Web Browsing and Battery Life

[kristalsoldier]

Hi all...

This may be (probably is) a stupid question, but can anyone explain in a bit of detail (1) why browsing on the Surface 2 runs down the battery faster than most other tasks? (2) Is it possible for MS to actually optimize this such that browsing does not cost as much battery life as it currently does? And, (3) if #2 is possible, then can we reasonably expect MS to do something about it - hopefully by the time 8.2 Update 1 is released?

Thanks in advance.

 

[leeshor]

There is a really detailed answer but depending on the efficiency of the browser, WEB browsing will run down the battery on any device more quickly that most other activities, (except for some games). To understand why you need to understand that the browser is using the processor, the graphics subsystem and internal storage. Things don't just appear on the screen when you view a WEB page. It needs to be cached to the internal storage first. There is a lot going on that you don't see not the least of which is the use of WiFi.

 

[jnjroach]

Hey Kristal,

Are you using the Modern UI or desktop version of IE? I typically get 7-11 hours of mixed browsing and office, I try to stay in the Modern UI as much as possible.

 

[leeshor]

Good point!

 

[kristalsoldier]

Hey Kristal,

Are you using the Modern UI or desktop version of IE? I typically get 7-11 hours of mixed browsing and office, I try to stay in the Modern UI as much as possible.

I use the Modern UI version. But wouldn't you say that a 7-11 hr variance is a lot.

 

[jnjroach]

It depends on what I'm doing that causes the variance, if I'm watching YouTube or other Media Content or static web pages, video tends to use more battery especially if I use Miracast or "Play To ". Also if I'm using Lync Enterprise Voice for Conference Calls that also eats into my battery (Lync is part of Office).

And with some static pages, there are some that impact battery more, news site that use Video Adds or lots of Flash.

 

[kristalsoldier]

It depends on what I'm doing that causes the variance, if I'm watching YouTube or other Media Content or static web pages, video tends to use more battery especially if I use Miracast or "Play To ". Also if I'm using Lync Enterprise Voice for Conference Calls that also eats into my battery (Lync is part of Office).

And with some static pages, there are some that impact battery more, news site that use Video Adds or lots of Flash.

Thanks. So, do you think it is possible for the Surface engineers to further optimize the Surface 2 for better battery performance - especially when browsing? Is this something that we can look forward to or is it reasonable to expect? Or, is there a limit of sorts beyond which optimization to aid battery life when browsing is essentially useless?

 

[jnjroach]

Its possible, is your battery life not living up to expectation? There are days that I'm able to eek out 16 hours (not straight). I have noticed with the last Flash Update that came out couple of days ago has impacted the performance of some pages and causes some to hang (typically heavy flash social or add supported sites... yes I'm pointing my finger at Huff Post).

 

[kristalsoldier]

Well, I am not sure. Sometimes it seems to be working just fine. I get about 8 hours - working pretty much constantly. During such times, I am usually on Word. BT and WIFI on; and very occasionally a web page open - usually looking something up on Bing and/ or on this site. Brightness is always at around 35-40% with auto-dim on. At the end of 8 hours, I am left with around 35% battery (as per the battery icon). At other times, however, within 6 hours I am down to 60% or so. During such times, I find myself on the browser a lot - though Word is open, perhaps a PDF file too. This is the reason I ask about whether browsing sucks up more battery than usual.

I should also note that I have not really run the battery down to 10% and recharged it. Only recently, I drew the battery down to around 20% and then charged back up. Maybe I will run the battery down to less than 10% and recharge - will do it towards the end of the month.

 

[jnjroach]

I run my down to 6% most days...

 

[kristalsoldier]

Updates on battery use. I turned off some of the live tiles, which I have never used. Second, I noticed that immediately after the most recent updates (last Tuesday, which included a set of updates for the Wireless and for BT), when I look at the enable BT section under PC Settings, it is now off by default. Correspondingly, I have noticed that under the same usage conditions as posted earlier, the battery level drops at least 15% lesser than before.

Oddly though - and this is unconnected to the battery issue - I find that there is a glitch of sorts with the Flight Mode switch. When I turn it on, the WiFi switch remains on, when it should actually be turning off. Moreover, an active WIFI connection remains on, which should also not happen. I had to restart my device to have the function get back to normal. This may have been a one-off case, but I will monitor this for a bit going forward.

 

[TheIVJackal]

I totally didn't think of turning off Live Tiles to increase battery performance but that totally makes sense! Which did you turn off? Thanks for the idea.
- Aaron