New Surface Pro Battery Life: i5 vs i7

[Shrave]

Thanks for the link to the Linus tips, super helpful!

 

[ajcletus500]

Undervolting is something to look at if you are a pro user. with that I mean if you know what you are doing.
for one it keeps you cpu cooler and two it will let you cpu stay at higher frequencies for a longer time. It goes without saying that it indirectly it improves battery life

 

[realparadyne]

People seem to get very focussed on the CPU/GPU as the main thing affecting battery life. For really intensive tasks it might be but a more typical usage pattern is editing a document or reading a web page. In those cases the cpu is pretty much idle for most seconds in every minute and only consuming milliwatts of power (except for those damn flash ads, thankfully all the browsers are getting that more under control now).

So where is the power going? Number 1 will be the screen backlight. A huge extremely bright light source that is on the whole time. Then the LCD panel on top blocks most of it so you don't realise just how bright it is. IGZO screens let more light through thus giving you either a brighter image or using less power for the backlight. The SP4 has I believe an IGZO screen and the Surface Pro may have improvements there too, even if it is the same size and resolution.

Then there are all the other components, the RAM that needs power and constant refreshing, the WiFi and Bluetooth radios, the SSD with its own processor and memory which is constantly doing work in the background, the touch and pen sensing panel which is also on all the time etc. etc.

So don't get too hung up on the CPU, the battery life is a combination of many things.

 

[Shrave]

So would you say a larger SSD and 16gb of ram would hurt battery life a bit?

 

[Sparro]

Microsoft's claims of 13.5 hours of battery life are based on the i5. This should answer your question. If the i7 had the same battery life Microsoft would have stated that.

 

[Wevenhuis]

Does anyone know if microsoft is considering releasing another power cover?

 

[convergent]

I'm looking to purchase the new Surface Pro. I've been debating between the i5 and the i7 models. Assuming a user performs the same tasks on both models, would the battery life be the same or would the i7 drain the battery faster as it is more powerful? Would bigger SSD sizes also drain batter faster? Again, I assume the user is performing the same tasks on both models.

Given this review, the i5 is getting better battery life and running cooler vs. the i7 (by quite a bit). And the i5 also appears to be a screamer performance wise! I'm quite happy with the silent wonder! -> https://www.windowscentral.com/surface-pro-2017-core-i5-review

 

[onlysublime]

it's not an apples to apples comparison. if you were to lock the i7 to the same frequencies as the i5, it will get the same battery life. in that benchmark where they're looping tasks continuously, if the i7 completed 1.5X the number of tasks because it can run at higher clock frequencies, then of course it will run the battery down faster. but then again, if your boss says that as soon as you finish your task, you can go home and you finish the task with the i7 at 2PM rather than 5PM with the i5, I think the fact that you finished your job faster makes a greater difference than if the i5 lasted longer on battery life.

 

[StaticFX]

Not to mention it states "If you can afford the Core i7 model the performance is better...." so its not saying the i7 is no good, its just saying the new i5 is much better than the old i5.