Battery Life - what should I be hoping for?

[spleenmuncha]

Hi guys,

I've only just bought a Surface Pro 3 (i7, 256GB) a few days back, so I'm new to these forums.

Having been using the surface the last day or so, I'm concerned about power usage.

I've not really installed much yet, and with only XBMC running, playing video, I seem to be using towards 1% battery per minute. Is this about standard, or should I be hoping for more than that?

Brightness is at roughly 30-35% maybe, so quite dim.

Thanks.

 

[GreyFox7]

Typically it takes a couple days for all the updates, indexing, optimizations, & such to churn through . It might take longer if its bogged down working around streamed video... seems like MS could do something more intelligent though... with all that research horsepower.

 

[spleenmuncha]

It's not streaming video, it's Video i've put onto the SSD.

So hopefully, it should improve you think?

I was seriously hoping for more than a couple of hours playing video. Reports i'd ready suggested closer to 6 hours video playback.

 

[dazehead]

im trying this program: https://batterybarpro.com

not sure whether it's accurate but at least a lot of stats. mine says discharging at 10192mW, and expected 5hrs plus left frm 100%..medium brightness and not running anything on a young surface pro 3. was hoping for the higher of battery hours mentioned in reviews, like 7hrs or 8hrs.

 

[kevinlevrone]

About 5-5.5 hours is the realistic maximum for me (i5/256).

 

[hughlle]

Can't expect anything without a rough usage scenario. E.g Kevin is seeing about 5.5 hours with his usage, wheras i see 8-9 with my usage (purely note taking and typing with occasional google search)

 

[Chris Grew]

Mine is the i7 with 512gb and I get about 4 hours.

Once or twice a week I run it in the office without the charger and let it get down to 4% before plugging in.

I doubt, I would be able to get much more than this. Although it has been mentioned that running Google Chrome takes a lot of power.

Regards

Chris

 

[kristalsoldier]

I would suggest that the best thing would be not to have any expectations for the first month. Get used to the device and let the device get used to you. After the first 30 days are over and both - you and the device - have stabilized vis-a-vis each other, then run the battery reports and see where you stand. The problem with going by what everyone else says is that individual work processes are different and work conditions are different and this reflects on individual experiences. Yes, of course, if you get only 2 hours on battery conbsistently then there is indeed a problem!

 

[jnjroach]

Also Win32 Media Applications are the worst when it comes to battery life....especially playing high bitrate MKV files....

 

[bluegrass]

I'd hope for 9 hours but be happy with 6 or 7.

 

[zhenya]

I will also point you to this thread here http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/post-your-battery-life.13842/ where you can see the actual life many of us are getting. Feel free to add to it!

 

[next_milenium]

I'm a new i5 owner. I think the battery life varies a lot depending on usage. I don't use Chrome because I noticed (on my previous windows tablets) it uses a lot more battery than IE.

If you are doing something that makes the back of your SP3 warm, then obviously your battery is draining fast (like playing games or playing HD videos).