I got 2 hours of battery life!?

[kristalsoldier]

There's no way anyone's getting 9 hours on the SP3 unless they have like 1 browser tab open, no other programs open, and they spend multiple hours on the one tab before powering down... I've gone through 5 SP3's, always got between 3 and ~4.5 hours of battery life while browsing with brightness set at 80%.

The battery blows, as it does on most of these hybrid devices (just look at the Yoga 3 Pro, it's even worse). Unless you want to minimize your user experience and squint at 5% screen brightness, do yourself a favor and buy the power cover. It doesn't fit the SP3 perfectly as it was made for the SP1/2 form factor, but it'll bump you up to around 7-8 hours of battery life which is acceptable.

If you want decent battery life the power cover is your only option, either that, or get another hybrid like the Dell Venue Pro 11 with Core M that has a legit keyboard battery and gives you ~ 15 hours worth. Probably the best hybrid on the market so far regarding battery life.

While I don't exactly get 9 hours, I do get 8.5 hours regularly.

Edit: You may not believe this, but then again you seem to be pretty convinced on the capabilities of the SP3 based on your experience (I am guessing). Nevertheless, there are a number of threads here which have discussed this and where people (me included) have posted the relevant sections of their battery reports (which are, admittedly, only rough indicators). You may want to take a look at those threads.

 

[Gerke]

I am a heavy user
I am DBA and System- and Networkengineer, I am using my SP3 every day at the most various circumstances, at least 9 hours a day. Without it, I cannot do my job.

You say you are at University, probably that is your problem. Most huge University wifinetworks are draining your battery because they really suck (they do not care about userexperience, only it has to work)

I did advise a few universities about there wifi. They all stated that my advises were fine, but way too expensive. I rest my case, it has to be cheap.


http://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidQues...versity_wifi_causing_battery_drain_desperate/

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/419545/how-wi-fi-drains-your-cell-phone/

 

[hughlle]

There's no way anyone's getting 9 hours on the SP3 unless they have like 1 browser tab open, no other programs open, and they spend multiple hours on the one tab before powering down... I've gone through 5 SP3's, always got between 3 and ~4.5 hours of battery life while browsing with brightness set at 80%.

The battery blows, as it does on most of these hybrid devices (just look at the Yoga 3 Pro, it's even worse). Unless you want to minimize your user experience and squint at 5% screen brightness, do yourself a favor and buy the power cover. It doesn't fit the SP3 perfectly as it was made for the SP1/2 form factor, but it'll bump you up to around 7-8 hours of battery life which is acceptable.

If you want decent battery life the power cover is your only option, either that, or get another hybrid like the Dell Venue Pro 11 with Core M that has a legit keyboard battery and gives you ~ 15 hours worth. Probably the best hybrid on the market so far regarding battery life.

I find it bizarre that you are saying noone is getting x hours unless abc. Of course that is the case. Microsoft even state that much on the website. What if he is only using one tab? If he gets 9 hours he gets 9 hours. Ive frequently gotten that kind of figure (in part because i keep brightness on almost minimum, not 80%..). and no, this doesnt require me to squint at all, sorry you've such bad eyes.

I also find it silly for you to be stating that the only eay to get decent battery life is a different device, didnt jnj just tell you he was getting perfectly acceptable battery life with the sp3? Its like saying a car wont get a decent mpg because you only get 10 while driving around at 7k rpm. Your argument doesn't hold much validity,

And how are only scraping 6 hours at uni with those apps open. I wake up, browse the web for half an hour while getting ready for uni, get there at 10am, and then use it solidly until about 5pm, and there is still plenty of juice left.

 

[tony8154]

Ah finally, all the updates are done via Windows Update. Is there anything else that I need to update?

To clarify things, the main reason I chose this device was because of OneNote. I want to use the pen more than any other function, and is also the reason why I chose this device over the MBA with its true all day battery life. Also, I chose this device because I didn't want to carry around a 1000 page text book, another 200 page workbook, a note pad for notes that need constant rewriting, and an ipad or laptop to watch recorded lectures.

This would be the ideal scenario for me

9 AM - maybe watch a few youtube videos while eating breakfast (in highest resolution youtube has to offer, but I'm not sure if this matters?)
10 AM - 1 PM - split screen with a lecture recording on and OneNote on the other half of the screen constantly taking notes
2PM - watch an hour long 720/1080p show with headphones on
3Pm - 5PM - OneNote organizing and summarzing notes.
9PM - 12AM - one more hour of video with headphones on, and the rest on OneNote constantly writing.
1AM - 8AM - charge all night in dock

would you consider this to be a power user? it's not like I want to game on this or constantly watch videos.

Also, when you mention that one use must have only one tab open on his browser, do you mean that having multiple tabs open drains the battery even more?

Also, for those who are getting more than 6 hours, please share your settings as I would love to try them out even if it sacrifices some performance from the Surface.

BTW, my specs are i5 256GB

Thank you

 

[hughlle]

I have my brightness at about 30 percent, don't bother regulating or changing anything else.

 

[kristalsoldier]

I keep the brightness between 35-40% (more than that it hurts my eyes). Adaptive brightness is off. Wireless and BT is on all the time. Selected apps are syncing all the time. Mail app has 3 accounts synching all the time. No other changes to the settings.

