Terrible battery life of surface pro 4 - do you agree?

[smanmit2]

I switched from macbook air after 7 years - was impressed by surface pro 4 form factor. I primarily use surface pro 4 for Manmit Excel, Chrome browsing, and most importantly microsoft outlook. Just through these three program, I never get more than 4-5 hours of battery on i5 8gb ram device.

I updated the battery driver, changed from sleep to hibernate, and also turned off windows hello. Nothing is working - I don't understand microsoft claim of upt to 9 hours. Can you share your battery experience?

 

[badMojo69]

I was able to get 5.75 hours max out of mine with general web surfing and video viewing using battery saver. Yes it sucks.

 

[GSOgymrat]

General web surfing and watching videos with brightness set to 75% I am averaging about four hours.

 

[smanmit2]

Great so I am trying to find where is the 9-hour claim. I am really disappointed with battery life.

 

[sundry]

I'm getting almost 9hrs...in sleep mode. it just goes downhill from there,

But if you work at Microsoft you get much better battery life, according to their tests, I guess because the atmosphere there is electric, But most likely it's just something in the cool aid they're drinking.

 

[new_surfacepro4_user]

I am confused. In reviews, I read that with video watching, the device could handle 8 hours. However, based on comments from users, it could handle about 4 hours not with continuous video watching. Could anybody please clarify?

 

[smanmit2]

Ask Microsoft to clarify and check whether their video test was done in paused video

 

[ttsoldier]

Batty life is disappointing. I'm happy with mine though.

I'm sure things will be tweaked later on via a firmware update

 

[Michael Muscat]

If you use the Surface like a laptop, you will get up to 6 hours usage. If you use it like a tablet, you will get up to 9 hours. Microsoft's claim of 9 hours is based on continuous video playback at 50% brightness.

If you are using Chrome, Outlook, Excel at the same time at 75% brightness, you will kill the battery. Take comfort knowing the SP4 has better battery life than the 12" Macbook and adjust your usage accordingly.

 

[mtalinm]

Panos Panay routinely lies and exaggerates the capabilities of the Surface products. I have always experienced about 2/3 of the battery life he claimed...at best.

You may know that the SP4 battery is smaller (!) than the SP3 battery. Anandtech found that it lasted about a half hour less. For the life of me I can't figure out why they didn't just leave it a little larger/thicker and keep similar battery life. Because marketing, I suspect.

A few tips:
1. screen is a huge drain, so turn the brightness down as far as you can stand.
2. create a new power plan where the CPU is throttled down to 70% or even 50% when on battery (not when plugged in, obviously). this can make a real difference. search for "disable connected standby"
3. set your power button to hibernate the device so you won't lose juice while sleeping. also uncheck stay-connected-to-the-internet-while-sleeping button in Settings.

 

[ioaniro]

You may know that the SP4 battery is smaller (!) than the SP3 battery. Anandtech found that it lasted about a half hour less. For the life of me I can't figure out why they didn't just leave it a little larger/thicker and keep similar battery life. Because marketing, I suspect.

well that's not entirely true, anandtech found half an hour less for web browsing, 1h30 more for video playback and more for light&heavy load too. But that said the battery is smaller than the SP3. The processor seems more efficient in some scenarios, maybe with better drivers/Win10 updates it could improve. But i do agree, they should always increase the battery size! Especially as I never read as a criticism to the SP3 too thick...

 

[bugelrex]

Would love to see if the threshold update improves the battery.

 

[GatsbyGlen]

Is the PixelSense display similar to an IPS panel, meaning having a solid backlight? Or is it similar to OLED, with each pixel being an OLED. Wondering if using darker backgrounds would help save battery, but it probably won't if it's a solid back light. I'm guessing it is since I see back light bleeding through the bottom of the display.

 

[smanmit2]

Panos Panay routinely lies and exaggerates the capabilities of the Surface products. I have always experienced about 2/3 of the battery life he claimed...at best.

