Not nearly making battery life (+ slow performance)

[FlatSurface]

Hi all,

So I took the leap and shelled out on a nSP i5/8Gig/256SSD. Overall I'm pretty impressed with it. Beautiful screen, typecover takes some adjusting but is enjoyable.

After using it for two days, I've got two issues with it:

1. It's sluggish. Browsing isn't snappy, even as I type this there is a delay. I can't imagine my old Macbook Pro from 2012 (i7/8Gig) being faster, but... it is. I've got Edge open, Chrome with a few tabs, Spotify, OnteNote, Calendar... that's it. Nothing crazy.

2. Battery life. It's supposed to get you like 8 hours, right? I barely make 6 and, again, I'm not doing anything crazy.

Am I missing something here?

 

[jnjroach]

Hi all,

So I took the leap and shelled out on a nSP i5/8Gig/256SSD. Overall I'm pretty impressed with it. Beautiful screen, typecover takes some adjusting but is enjoyable.

After using it for two days, I've got two issues with it:

1. It's sluggish. Browsing isn't snappy, even as I type this there is a delay. I can't imagine my old Macbook Pro from 2012 (i7/8Gig) being faster, but... it is. I've got Edge open, Chrome with a few tabs, Spotify, OnteNote, Calendar... that's it. Nothing crazy.

2. Battery life. It's supposed to get you like 8 hours, right? I barely make 6 and, again, I'm not doing anything crazy.

Am I missing something here?

Chrome is known to reduce battery life by up to 50% on Windows...I'm getting 8-11 hours on battery running Insider Fast under normal conditions. If I do Skype for Business conference calls it reduces my battery life.

 

[theveterans]

Something is wrong on your surface. I use all Bluetooth devices for my peripherals (Surface mouse, Surface keyboard and Surface pen) and never I had problems with delay and performance whatsoever

 

[sharpuser]

The typing delay sounds like a driver issue, either with the driver itself, or its settings, perhaps beyond your control. The delay likely shows that your computer is preoccupied with something, which would also lead to a battery life problem.

I suggest doing a Windows Reset (first try to keep your files). Be sure to have OneDrive saving your files in the cloud.

 

[FlatSurface]

The device is literally days old, surely I wouldn't need to reset it already? And yet, while I'm typing this (having restarted, completely shut off, etc), the delay is once again present.

 

[FlatSurface]

Okay, someone over at TabletReview suggested that new Surface Pros tend to be sluggish, because Windows is processing and updating in the background. See topic here.

Can anyone here confirm that this might be the case?

 

[theveterans]

^ When I had my SP. Nope, it was NEVER sluggish at all. I didn't feel that it's updating stuff on the background. I'm even impressed with the i7 chip as it likes to go max frequency to load my programs much faster than my SP3 and previous laptops

As for lags, it's primarily these two processes that can cause input lag and overall sluggishness:

 

[sharpuser]

Okay, someone over at TabletReview suggested that new Surface Pros tend to be sluggish, because Windows is processing and updating in the background. See topic here.

Can anyone here confirm that this might be the case?

Are you a previous user with a OneDrive account? If so, Windows may be taking time to sync your old files. A quick way to tell whether updating or syncing is taking up your processing power is to disconnect from WiFi and the Internet.

 

[Mikey94025]

Okay, someone over at TabletReview suggested that new Surface Pros tend to be sluggish, because Windows is processing and updating in the background. See topic here.

Can anyone here confirm that this might be the case?

Yes, I've heard that too. I would leave your nSP on for a day or two, let all the updates get installed, reboot, and then see how things are after the first week. Indexing, etc. can all cause initial Windows laptop delays. Hold off on resetting until it has a chance to settle. Try different browsers too.

My i5/8Gig/256SSD nSP doesn't have any of the lags you report.

 

[everalm]

Just started with my brand new shiny SP 2017 and yes....

During the initialisation when you are setting up accounts, syncing OneDrive, installing Office (2010, yes oldie but goldie), configuring Outlook with two mail accounts and syncing them, installing all the patches and so on and so forth....then yes, from time to time my new toy slows down and stutters.

Just coming to the end and so far......all very good,......

Use in anger from tomorrow then lets see.... >;-)

 

[everalm]

OK,

Blown away and re-installed Win10 from scratch (my fault, I was testing some software that was only one step up from adware) but it's given me a nice clean comparison.

After install, downloaded circa 4 Gb of various patches, updates, local files I will want to use etc
Installed Office 2010
Installed all the damned Office patches....
Installed 32 apps from the Store and updated the few that Windows installed that I will blow away later
Connected 2x mail accounts with over 70K emails between them downloaded all attachments, images etc.
Installed VirtualBox and downloaded a Win10 x64 and x32 image to run a VM for testing then started the install
Hooked up OneDrive with 2.5 Gb of data and synced
Installed a couple of VPN solutions and tested them while setting up other stuff

Machine all up and running, took a total of about 5.5 hours and yes it stuttered and slowed down several times during the process. Since then the box has been running smoothly, no issues as yet, did get warm but not hot at the back, cooling down as we speak.

 

[FlatSurface]

I'll one-up you guys.

I returned this unit. Got refunded (no more stock). Ordered another from a different vendor. Significant lightbleed.

Returned it to one of their stores. Guy gets another one from the magazine - guess what? Lightbleed!

They send me another from storage the next day.

... Lightbleed.

I've been through four bad SP units now. I cannot believe Microsoft quality control (if it even exists).