Quick Surface Power Cover Review

[hh83917]

Just received my Power Cover from UPS this afternoon.

BatteryBarPro tells me the cover has 23,337 mWh and the Surface Pro 2 has 42,010 mWh.
So yes, about 70% increase in battery capacity with the cover on.

First impression is that it is thicker than the Type cover 2, almost 2 times the thickness of the current type cover 2.
It's shaped like the size of the original type cover but with the type cover 2's matted skin.

Overall feel, the typing feels much better and very solid when compared to the current type cover 2 due to the fact that there's the solid battery under it acting as cushion. Type cover 2 is already nice to type on, but this is like typing on a hard surface, very stable and solid. It's a joy to type on it even when compared to the type cover 2.

The mouse pad is much much easier to use too because it is resting on top of a solid battery. The cover no longer bend when using the mouse pad. With the Type Cover 2, I'd still choose to use the touchscreen, but the power cover mouse pad is more usable.

The Power Cover is not backlit, so the keyboard light buttons were switch to Mute, Vol Down, and Vol Up. Despite no backit, volume buttons more useful in my own opinion. And want to add that only the Caps lock got backlit indication, but that's all.

The power cover gives out heat when in use as the Surface depletes the cover's battery. However, only the bottom of the cover feels warm when under use and the keyboard on top stays cool. I hope it's not going to cause any problems in the future if they use good quality battery. I really don't want to see overheating power covers catching on fire.

You cannot charge the Power Cover separately. The only way to charge it is to attach it to the Surface tablet and charge the Surface with it. And by look, the attached powercover seems to charge slower vs the tablet itself. But the good thing is, the tablet and the powercover charges at the same time, so you don't have to fully charge the surface before it charges the powercover.

Also, I'm using my Surface Pro 2 with the Maroo case and the Power cover fits in it like the type cover 2, despite the addition thickness. I hope it does not affect the cooling of the powercover under long use, but that'll have to wait for longer usage to really know.

Sorry, I haven't tested the full battery runtime because I'll just wait for others to do it.
So far, very happy about the purchase and I do recommend it.
Now I'm debating to keep the type cover 2 or return it since I only purchased it not long ago.

Please add on your own review on the Power Cover and let us know how you like it and if you have encounter any problems using it.

 

[starstreak]

The keyboard doesn't light up? I wonder why?
How heavy does it feel? If it had a light up keyboard I think I would've bought it. I would only need it on trips, but I get nervous every time the battery starts to get near 70%. I know that's a lot of power still, but that's me.

 

[hh83917]

The keyboard doesn't light up? I wonder why?
How heavy does it feel? If it had a light up keyboard I think I would've bought it. I would only need it on trips, but I get nervous every time the battery starts to get near 70%. I know that's a lot of power still, but that's me.

I'm guessing the powercover is already bulky, so they don't want to add more thickness to it buy adding back lit. Even if they do, it will increase the originally not-so-cheap 200 price tag.
If you will only need the powercover on trips and want the backlit feature, then you are probably ok with type cover 2. Which is why I am debating whether to return the type cover 2 and I'm still weighing how much I use that backlit feature.

 

[HC1994]

Question about your case. I saw that you use the Maroo Case. Is it the one sold for $49.99 on the MS store?
How does the Power Cover fit in that case? Does it make extra bulky and when you flip everything to the back in tablet mode, does the Power Cover detach or become inconvenient? Thanks!

Just received my Power Cover from UPS this afternoon.

BatteryBarPro tells me the cover has 23,337 mWh and the Surface Pro 2 has 42,010 mWh.
So yes, about 70% increase in battery capacity with the cover on.

First impression is that it is thicker than the Type cover 2, almost 2 times the thickness of the current type cover 2.
It's shaped like the size of the original type cover but with the type cover 2's matted skin.

Overall feel, the typing feels much better and very solid when compared to the current type cover 2 due to the fact that there's the solid battery under it acting as cushion. Type cover 2 is already nice to type on, but this is like typing on a hard surface, very stable and solid. It's a joy to type on it even when compared to the type cover 2.

The mouse pad is much much easier to use too because it is resting on top of a solid battery. The cover no longer bend when using the mouse pad. With the Type Cover 2, I'd still choose to use the touchscreen, but the power cover mouse pad is more usable.

The Power Cover is not backlit, so the keyboard light buttons were switch to Mute, Vol Down, and Vol Up. Despite no backit, volume buttons more useful in my own opinion.

The power cover gives out heat when in use as the Surface depletes the cover's battery. However, only the bottom of the cover feels warm when under use and the keyboard on top stays cool. I hope it's not going to cause any problems in the future if they use good quality battery. I really don't want to see overheating power covers catching on fire.

