Battery life

[starstreak]

Just ranting. Turned on my SP4@100%. Ran Outlook 2016, visited website like here for example. 20mins later, 82% battery life. Not doing any updates in background. I previously did that before unplugging from power cord. Screen brightness was set to "darkest" for about 50% of that, and "darker" for the rest. Oh the system is a i7. And the CPU does auto clock. I know for a while, the CPU wouldn't auto down clock (known issue many months ago but has since been fixed by MS).
Did I mention I hate the brightness terms? I wish they went back to the % for brightness.
Technically that's about 100mins of battery time. Granted, I'm SURE it'll last longer than that, but still, it's sad to have the laptop on for 20mins and battery be close to 80%. If I was close to a hour of use, then that would be great. I know I can get at least 3 hours unless web browsing. Pretty sure FLASH kills battery. But oh well.

Just ranting on how quickly battery will drain with "average" use.

 

[hughlle]

Something might be going awry. Granted I'm on an i5, but after an hour of casual use during lectures I'm generally around 90-92% from full.

 

[starstreak]

Not bad. That sounds proper. It could be the i7 vs i5. Different video card too.

 

[Philtastic]

Background processes are the bane of the SP4, and I wish that Windows 10 would prevent some system features from updating on battery. On a Core i5, I generally get 6-7.5 hours with brightness at 50% and light use.

 

[nizmoz]

I would love to know how some of you guys are getting 6-7 hours from the i5? I am only getting 2 hours if that. Mine per windows updates has all the updates. I am unsure how to do firmware. I downloaded this one update but it didn't install any firmware....hmmm.

 

[hughlle]

I would love to know how some of you guys are getting 6-7 hours from the i5? I am only getting 2 hours if that. Mine per windows updates has all the updates. I am unsure how to do firmware. I downloaded this one update but it didn't install any firmware....hmmm.

Most aren't doing anything to get such battery usage. Mine is roughly 10% per hour. If you're only getting 2 hours then something serious is going on with your surface.

First port of call would be to run battery report (How to generate a Battery Report in Windows 10) and see what your batteries current capacity is. You can also open task manager and see if there are any processes going on in the background that are using significant resources.

 

[nizmoz]

Screen shot. Hmmm

 

[jnjroach]

I would love to know how some of you guys are getting 6-7 hours from the i5? I am only getting 2 hours if that. Mine per windows updates has all the updates. I am unsure how to do firmware. I downloaded this one update but it didn't install any firmware....hmmm.

Do as Hugh says, and also we can offer more assistance if you tell us more of your configuration, are you running Torrents? 3rd Party Security Suite, Chrome Installed?

 

[nizmoz]

Do as Hugh says, and also we can offer more assistance if you tell us more of your configuration, are you running Torrents? 3rd Party Security Suite, Chrome Installed?

Norton Security Suite. I have nothing installed on it yet, as its a fresh install. Windows 10, Norton, Chrome and thats it.

I just got off Microsoft Support and they said due to the battery tests, it seems the battery isn't getting a full charge. They are replacing it.

 

[jnjroach]

Norton Security Suite. I have nothing installed on it yet, as its a fresh install. Windows 10, Norton, Chrome and thats it.

I just got off Microsoft Support and they said due to the battery tests, it seems the battery isn't getting a full charge. They are replacing it.

OK, Norton and Chrome are both notorious battery killers especially using default configurations...Chrome can kill battery life 25-50% and depending on how Norton is configured could impact another 25%....

 

[nizmoz]

OK, Norton and Chrome are both notorious battery killers especially using default configurations...Chrome can kill battery life 25-50% and depending on how Norton is configured could impact another 25%....

Well, I believe there is a device issue because microsoft saw it in the battery results and are replacing the unit. But I use Chrome on my Dell XPS 13 which has an i7, and it still lasts 10 hours. Before I had Norton on it, I was still getting 2 hours.

 

[kristalsoldier]

OK, Norton and Chrome are both notorious battery killers especially using default configurations...Chrome can kill battery life 25-50% and depending on how Norton is configured could impact another 25%....

Why is Chrome such a battery killer? Is it not well optimized for W10?

Also, your sig says "Surface 4"!!!!! Do you know something we don't???