ipaq_101
Active Member
ctitanic
Well-Known Member
Like I already said, battery life varies from user to user. All you can do is to apply the recommendations that more experienced users have mentioned. I myself reported here a long time ago that my battery life was about 6 hours and I just posted screenshots proven the type of battery life I'm getting now.
ctitanic
Well-Known Member
Totally agree and it uses more battery if you are using Office 360.
dstrauss
Active Member
I'm not sure I'm getting the whole purpose of this thread.
If your MBA experience really gets you 10-12 hours of full time Office (Word, Excel, etc.) use on a single charge, and you need that capability, then the Surface Pro 3 is not for you. Any reasonable usage (beyond low light, low usage browsing) will get you 6-7 hours tops on the SPro 3. Personally, my daughter has been using MacBooks (latest is June 2013 Haswell) since starting college through her current doctoral program, and although it has excellent sleep/resume ability, she has never gotten 10 hours of real usage out of it - more like 8 hours tops of writing papers and researching on the internet while on battery - WHICH IS VERY IMPRESSIVE TO ME. Still, that entails a lower resolution screen (1440x900), 30% screen brightness, and the larger battery that a MBA contains. If handwritten notes are not your "be all, end all" use for your computer, then I'd stay in the Apple camp to maximize time away from the outlet.
Now the decision is in your hands...
If your MBA experience really gets you 10-12 hours of full time Office (Word, Excel, etc.) use on a single charge, and you need that capability, then the Surface Pro 3 is not for you. Any reasonable usage (beyond low light, low usage browsing) will get you 6-7 hours tops on the SPro 3. Personally, my daughter has been using MacBooks (latest is June 2013 Haswell) since starting college through her current doctoral program, and although it has excellent sleep/resume ability, she has never gotten 10 hours of real usage out of it - more like 8 hours tops of writing papers and researching on the internet while on battery - WHICH IS VERY IMPRESSIVE TO ME. Still, that entails a lower resolution screen (1440x900), 30% screen brightness, and the larger battery that a MBA contains. If handwritten notes are not your "be all, end all" use for your computer, then I'd stay in the Apple camp to maximize time away from the outlet.
Now the decision is in your hands...
I for one, after happily using my Surface 2 Pro to replace my iPad, a couple months ago loaded Win 8.1 Pro on my 2013 MBA as the only OS; no Bootcamp. The more I use it the more I like it.
ctitanic
Well-Known Member
I would wait until MS releases the version for SP3.
ctitanic
Well-Known Member
ManUnited, if you've spent anytime on online forums, you must realize that each forum, whatever the basis of the forum will have bias towards the purpose of the forum. This is a Surface forum, so everyone here falls within several groups:
1. You are a Surface owner/user/fan and love it and want to share your joy
2. You are a Surface owner/user/fan and have problems with your device and need help
3. You are searching for more information to see if you should purchase one
4. You are a Surface owner/user but not a fan and regret your purchase
5. You are a troll and want to wreak havoc online just because you have nothing better to do
Most people here fall within the first three groups and some fall into the fourth. Any online forum will have a some who fall into group 5 because this is the internet and that is a fact of life.
The order and etiquette you are hoping for is a job for the moderators and administrators of this forum. Everyone else here is along for the ride. Again, because this is an online forum, people will tend to write in a way that has fewer restrictions than if you were face to face, so if you feel some animosity or bias, that's just the way things are online.
For the most part, my own experience here has been positive and I have learned and shared information about the SP2 and SP3 that I have owned and used. I am an advocate of the platform and devices, but if in the end they do not meet your needs and requirements, then get what works for you. There is no one perfect device on the market, but I believe the Surface line meets a niche that works for me and many others.
1. You are a Surface owner/user/fan and love it and want to share your joy
2. You are a Surface owner/user/fan and have problems with your device and need help
3. You are searching for more information to see if you should purchase one
4. You are a Surface owner/user but not a fan and regret your purchase
5. You are a troll and want to wreak havoc online just because you have nothing better to do
Most people here fall within the first three groups and some fall into the fourth. Any online forum will have a some who fall into group 5 because this is the internet and that is a fact of life.
The order and etiquette you are hoping for is a job for the moderators and administrators of this forum. Everyone else here is along for the ride. Again, because this is an online forum, people will tend to write in a way that has fewer restrictions than if you were face to face, so if you feel some animosity or bias, that's just the way things are online.
For the most part, my own experience here has been positive and I have learned and shared information about the SP2 and SP3 that I have owned and used. I am an advocate of the platform and devices, but if in the end they do not meet your needs and requirements, then get what works for you. There is no one perfect device on the market, but I believe the Surface line meets a niche that works for me and many others.
Like almost EVERY other thread on the Internet; simply a discussion expressing personal opinions and preferences. I'm not sure I get the whole purpose of your expression of not getting the purpose but still expounding verbosely upon your opinion .....
This sums it up perfectly.
I was somewhat confused as to the purpose of the forum when I too got the overall impression that certain criticism/comparison was not welcomed here. This is almost universally ignoring the
Total Apple campaign that MS is going after.
The battery issue is the whole reason I found this forum. I wanted to see if it was actually a problem with my unit or were others experiencing huge differences in battery life.
As Len stated, "Take what you need and leave the rest".
Many others will answer and relate to the situation you have and will find it valuable.
The Admin created another section on the forum to debate SP3 vs "other" tablets. Most of us are not really wanting to have a "debate or a "VS" argument, but are really curious to find the right device for our needs.
MS directly encouraged the comparison.
Bandito
Active Member
Unfortunately, most battery-life claims tend to be on the optimistic side and there is currently no definitive way to compare one manufacturers claims to another's. What we probably should have is some sort of browser-based test that exercises the machine at a known rate using a controlled WiFi configuration with a particular screen brightness setting that you would run until the device died. This way it would be at least be much more comparable between devices as all should be capable of connecting to the Internet and running a browser.
At any rate, your best bet for the longest battery life on your SP3 is to keep the screen setting to the lowest comfortable and practical screen brightness and shutting off anything else that you're not using at the time, such as Bluetooth and WiFi. Have the machine set to sleep at a fairly short interval so that it can consume as little energy as possible when you're not actively using it and as a last resort, if possible, put it on the charger if you're near an outlet at lunch or at any other time one is available.
We're getting tantalizingly close to all-day use of these things, but are still not quite there, yet. Perhaps Intel's Broadwell designs will push us fully over the threshold.
At any rate, your best bet for the longest battery life on your SP3 is to keep the screen setting to the lowest comfortable and practical screen brightness and shutting off anything else that you're not using at the time, such as Bluetooth and WiFi. Have the machine set to sleep at a fairly short interval so that it can consume as little energy as possible when you're not actively using it and as a last resort, if possible, put it on the charger if you're near an outlet at lunch or at any other time one is available.
We're getting tantalizingly close to all-day use of these things, but are still not quite there, yet. Perhaps Intel's Broadwell designs will push us fully over the threshold.