You cannot charge the Power Cover separately. The only way to charge it is to attach it to the Surface tablet and charge the Surface with it. And by look, the attached powercover seems to charge slower vs the tablet itself. But the good thing is, the tablet and the powercover charges at the same time, so you don't have to fully charge the surface before it charges the powercover.

Also, I'm using my Surface Pro 2 with the Maroo case and the Power cover fits in it like the type cover 2, despite the addition thickness. I hope it does not affect the cooling of the powercover under long use, but that'll have to wait for longer usage to really know.

Sorry, I haven't tested the full battery runtime because I'll just wait for others to do it.
So far, very happy about the purchase and I do recommend it.
Now I'm debating to keep the type cover 2 or return it since I only purchased it not long ago.

Please add on your own review on the Power Cover and let us know how you like it and if you have encounter any problems using it.

 

[hh83917]

Question about your case. I saw that you use the Maroo Case. Is it the one sold for $49.99 on the MS store?
How does the Power Cover fit in that case? Does it make extra bulky and when you flip everything to the back in tablet mode, does the Power Cover detach or become inconvenient? Thanks!

Regarding the Maroo case, you cannot flip the case to the back without detaching the surface covers, any of them. The powercover add a substantial more bulk to the whole case. It is compatible and fits nicely, but it just looks more bulky vs with the type cover 2. The Powercover is about half an inch thick and the type cover 2 is a little less than 1/4 inch roughly. Simple stack 2 type cover 2s together and that's about the thickness of the powercover.

 

[jnjroach]

For another comparison, the Power Cover is just wee bit under the thickness of the Surface 2, feels much like holding an iPad when not attached to the Surface...

 

[derausgewanderte]

yeah, it's fairly heavy but as hh83917 stated, the typing on it really feels nice even on my lap. The first listing on MS website listed weights similar to the type cover 2, which really couldn't be with the addition of a solid battery within. Too bad 3D light weight batteries are still a couple years away
for now this is good enough. I don't mind the weight at least so far.

I have just noticed that the mouse pad is sometimes still active, even though I have it flipped all the way back. Maybe I need to reboot....
hopefully it will go away....

weight of power cover is 547g (1lb 3 1/4 oz).
weight of type cover (1) is 213g (7 1/2 oz.)

these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt because they were measured on our digital kitchen scale.

One thing that I am missing is the physical mouse click from the v1 type cover (just as others have stated when they got their type cover 2).

edit1: ok, still have issues after a reboot. the mouse pad is active rather randomly and responds to finger moves even though it is flipped all the way back. I'd like to see if others have a similar issue. I can reproduce this when I flip the cover all the way back, hold the Surface with both hands left and right side and move my fingers on the screen and the mouse pad simultaneously. Very often the mouse pad activates and moves the mouse cursor.
Or is this normal and was always there?
Not a really big deal because it does require some effort to get this.

edit2: ok, only happens in desktop mode.

 

[hh83917]

yeah, it's fairly heavy but as hh83917 stated, the typing on it really feels nice even on my lap. The first listing on MS website listed weights similar to the type cover 2, which really couldn't be with the addition of a solid battery within. Too bad 3D light weight batteries are still a couple years away
for now this is good enough. I don't mind the weight at least so far.

I have just noticed that the mouse pad is sometimes still active, even though I have it flipped all the way back. Maybe I need to reboot....
hopefully it will go away....

weight of power cover is 547g (1lb 3 1/4 oz).
weight of type cover (1) is 213g (7 1/2 oz.)

these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt because they were measured on our digital kitchen scale.

One thing that I am missing is the physical mouse click from the v1 type cover (just as others have stated when they got their type cover 2).

edit1: ok, still have issues after a reboot. the mouse pad is active rather randomly and responds to finger moves even though it is flipped all the way back. I'd like to see if others have a similar issue. I can reproduce this when I flip the cover all the way back, hold the Surface with both hands left and right side and move my fingers on the screen and the mouse pad simultaneously. Very often the mouse pad activates and moves the mouse cursor.
Or is this normal and was always there?
Not a really big deal because it does require some effort to get this.

edit2: ok, only happens in desktop mode.

I just tried flipping it to the back and I get no mouse movement what so ever. I will pay attention to it when I have it flipped to the back under normal usage. But currently I do not see the issue you are seeing.

 

[hh83917]

When I had the powercover plugged attached, windows show 2 batteries in battery status, but sometimes, after sleep and wakes, it only show the surface's battery and not the powercover's battery even though the powercover is functioning fine. Seems like sometimes widnows did not read the second battery status. I hope MS figure it out and fix these little bugs.

 

[eee]

What's the capacity? It was supposed to be 30mWh but I read somewhere that it's actually 23mWh?

 

[CrippsCorner]

Did you read the original post lol? He says it in the second sentence... 23,337 mWh.

 

[PastorShaw]

With the SP, does the Power Cover fit inside the Nixon sleeve case, or the Incipio sleeve case?