subject, try turning the exposure up. Exposure isn’t a miracle worker—there’s no making up for the benefits of having proper lighting, but knowing how to adjust exposure can help you eke out a usable shot when you wouldn’t have otherwise.
To access exposure, tap the menu button, then tap the icon that looks like a plus and a minus symbol inside of a circle.
From this point, you can scroll up and down (or side to side, if holding the phone vertically) to increase or decrease exposure. If you really want to get creative, you can turn your photography up a notch by learning how to take long exposure shots on your Galaxy phone.
Help your camera succeed
Will changing these settings suddenly turn all of your photos into the perfect shot? No. No camera can do that, even if you spend thousands of dollars to buy it. But frankly, I take most of my photos for How-To Geek using my phone, and these settings help me get the job done.
Brand
Samsung
RAM
12GB
Storage
256GB
Battery
4,400mAh
Operating System
One UI 8
Connectivity
5G, LTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
Samsung’s thinnest and lightest Fold yet feels like a regular phone when closed and a powerful multitasking machine when open. With a brighter 8-inch display and on-device Galaxy AI, it’s ready for work, play, and everything in between.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
