Microsoft's Surface Pro Tablet to Have Half the Battery Life of the RT; Just 4 Hours

[dgstorm]

In order to keep our journalistic integrity we must share the bad news as well as the good. Luckily that doesn't happen too often, but today is still one of those days. Apparently, the new MS Surface Pro tablet will have a pretty short battery life. In fact, reports indicate that it will only be able to support about 4 hours of continuous use, which is about half that of the Surface RT tablet. Ironically, the new Surface Pro will actually have a larger, heavier and thicker battery than the Surface RT (it's battery is rate at 42.5 Wh, compared to the RT tablet’s 31.5 Wh). However, the Intel Core I5 is apparently a huge energy hog, because this larger battery does not make up for the deficit.

Even if you simply compare the Surface Pro to the current line of Ultrabooks instead of tablets (which is the direction that Microsoft's marketing is pointing), this is still only mediocre battery life. Of course, we will wait to pass judgment until after the final product is released, but it's hard to ignore this. Share your thoughts.

Source: UnWiredView

 

[J515OP]

Compared to the Surface RT the Pro seems to have a large battery but I am not sure if that is the case compared to ultrabooks. Even then many ultrabooks get areound 4-5 hours battery life with only the best getting 6 or 7 hours of battery life. If they do have larger batteries that can explain some of the longer life. Given that the Surface Pro is essentially an ultrabook 4 hours is probably about right.

Some ultrabook battery stats from The Verge

BATTERY LIFE
HP Envy Spectre XT 5:21
Lenovo ThinkPad X230 7:10
HP Folio 13 7:07
Dell XPS 14 (2012) 6:59
Samsung Series 9 (15-inch, early 2012) 6:01
Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A 5:46
MacBook Air (13-inch, mid-2012) 5:34
Sony VAIO Z (2011) 5:27
Samsung Series 9 (13-inch, mid-2012) 5:19
HP Envy 14 Spectre (early 2012) 5:14
Toshiba Satellite U845W 5:08
Dell XPS 13 4:55
Lenovo IdeaPad U310 4:32
Acer Aspire S5 4:24
Vizio 15.6-inch Thin + Light 3:24

 

[kfons]

I get about 6 hours on the Samsung Ativ Windows 8 Pro tablet - 4 hours is unacceptable - that may be a showstopper for our company who was going to buy about 10 of them for our sales force.

 

[J515OP]

I get about 6 hours on the Samsung Ativ Windows 8 Pro tablet - 4 hours is unacceptable - that may be a showstopper for our company who was going to buy about 10 of them for our sales force.

Well that is an advantage of Windows not being Apple software, other companies will make Windows 8 Pro tablets. If the Surface Pro doesn't meet your requirements then choose one from a manufacturer that does. For the record the the Ativ 700T (Windows 8 version) has a 49Wh battery vs. Surface Pro's 42Wh battery. That is a 16.6667% increase in battery size. So while there is no confirmation of actual Surface Pro battery life (4 hrs is just a guess), 4 hrs would be at the low end but in line with ultrabook battery life standards and if you need more you can get the Ativ 700T with 6 hours of battery life.

 

[excalibur1814]

I wouldn't worry. If the Pro had 37 hours of battery the usual tech sites would find something else to complain about. Not quite Retina? Heavier than 'actual' air? The screen doesn't have the correct angle? It's something that the web does these days which is a big, big shame. Personally, after owning an EP121 and 7 slate 4 hours is to be expected with constant use unless there's a 'really' big battery in there; at least we have the option to tweak Windows 8. Maybe one of the oems will make a tablet that's a smidgen thinner while offering slice batteries... standard for home use (still thin), full day battery and finally, the extended battery that hits close to, or maybe a bit more, an ultabook sized device.

If only

 

[J515OP]

Or what about a laptop style removable battery that you can easily swap in and out on the go? Haven't seen that feature on a tablet yet.

 

[Sauerkraut]

Or what about a laptop style removable battery that you can easily swap in and out on the go? Haven't seen that feature on a tablet yet.

Then you might want to check out the soon to come Kupa Ultranote, which is quite a promising divice featurewise (I don't think that's a word). KUPA UltraNote
Greetings

 

[ArnoldC]

Any idea about the price of the 8GB/128GB KUPA?

 

[Sauerkraut]

Any idea about the price of the 8GB/128GB KUPA?

I'm guessing it will be something around 1000$ since that it what their previous tablets roughly cost [X11 pro (899$) and X11 Lux (1069$)]

 

[J515OP]

I'm not familiar with the brand but it looks pretty neat. The more innovation in tablets and choices for users the better

 

[TheJokker]

What about a external battery? My normal use will be around the house but on those occasions when I have to go out of town and external battery might do the trick until a haswell version is avaliable.

 

[mrasmussen]

I don't think battery life of 4 or 8 hours makes a difference to me, I don't feel like there is anything that can take the place of a powerful notebook/desktop for real computing. An ultrabook or surface pro would be for email/internet/office work which I think the surface RT does reasonable well. I think a powerful windows 8 laptop plus a surface Rt would cover all my needs.