Surface Pro has VERY good battery life - around 6 hours for me.

[TagsxA]

I tried these exact same settings. still cannot get past 4.5 hrs.... is ur 6 hr based on predicted or actual usage time? ive been timing my self whenever im on the sp, and I cant get past 4:30 hrs..

any specific tips would b appreciated. thnc

I guess I never really tested it out. The only thing I can tell you is that I currently have 82% battery and it says I have 4 hours and 40 minutes left. I know that's far from an exact time, but that's really what I get my times from. I can tell you that I forgot I lowered my CPU% peak on battery to 30% and I still have no hiccups with anything I do. I also rarely go above 20% brightness. Not sure if any of this helps you...

 

[Frost]

Has anyone that claim to have 5+ hours of battery done an actual battery life test by keeping track of your usage time? Or are you all basing this on the estimated time while its at 100% charge? Because I've been doing power saver, 30% brightness, browsing, ms office, watching videos etc.. I've been only getting 3:52-4:15 hers..
I wonder if mine is a defect battery.... can someone with 5+ share more info on their usage n battery settings?
Thanks in advance

I'm going to have to try this, and other suggestions here. I have the 128gb version and I'm getting maybe 3hrs of usage time.

 

[macswitch]

I guess I never really tested it out. The only thing I can tell you is that I currently have 82% battery and it says I have 4 hours and 40 minutes left. I know that's far from an exact time, but that's really what I get my times from. I can tell you that I forgot I lowered my CPU% peak on battery to 30% and I still have no hiccups with anything I do. I also rarely go above 20% brightness. Not sure if any of this helps you...

How d'you lower your CPU peak?

Edmund

 

[Uncensored2008]

Isn't tethering actually cheaper than straight 4G service? I would only need it on certain occasions like at the doctors office.

Cheaper, and saves battery life. On the Pro, this is important.

 

[Uncensored2008]

The point behind long battery life, IMO, is not that I am frequently away from a plug for more than 4 hours, but rather that having to travel with both the device and its power cord everywhere makes it considerably less portable. I can reliably leave the house with an ipad for a day or two without a plug. Not with the Surface Pro. I can't even go an afternoon.

I've got to call BS on this.

I run the SP every single day with my charger at home.

An hour train ride in, running Netflix the whole way. All day with sporadic use in meetings - about 1 to 2 additional hours of use. Then another hour train ride home - running Netflix the whole way.

Yep, it's close to dead by the time I get home - but it does the job, every single day.

 

[Ruffles]

I have to move from the "happy with my battery" camp to the "it needs more juice" camp. It seems that I've been getting less run time lately so today at work I did a test. I got 3:41 from the time I unplugged the charger till it shut off. I had it playing a slide show of local images with wifi and bluetooth on. Here are my settings:

1. power saver profile
2. 40% display brightness
3. 80% max CPU

I'm going to try some other settings but I think the issue has to be some process in the background that I'm not aware of.

 

[J515OP]

If you can go lower on the screen brightness that will definitely improve battery life. Going as low as you can (within reason but you should be able to go under 40%) on brightness should get you back over 4 hours. Also turning bluetooth off it not is use should help.

 

[spectre51]

How d'you lower your CPU peak?

Edmund

Go into your Power options in control panel and click the change plan settings for whatever power plan you want to use (or create your own). At the bottom click the Change Advanced Power Settings link. On the window that opens up go to Processor Power Management. Change the value for Maximum Processor State when on battery to whatever level you want it to run at. I bumped mine down to 75% for now to see how it runs. If I don't get any slowdowns I might drop it lower to see if I can extend the battery longer.

There are a lot of other power options in that screen so play around with them and see what works best for you.

Sent from the SurfaceForums.net app for Windows 8

 

[machistmo]

I had the Surface Pro 64GB for a few days now. I am very happy with the battery life. I've been getting just under 6 hours which is great for such a powerful computer. I work at home a lot and I have been able to kick-back in my family room on my comfy leather sofa. I love the pen too. It is so useful for pointing at smaller icons on the screen. I had many ultrabooks and laptops and nothing come close to the usability of the Surface Pro. This will go anywhere with me. I just wish there was a 4G option.

I was never able to squeeze more than 4 hours out of mine, but I would not settle for darkened screens and crazy sleep settings. Maybe you can get 6 hours but I would suspect, for me, the trade offs would sour the milk.

 

[dhilbe]

I've had my Pro for about a week. I turn it off and plug the charger in every night. When I get to work (about 8:30), I turn the Pro on - it connects to my work wifi. I've turned Bluetooth off. While I don't use the Pro as my primary PC at work (our IT dept is not yet letting Window 8 devices thru our firewall). I do take it to 2 - 3 meetings everyday - using OneNote to take notes, I check personal email, browse the web at lunch, maybe draft a powerpoint slide deck. With all that, I usually plug in the charger around 3:00 - not necessarily because the battery is super low - but I like to have it charged. When I get home, I may use it off and on for a couple hours - but I leave it on - even if I don't use it. And there appears to be plenty of charge left when I turn it off and start the process all over again.

Any opinions - since I bought the MS extended 2-year warranty, my thought is that I will charge the battery whenever I feel like I need to - ignoring what is good/bad for battery life. My thought is if the battery goes bad or tends not to hold a charge very long, MS will replace it.