:) User real-world benchmarks (Surface 2)

[oion]

BATTERY TEST

4:00 pm test start

Settings:
Starting at 100% charge, 35% locked screen brightness (no auto or dimming), keyboard backlight off, power profile "sleep: never." Bluetooth off. Set global volume to 6 because I wanted to listen to other things.

Test:
Constant streaming of Youtube video in Metro IE11 snapped to desktop with Notepad and Task Manager open in the desktop (total of 3 app processes in use). IE hovered around 130-150MB memory usage. To avoid playlist caching (just in case, no idea if it does), I started a new playlist whenever one ended. That would be 171 episodes of The Daily Show and dozens of 2Cellos/Apocalyptica music videos, in case anyone is curious p). This wifi test isn't as constant as a torrent test.

6% warning at 12:29 am.
4% warning at 12:37 am.
Shut down at 12:40 am sharp.

Total run time: 8 hours 40 minutes

Comments:
35%-40% is my screen brightness average. I usually turn it down a bit for video anyway because I dim ambient lighting in that scenario, and I rarely ever get to 50% or higher in regular use (hurts my eyes, hsssss!).

Feel free to add your own tests/scenarios here--the more detail the better.


Edit to add: This test was the first time I ran my Surface 2's battery down to the shutdown warnings; I never even did that for my RT. Otherwise, my S2 had gone through several charge/recharge cycles since I got it, but always at partial capacity.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Interesting! And, thanks for posting. So, if we compare this to my test last night, I think the battery life between the RT and the Surface 2 is comparable.

For example, I called off my test at the 7 hour mark (it was getting to be quite late!). At that point, the battery icon showed that there was only 23% power left. I think I would have probably got about another hour of work out of the RT, which would make it a 8-hour run.

I would explain the extra 40 mins that you got on the S2 in terms of the screen brightness that you used. I was using a level around 45% as compared to your 35-40%.

The other factor that I would take into account is that your test involved the playing of a video, which mine did not (as that is not what I do normally, workwise, that is) I expect there to be more expenditure of energy and hence more drain on the battery under your test conditions. Because of this I would suggest that under "normal" work conditions (mine, that is), the S2 would probably deliver a close-to-9-hour performance.

Not bad, I would say, if you consider all this in addition to the 2-step kickstand, the better screen, the slight adjustments to thickness and weight, and the faster processer.

 

[oion]

I'm going to do a similar test to Engadget's soon, a local video loop but in airplane mode. And then one of my personal use cases, word processing with background audio and light web surfing. (I toyed with the idea of a pure Angry Birds session, but I'm not playing that for hours, lol.)

 

[oion]

EPIC.

Well, okay, I didn't get as good a test as Engadget's freaky results (local video loop, 50% brightness, WiFi on = 14 hours and 22 minutes). But it did pretty well anyway.

I started this test at 12:00 am midnight and let it run overnight.

Settings:
100% battery, 35% screen brightness (this is within my personal normal range), sleep disabled, airplane mode, keyboard backlighting off. Volume set at 4 (since I didn't want it to bother me throughout the night and the next day).

Test:
Looped a movie off local drive with the built-in Xbox video player, fullscreen most of the time, split screen occasionally to jot notes into Notepad on the desktop.

60% remaining at 6:00 am.
32% remaining at 10:00 am.
6% warning at 1:37 pm.
Shut down at 1:47 pm.

Total run time: 13 hours 47 minutes

Comments:
I really don't know why, with wifi off and lower brightness, my test ended up shorter than Engadget's test, but who cares. This isn't quite an average use case except for transoceanic flights (thus airplane mode) and TV/film marathons, which would normally kill my brain anyway. So between this local video test and the wifi streaming video test, I expect my normal usage to fall between there. We'll see.


(Oh, and the screen looks darker than the test because it dims when the warning pops up.)

 

[demandarin]

Amazing results... so we know for sure now the Engadget one wasn't a fluke. Sirface2 has stellar battery life.

 

[beman39]

Thanks for the input, gonna look forward to getting my S2 tomorrow and every info helps...I just hope I don't get a lemon like the others have been getting with the loose/faulty volume rockers.

 

[The White Falcon]

Thanks for the input, gonna look forward to getting my S2 tomorrow and every info helps...I just hope I don't get a lemon like the others have been getting with the loose/faulty volume rockers.

I may have a rattly rocker, but I have a near-perfect display with only one small spot of bleed at max brightness....

 

[beman39]

Sorry but if I paid that much money on a S2 I would want it PERFECT condition, no exceptions lol

 

[CpCrunch]

What is normal on battery life for Surface 2?

Hi oion,

I did test of my own on Surface 2 but with doc editing and web surfing mostly and my result was around 8h 20min (auto adjust screen brightness set at about 45%). It seems like reports are all over the place. Some people are even getting above 12 or 13 hours. Could I have gotten a dud? 8h 20 isn't bad but I'm beginning to feel a bit left out with all of these amazing battery life stories.

Thanks

 

[demandarin]

You didn't get a dud. His latest reports are from a specific set of tasks ha had his device do overnight. Same with Engadget results. Everyone battery life will be different based on different usage. If you got that much, I can see you easily pulling 9 or 10hrs. With lowering of brightness, etc..

 

[oion]

Hi oion,

I did test of my own on Surface 2 but with doc editing and web surfing mostly and my result was around 8h 20min (auto adjust screen brightness set at about 45%). It seems like reports are all over the place. Some people are even getting above 12 or 13 hours. Could I have gotten a dud? 8h 20 isn't bad but I'm beginning to feel a bit left out with all of these amazing battery life stories.

Thanks

Nope, yours looks within range of normal, like demandarin says. My first test was 100% wifi with Flash video use, while the second test is entirely off the local drive with no wifi at all. The vast majority of use cases will be "mixed usage" with active wifi, so probably closer to the first test. If I really wanted to push mine for my purposes, I'll bet using only Word and having a few PDFs open and turning off wifi would stretch the hours. My personal range of screen brightness also tends to be lower than a lot of people's.

 

[EddySnoozah]

Yesterday afternoon, I charged my S2 fully, then in the evening I used it to watch an hour or so of Channel 4 on demand TV, then checked my emails and surfed the net for maybe an hour max and was a little disappointed to discover that the battery was down to 64%. Bluetooth was off, but the wi fi was on, touch cover was attached and screen brightness was set to 50%. I was slightly disappointed with 64%. Would the fact that I was watching TV off the internet have made that much difference?

I have a couple of long haul trips coming up in the next few months (maybe 24 hours or a bit more door to door, with a 14-hour flight segment in one and a 13-hour in the other). Is there any way that I can use one of those portable external power supplies to keep my S2 charged while I am travelling? From what I can see there will be no way of connecting one unless some enterprising company comes up with s specialised adaptor.