Real World Battery Life

[realwarder]

So I have the original Surface RT... but am wondering how the Surface 2 battery lasts.

Reason I ask is that Engadget reported 14 hours but other sites say as low as 6 hours. Quite a difference.

What are people who have this finding is real?

(Perhaps you can post your report summary from the command line: powercfg -batteryreport)

 

[rockstarzzz]

Battery life will always be different and subjective on one's usage patterns and app settings.

 

[jMawl]

I would go with the higher numbers based on my experience. I ran the battery report (thanks for the heads up...I didn't know about that), and the problem with my results is that I don't really use my Surface continuously for any long stretch. I average about 8 hrs a day usage and charge every 1.5-2 days. The only time I used it relatively continuously for a day I got over 14 hrs, but I am almost always at my laptop and have my phone as well and used those intermittently over the same period...anyway, it is really good.

 

[Smg-Uk]

I'm not exactly sure but its a long time and definitely not 6 hours as reported by some "iSites" i can get like a whole days use out of it before having to recharge it.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

I'm starting to wonder if mine is faulty or something. I have yet to get over five or six hours out of the thing.

And this is using it for two things: Instant messaging on Skype and browsing the web. I'm not gaming on it, playing music or anything that should suck battery down so quickly... But I haven't really had a chance to give it a proper all-day use test either.

 

[christenmartin]

I'm starting to wonder if mine is faulty or something. I have yet to get over five or six hours out of the thing.

And this is using it for two things: Instant messaging on Skype and browsing the web. I'm not gaming on it, playing music or anything that should suck battery down so quickly... But I haven't really had a chance to give it a proper all-day use test either.

That don't sound right. you might be on to something with the defective unit. I'm seeing the same as above, charging maybe every1.5 to 2 days. I do use things that tend to suck batteries, remote desktop at work and my son watches videos at in the evening. I would definitely say 14 hrs. Wayyyy better than expected.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

I'm going to use mine all day today and see how it fares... If it doesn't hold up then I'm going to contact Microsoft

 

[christenmartin]

I'm going to use mine all day today and see how it fares... If it doesn't hold up then I'm going to contact Microsoft

Exactly. Like I said my kids watching( streaming) movies for hours at a time and its lasting a day and a half.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

One hour in and 16% of my battery used up... This is pretty much falling in line with that 5-6 hours so far

 

[christenmartin]

I've been on and off mine all morning, down 13% since 830.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

After two hours and twenty minutes I'm down by 34%

This is using it for mostly web browsing (Amazon mostly) with a bit of Netflix and some instant messaging on Skype. My brightness is at around 50%

 

[SwimSwim]

After two hours and twenty minutes I'm down by 34%

This is using it for mostly web browsing (Amazon mostly) with a bit of Netflix and some instant messaging on Skype. My brightness is at around 50%

I think I'm going to have to agree with the consensus that you might have a defective unit, because even my Surface Pro 2 (which should, obviously, be sucking juice at a much faster rate) is getting better battery life.

 

[mcheiron]

After two hours and twenty minutes I'm down by 34%

This is using it for mostly web browsing (Amazon mostly) with a bit of Netflix and some instant messaging on Skype. My brightness is at around 50%

I have very similar values. I thought i might be alone. Did you decide to exchange yours?

 

[Christian Kallevig]

I'm going to call customer service before I decide anything

 

[christenmartin]

I'm going to call customer service before I decide anything

Good idea. I actually paid attention to the battery life the last hour and a half with a video streaming from Netflix and it was approx 10%. That's about right. Extrapolate that out that's about 15 hrs. I'll bet 30 to 45 minutes in my casual error.

 

[Christian Kallevig]

I wonder, do any of you who are getting really exceptional battery life have a MicroSD card in there? If so, have you added its contents to your libraries?

Anyway, since Microsoft Customer Support isn't going to be available till tomorrow I think I'll try doing a factory reset on the thing and reinstall all of the Windows updates. Who knows, maybe it'll do something.

 

[christenmartin]

I don't have a card. I did factory reset on my phone for battery life and it worked. Be honest I did a total reload on my laptop because of sluggishness and it worked. I think that software doesn't load quite right sometimes (90% of battery issues imo) but alot of people are skittish about factory resets. Let us know how it works out and your procedures before and after. That is good info to have.

 

[kingdark485]

I have a new l920 and my battery is poor I just have 3 days with the phone what should I do ?

 

[Christian Kallevig]

Will do!

I don't have anything to lose by doing a reset in this case. The only files I care about are on my MicroSD card and the rest is synched to SkyDrive. So what the heck, it's worth a shot and I've got nothing to lose by trying it.

 

[christenmartin]

I have a new l920 and my battery is poor I just have 3 days with the phone what should I do ?

how poor? Less than 12 hrs heavy use?