You may know that the SP4 battery is smaller (!) than the SP3 battery. Anandtech found that it lasted about a half hour less. For the life of me I can't figure out why they didn't just leave it a little larger/thicker and keep similar battery life. Because marketing, I suspect.

A few tips:
1. screen is a huge drain, so turn the brightness down as far as you can stand.
2. create a new power plan where the CPU is throttled down to 70% or even 50% when on battery (not when plugged in, obviously). this can make a real difference. search for "disable connected standby"
3. set your power button to hibernate the device so you won't lose juice while sleeping. also uncheck stay-connected-to-the-internet-while-sleeping button in Settings.

Tried all those tricks. Cannot reach even 5 hours with Excel and outlook. A $1300 tablet that cannot last more than 4.5 hours on just two application- seriously?

 

[snakebitten]

I read somewhere the new Skylake processors have more potential for battery life doing their own "throttling", than having that throttling handled by the OS\software. I think the article went on to predict that W10 would have future updates to support this new method.

Regardless, I still can't figure out how ANYTHING that thin, that brilliant of a display, with all that technology stuffed into it, can even last 4 hours unconnected from a power source. If I was in the marketing department I would take the opposite approach and actually state the FACTS:
If you want 9 hours out of your portable computer, then you want less computer than this amazing Surface Pro 4. This is not your bosses laptop.

 

[sundry]

I read somewhere the new Skylake processors have more potential for battery life doing their own "throttling", than having that throttling handled by the OS\software. I think the article went on to predict that W10 would have future updates to support this new method.

Regardless, I still can't figure out how ANYTHING that thin, that brilliant of a display, with all that technology stuffed into it, can even last 4 hours unconnected from a power source. If I was in the marketing department I would take the opposite approach and actually state the FACTS:
If you want 9 hours out of your portable computer, then you want less computer than this amazing Surface Pro 4. This is not your bosses laptop.

i agree. It is a killer product, even with 4.5 hrs of battery life. Good luck in getting a job in marketing with that attitude though. lol

 

[ttsoldier]

I read somewhere the new Skylake processors have more potential for battery life doing their own "throttling", than having that throttling handled by the OS\software. I think the article went on to predict that W10 would have future updates to support this new method.

Regardless, I still can't figure out how ANYTHING that thin, that brilliant of a display, with all that technology stuffed into it, can even last 4 hours unconnected from a power source. If I was in the marketing department I would take the opposite approach and actually state the FACTS:
If you want 9 hours out of your portable computer, then you want less computer than this amazing Surface Pro 4. This is not your bosses laptop.

Exctly what I have been saying!!

Like. What are people expect?! You have a device with bleeding edge technology... Intels 6th gen processor...

You know if Microsoft made the device bigger to allow for a bigger battery.. People would complain.

No matter what, people will never be satisfied.

Me? I'm happy with my sp4 and it's battery life.

 

[badMojo69]

They should not advertise 9 hours of use when it can't be done under normal use cases.
4.5 hours is BS.

AND that's all I have to say about that.

 

[wasabiman123]

So I don't get it, did they regress on battery life from SP3??? I honestly haven't been keeping track of exactly my SP3 i5 lasts on W8.1 but it's pretty good...

 

[snakebitten]

I agree that they shouldn't advertise 9 hours if it takes non-typical use to achieve that.
I look at advertised battery life like EPA estimates for fuel mileage on new vehicles. It may be possible, but not likely for most.

And similar to mileage estimates, most folks aren't too offended at coming up short, but some feel strongly that it is wrong to make sloppy claims.
I do feel it would be awesome if we lived in an honest world where advertising was legit. But at 57 years old, I just know better now.

Having said all that, I've followed the advice of the chap in this thread and an article by WC for tweaking the "Power Plan" and I am very satisfied with the battery life I am now getting. And it is getting better every day. I'm expecting even more improvement as Intel and Microsoft optimize this new Skylake.

But nothing is going to stop that awesome display from drawing what it needs to stun my eyes. Just physics.