Battery Degradation

[kristalsoldier]

Taking in all the factors - usage/screen etc etc how an earth are you managing to get 8-8.5 hours of battery life! please do share your tips/setup. Also does this include any video/movie viewing.

Thanks

Nothing special really. On battery, the screen brightness is 39% (45% when on mains), I don't watch any movies/ video on it when on battery. Most commonly, I am working in Word with OneDrive open, MUI IE with one or two tabs open, Mail app open polling three accounts (two Outlook accounts and my work account - mails to be received and displayed as they come in and notifications on), Drawboard PDF open usually with 2 documents. In addition to this, I have Flipboard, Tweetium, Calendar, Next Gen Reader, Skype, Redditt2Go, the MS Store, Viber and Photos set to show notifications. I assume, therefore, that they are also running in the background. BT and Wifi are always on. Camera is off. That's about it really. On some other battery-related threads here, I have posted some recent battery reports, which also show the 8-8hr 30 min timeframe.

Having said that, I found that after the most recent firmware update, I was getting around 6 hrs to 6 hr 30 mins. This was irritating me enough to have posted a query on one of the threads here. Someone noted that they had reset their device and they had experienced improved battery life. So, I did the same - though I did not reset (don't have that much patience). Rather, I refreshed the device (which was also a pain, but a lesser pain). And, I noticed better battery life immediately (after all the indexing etc. and update-installations etc. were done).

 

[delair]

Nothing special really. On battery, the screen brightness is 39% (45% when on mains), I don't watch any movies/ video on it when on battery. Most commonly, I am working in Word with OneDrive open, MUI IE with one or two tabs open, Mail app open polling three accounts (two Outlook accounts and my work account - mails to be received and displayed as they come in and notifications on), Drawboard PDF open usually with 2 documents. In addition to this, I have Flipboard, Tweetium, Calendar, Next Gen Reader, Skype, Redditt2Go, the MS Store, Viber and Photos set to show notifications. I assume, therefore, that they are also running in the background. BT and Wifi are always on. Camera is off. That's about it really. On some other battery-related threads here, I have posted some recent battery reports, which also show the 8-8hr 30 min timeframe.

Having said that, I found that after the most recent firmware update, I was getting around 6 hrs to 6 hr 30 mins. This was irritating me enough to have posted a query on one of the threads here. Someone noted that they had reset their device and they had experienced improved battery life. So, I did the same - though I did not reset (don't have that much patience). Rather, I refreshed the device (which was also a pain, but a lesser pain). And, I noticed better battery life immediately (after all the indexing etc. and update-installations etc. were done).

Thank you for the reply. That is exactly what I am getting, aprox 6 hrs / 6 hr 30 mins & that's with Outlook, Onedrive, GDrive, Desktop/MUI IE, Onenote, screen at 40%, BT & Wifi on.

I will try the refresh and see where that takes me.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thank you for the reply. That is exactly what I am getting, aprox 6 hrs / 6 hr 30 mins & that's with Outlook, Onedrive, GDrive, Desktop/MUI IE, Onenote, screen at 40%, BT & Wifi on.

I will try the refresh and see where that takes me.

OK. One thing though, I believe Outlook (the desktop app) does eat more battery. I have no idea about GDrive. I rarely if ever use the desktop version of IE. Also, Chrome is also reputed to be a battery hog though I have also read that recent versions have improved on this - I would not know since I have not installed Chrome on my SP3.

 

[delair]

OK. One thing though, I believe Outlook (the desktop app) does eat more battery. I have no idea about GDrive. I rarely if ever use the desktop version of IE. Also, Chrome is also reputed to be a battery hog though I have also read that recent versions have improved on this - I would not know since I have not installed Chrome on my SP3.

I don't have Chrome installed as I did read up on that however, I do on occasion use Chrome via RemoteAPP but very rarely. I guess there is also no harm in me trying the Mail app for few days and compare the battery life.

To be honest I will be happy if I hit 8hrs as that will get me through the day & any flight that I am on.

 

[ynohtna]

My friend is so much happier with battery after getting rid of chrome

 

[delair]

OK. One thing though, I believe Outlook (the desktop app) does eat more battery. I have no idea about GDrive. I rarely if ever use the desktop version of IE. Also, Chrome is also reputed to be a battery hog though I have also read that recent versions have improved on this - I would not know since I have not installed Chrome on my SP3.

I managed to refresh the device & completed all the updates yesterday (still a pain to do). So refreshed, updates, Onedrive & Adobe Reader, not installed office yet so will see how it goes.

Just out of interest, I compared the battery report with somebody else at work and they are getting 8 hr 30 mins on an average with 10 hrs on some days, that's crazy!!! with them using Office, Desktop Outlook, OneDrive, Onenote. However what i noticed is that his device is an i3 whereas my device is an i5 so wondering if this is a factor as i would assume the i3 consumes less power.

Out of interest what model do you have?

 

[kristalsoldier]

I managed to refresh the device & completed all the updates yesterday (still a pain to do). So refreshed, updates, Onedrive & Adobe Reader, not installed office yet so will see how it goes.

Just out of interest, I compared the battery report with somebody else at work and they are getting 8 hr 30 mins on an average with 10 hrs on some days, that's crazy!!! with them using Office, Desktop Outlook, OneDrive, Onenote. However what i noticed is that his device is an i3 whereas my device is an i5 so wondering if this is a factor as i would assume the i3 consumes less power.

Out of interest what model do you have?

I have the i5/ 4GB/ 128GB version.

 

[Tatletz]

So what's the issue?

Well, I thought it will improve after several calibrations. I am just concerned as to how accurate these reports are.

 

[delair]

I have the i5/ 4GB/ 128GB version.

So i refreshed the device & re-installed some of the apps etc - used the device, ran updates etc and from the battery report it is showing me that the device has been active/used for 7hrs. Switched the device on this morning and I still have 61% remaining !!

23:14 Device was suspended at 63%
08:22 Device was active when i powered up with 61% juice

so, looks like the I may have a result!

Although i am yet to install Google Drive & Adobe PS/Il

 

[kristalsoldier]

So i refreshed the device & re-installed some of the apps etc - used the device, ran updates etc and from the battery report it is showing me that the device has been active/used for 7hrs. Switched the device on this morning and I still have 61% remaining !!

23:14 Device was suspended at 63%
08:22 Device was active when i powered up with 61% juice

so, looks like the I may have a result!

Although i am yet to install Google Drive & Adobe PS/Il

That's cool! However, I am not sure how Google Drive and Adobe PS/II would affect. The particular concern would be Google Drive, I think. But you can check this as and when you install. The odd thing is how the SP3 becomes battery efficient in refreshing/ resetting it.

 

[delair]

That's cool! However, I am not sure how Google Drive and Adobe PS/II would affect. The particular concern would be Google Drive, I think. But you can check this as and when you install. The odd thing is how the SP3 becomes battery efficient in refreshing/ resetting it.

I'm going to put my bets on Google Drive draining the battery, looks like anything Google destroys battery! - will try to install and observe.

Anybody tried Firefox? any impact on battery?

Thanks for your help.

 

[kristalsoldier]

I'm going to put my bets on Google Drive draining the battery, looks like anything Google destroys battery! - will try to install and observe.

Anybody tried Firefox? any impact on battery?

Thanks for your help.

I suspect it could be Google Drive too. I used to have Firefox on, but uninstalled it on the latest refresh (actually, the only time I have refreshed after having bought the device). I am planning to keep my device as streamlined as possible - as minimalistic as possible.

Glad to be of some assistance.