Battery Life Hours Of Surface Pro 2?

[netuser]

Wow! That sucks big time. Although far cheaper than a brand new device, it's still alot. This is the drawback to the optically bonded screen. But still damn. They could always reseal the screen after replacing it.

I hope enough noise is made about this once it comes time that peoples battery start conking out.

Apple only charges 99 and they send you a refurbished unit. Microsfot needs to copy that model on it.

There are ways to ensure a longer lifetime with lithium ion battery though.

Like the other poster said, how about the RT? As that definitely can't cost that much to replace. Probably half the total cost. Like for the pro.

It is $319 to replace the battery (really swap the whole unit) for an RT. Will not be worth it. Makes the device disposable once the battery starts dying unless you plan to keep it plugged in like a desktop in a couple years.

Apple charges $99 for an iPad battery replacement and $129 for a Macbook Air Apple - Support - Service Answer Center

 

[hypokondriak]

That's a problem with a lot of reviews. They don't spend enough time with it to know that folding it under is so useful. I do this all the time and it's super comfortable just resting on my chest or stomach.

Yeah. The keyboard folded under offsets the weight of the device people complain about in a ton of the situations people often complain about. Yes holding the surface tablet up would be tiring, but in a lot of situations you don't ever hold it. You just fold the keyboard under and you've got a great touchscreen to work on. I hope the new angle still works well with the keyboard folded under because the only situation where I have trouble with the keyboard folded under is in a very rigid 90 degree chair position.

Of course you probably aren't going to be typing extended documents with the keyboard folded under, but for most situations I often find that the touchscreen capabilities outweigh the lost keyboard functionality. My iPad Mini and Macbook get hardly any use these days..

 

[oion]

I don't believe either Surface will fit this use case. You would be much better served looking at other Windows laptops on the market with both long battery life and user-replaceable batteries.

The Surfaces are engineered at the edge of ultramobility vis-a-vis design (thickness and kickstand) and performance metrics (including battery life), which is the main reason why they're so "glued down." Your training room does not require ultramobility. Your training room needs the minimal mobility requirement of non-corded, but that's it. Even a 6 lb laptop, when only carried from table to table within the same room, is mobile for your purposes.

 

[netuser]

I don't believe either Surface will fit this use case. You would be much better served looking at other Windows laptops on the market with both long battery life and user-replaceable batteries.

The Surfaces are engineered at the edge of ultramobility vis-a-vis design (thickness and kickstand) and performance metrics (including battery life), which is the main reason why they're so "glued down." Your training room does not require ultramobility. Your training room needs the minimal mobility requirement of non-corded, but that's it. Even a 6 lb laptop, when only carried from table to table within the same room, is mobile for your purposes.

True, but I don't see any 6 lb laptops with 10 hour battery life that are around $1000 or less. Most of the 6 lb 15.6 inch laptops have old, very inefficient processors, small batteries and 3 or 4 hour battery life.
Not being able to replace the batteries at reasonable cost is killing the Surfaces as a choice for use because we need to keep them for 4 years. The smaller size would be nice since it would take less storage space when they are stored away, but is not critical for us.
People who will buy a new tablet every year or two may not see much of an issue or may be able to live with the reduction in battery life as it ages over 4 years.
We can wait a couple of months to see some new laptops that are not yet on the market that will have Haswell chips will work for us when they are available for sale in the fall. Lenovo T440 looks promising and is supposed to be released by November.

 

[oion]

True, but I don't see any 6 lb laptops with 10 hour battery life that are around $1000 or less. Most of the 6 lb 15.6 inch laptops have old, very inefficient processors, small batteries and 3 or 4 hour battery life.
Not being able to replace the batteries at reasonable cost is killing the Surfaces as a choice for use because we need to keep them for 4 years. The smaller size would be nice since it would take less storage space when they are stored away, but is not critical for us.
People who will buy a new tablet every year or two may not see much of an issue or may be able to live with the reduction in battery life as it ages over 4 years.
We can wait a couple of months to see some new laptops that are not yet on the market that will have Haswell chips will work for us when they are available for sale in the fall. Lenovo T440 looks promising and is supposed to be released by November.

I threw out the 6 lb just as an example (I don't know of any behemoths with fantastic battery life either)--you don't need to look at the low 2-lb end of things.

How much battery life is lost per year, though? That is the practical question per your use case, and differs by a bunch of parameters (environmental heat, chemical makeup, charge state and cycling behavior, etc.). Neither Surface has been around long enough to see long-term effects of battery shelf life, but perhaps early adopters who use theirs daily may have something to say with percentages, assuming they paid attention to the data with software utilities from the beginning.

The option related to a user-replaced battery is a modular battery. I do not know what laptops right now have modular design. The only modular tablet I know of is the Kupa X15.

 

[netuser]

It shouldn't be that hard, but choices are limited right now. Hopefully there will be many more choices as Haswell rolls out to more laptops over the next few months.
The non-user replaceable battery in the Macbook Air costs "only" $129 to replace. If we didn't need Windows, we would just buy a bunch of 13 inch Macbook Airs for $1099 each.
With Ivy Bridge and older, even a 6 cell doesn't have the minimum battery life we can count on, but a 12-14 inch Haswell laptop with a 6-9 cell battery should work and handle 10+ hours when they are new and we should be able to replace batteries for maybe $80 each when they start to fade.

 

[EMINENT]

Then you need the HP Spectre x2. Haswell 13"

Maybe those are less to replace, but they're not even out yet so who knows?

 

[Rvacha]

Regarding wear... I've had my SP for just under six months. It is my travel machine, but not my daily office machine. BatteryBar says that the battery is already 7% worn. I get about 4:00-4:15 out of it right now and that is barely tolerable. Problem is that a year from now the battery will have worn enough that the SP will have become intolerable. Ideally 5:30 or better would be great for what I do on the road. I ordered an SP2 today with some hope that the 10:00 hr number being thrown around is somewhat realistic. If it does 10:00 fresh and wears 50% after three years I would still be getting 5:00-ish. If it can do this then I am not concerned about the lack of battery replacement. On other notebooks I've owned (all Lenovo) what is the power cover for the SP would be the equivalent of the auxiliary battery on a Lenovo. When using a Lenovo the aux battery is depleted first, then the main (internal) battery. This approach is nice since for light duty use the internal battery doesn't wear at all, and for medium to heavy use it wears less. *IF* the SP2 uses the same approach then a power cover may be a great way to keep the internal battery going strong for many years. It is not clear, however, that the SP2 works this way. About all that has been said is that the power cover "recharges the battery"

 

[lethal.industry]

any idea how many hours the SP1 will have with the power cover?

 

[Buelligan]

I have owned my 128GB Surface pro since March and use it daily. I always recharge to full (no short bump charges, once I plug it in I don't unplug till full) and according to a utility known as SIW (System Information for Windows) I have 11% wear. States a 42002 mWh design capacity and the current "Full Charge Capacity" is 37511 mWh. I usually get in the 4-4.5 hour range on a charge.

Here is a link to the utility I use. Great little tool for digging around the system.
Buy SIW - Everything you want to know about your computer

UGH, sorry guys but apparently he discontinued the freeware version!