How to save the battery of my Surface 3?

[FAHMI BASSEM]

Last week my VAIO's battery died, got killed by my bad usage
I decided to learn more about batteries!!, found something interesting:
How does limiting a laptop battery's full charge to less than 100% extend its battery life? - Super User

Is this applicable to my Surface3??

 

[xandros9]

Tools like that to manually adjust battery percentage stuff are usually made by the manufacturer for their computers like Sony's tools in that post and Lenovo's power manager for their ThinkPads.

Microsoft doesn't have that for their Surfaces. Although batteries are still managed smartly in any modern device and those tools are more rare than not.

Well here's what I have to say about your situation.

1. Batteries go south and age all the time. Your laptop's battery may have had some underlying issues contributing to its demise, you may just have had bad luck, etc.

2. Replacement batteries are a thing and if the VAIO had a removable one like most less-new ones, you can remove the battery when plugged into A/C for a while. (which I recommend) Could probably buy a spare too.

3. What I'm really worried about is that the Surface's are notoriously hard to repair. When, not if, your 3's battery wears out whether by heat, usage, age, or any other combination it will be very difficult, if not downright impossible or impractical to replace. (and if you don't want to DIY, it'll be expensive.)

 

[3earnhardt3]

Most battery practices will negligibly save your battery. The single best piece of advice is to unplug the damn thing. Don't leave it plugged in after you are done using or when the battery is charged. Try to run it off battery for as long as you can before using it while charging. Charging cycles kill batteries, and it doesn't matter what type of battery it is. So if you charge your tablet after every use, instead of after a near complete discharge, you will hit the battery's cycle limit much faster. If you take care of your battery it should naturally lose 20% capacity every 300 or so charges.

 

[xandros9]

Most battery practices will negligibly save your battery. The single best piece of advice is to unplug the damn thing. Don't leave it plugged in after you are done using or when the battery is charged. Try to run it off battery for as long as you can before using it while charging. Charging cycles kill batteries, and it doesn't matter what type of battery it is. So if you charge your tablet after every use, instead of after a near complete discharge, you will hit the battery's cycle limit much faster. If you take care of your battery it should naturally lose 20% capacity every 300 or so charges.

On the contrary, batteries don't like discharging to near zero and charging back up a lot either. Leaving it plugged in means it'll just stop charging and slowly bounce between 95-100% (depending on device and configuration) and is generally safe.

 

[3earnhardt3]

On the contrary, batteries don't like discharging to near zero and charging back up a lot either. Leaving it plugged in means it'll just stop charging and slowly bounce between 95-100% (depending on device and configuration) and is generally safe.

We will have to agree to disagree here. I did want to clear up though that no one should discharge to "near zero". Windows 10 warns you at 20% and then pretty much forces shutdown at 6%. I usually plug my devices in at 10% or so. I have three of these Surface 3 devices, two used as laptop replacements, and one in a dock that is almost never unplugged. You want to take a guess which one of the 3 has half the battery life of the others?

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

Kinda confused, I've read some articles on web, all suggests a consistent cycle + try to avoid huge drop or ups in %

Can you please explain more.