My use is as follows (generally):

MUI IE - two tabs open and actively used (usually)
One large PDF document open - use is for reference
One or two large (I mean >100 pages) Word documents open and actively used
One PowerPoint open (around 15-20 slides) - working on it intermittently
Mail App open all the time (receiving and sending mails from 3 accounts - total mails in a day - received and sent - can be over 100)
OneNote open - often but not always - either to refer to something or to make handwritten notes
Occasional use of Fipboard, Book Vizer, NextGen Reader (usually over lunch - so not more than 30-45 mins)

Oh...and I am in an academic setting. I should also add that I have been using my SP3 (i5/4GB/128GB) since launch day in this manner.

 

[tony8154]

can someome please explain what MUI stands for?

After doing all the updates, I'm testing out the same situation as yesterday:
1. 100% fully charged
2. around 35-40% brightness
3. 1080p movie playing on 32bit desktop version video playing software
4. headphones plugged in
5. keyboard plugged in with backlight off (does the keyboard itself when plugged in drain battery as well?)
6. all other programs/apps turned off

About an hour into the movie, and I'm down to 70% remaining battery.

So if one hour of movies is 30% battery life, 2 hours would be 60%, 3 hours would be 90% of the battery. I guess if the battery drain is linear, I've gained about a little over an hour in battery life. I suppose it is somewhat of an improvement, considering the surface shutoff before the movie was even over (movie is approx 2:30:00).

After the movie is over, I will report the remaining battery percentage.

After that I will recharge it to 100% again, then run my ideal scenario to see how long it will last.

 

[kristalsoldier]

MUI = Modern User Interface aka Metro aka the Tile Interface - in other words everything that is not desktop apps.

 

[tony8154]

MUI = Modern User Interface aka Metro aka the Tile Interface - in other words everything that is not desktop apps.

i see! thank you for the clarification!

 

[markusbeutel]

Ah finally, all the updates are done via Windows Update. Is there anything else that I need to update?

To clarify things, the main reason I chose this device was because of OneNote. I want to use the pen more than any other function, and is also the reason why I chose this device over the MBA with its true all day battery life. Also, I chose this device because I didn't want to carry around a 1000 page text book, another 200 page workbook, a note pad for notes that need constant rewriting, and an ipad or laptop to watch recorded lectures.

This would be the ideal scenario for me

9 AM - maybe watch a few youtube videos while eating breakfast (in highest resolution youtube has to offer, but I'm not sure if this matters?)
10 AM - 1 PM - split screen with a lecture recording on and OneNote on the other half of the screen constantly taking notes
2PM - watch an hour long 720/1080p show with headphones on
3Pm - 5PM - OneNote organizing and summarzing notes.
9PM - 12AM - one more hour of video with headphones on, and the rest on OneNote constantly writing.
1AM - 8AM - charge all night in dock

would you consider this to be a power user? it's not like I want to game on this or constantly watch videos.

Also, when you mention that one use must have only one tab open on his browser, do you mean that having multiple tabs open drains the battery even more?

Also, for those who are getting more than 6 hours, please share your settings as I would love to try them out even if it sacrifices some performance from the Surface.

BTW, my specs are i5 256GB

Thank you

I think basically just keep the brightness down - that's the biggest battery saver, and turning wifi off if you're not using it probably helps a lot too. Andy yeah, having multiple tabs open is pretty brutal on the battery - I've had to train myself to keep the tabs to a minimum and not queue them up like on my desktop. I'd still recommend the power cover though - function over form when it comes close to doubling your battery life.

And while the One Note implementation is pretty amazing, if taking notes and battery life are high up on your list of prereqs, while the SP3 has a great pen, there's other devices out there with digitizers and far better battery life - the Core M Dell Venue Pro 11 I'm using for example, or the new Helix 2, although that one doesn't get its battery keyboard till January unfortunately.

Also what a previous poster said, keep tabs on your task manager and close anything that's chewing up tons of memory/cpu.

 

[nipponham]

...1080p movie playing on 32bit desktop version video playing software...

You should try to use MUI apps whenever possible, especially when you're on battery. It's much less taxing on system resources.

 

[hughlle]

can someome please explain what MUI stands for?

After doing all the updates, I'm testing out the same situation as yesterday:
1. 100% fully charged
2. around 35-40% brightness
3. 1080p movie playing on 32bit desktop version video playing software
4. headphones plugged in
5. keyboard plugged in with backlight off (does the keyboard itself when plugged in drain battery as well?)
6. all other programs/apps turned off

About an hour into the movie, and I'm down to 70% remaining battery.

So if one hour of movies is 30% battery life, 2 hours would be 60%, 3 hours would be 90% of the battery. I guess if the battery drain is linear, I've gained about a little over an hour in battery life. I suppose it is somewhat of an improvement, considering the surface shutoff before the movie was even over (movie is approx 2:30:00).

After the movie is over, I will report the remaining battery percentage.

After that I will recharge it to 100% again, then run my ideal scenario to see how long it will last.

For reference, i just played an hd film for an hour, and it used 12 percent (started at 93, ended at 81). (wifi off, because why would i keep wifi on when watching a film, and about 40 percent brightness, and using headphones, not speakers.)