Battery life of i7

[astondg]

Does any one have any idea how the Core i7 will impact battery life? In its favour, under low loads (like watching a video), I think there is not much difference in power consumption between an i5 and i7? And Microsoft calls the i7 thermal design 'hybrid' which makes me wonder if it runs with the fan off sometimes and only turns it on under high loads?

On the other side if the fan is always running then that's an extra draw and some people are saying that the i5 gets a bigger battery (i.e. using the space where the i7's fan would be) - although I'm skeptical of this.

I ask because I really want the i5, and the battery life and lack of fan would be great for my personal use, but unfortunately I need 16GB of RAM for my work so if I get a Surface Pro then I have to get the i7.

 

[anon(5327127)]

Suggestion: As there's currently zero reviews out there, which will hopefully arrive asap, maybe wait for a review which should answer all of your questions.

Core i5 vs Core i7. The i7 'should', possibly, finish tasks faster which may mean improved battery life. It's all down to the task. Plus, with a fan, the i7 might be able to maintain a higher turbo which might blow the i5 out of the water for performance.

P.s. You've partly answered your own question. If you HAVE to have 16Gb ram then you have to buy the i7 (For now based on what we DO know).

 

[astondg]

P.s. You've partly answered your own question. If you HAVE to have 16Gb ram then you have to buy the i7 (For now based on what we DO know).

I do have to get the 16GB IF I get a Surface Pro. But based on the battery life I might not get a SP.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the reviews. I was just hoping to lock in a pre-order in the next few days while I can still get education pricing. I was hoping someone might have some insider info.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Aldrich Uyliong]

Based on the launch video, where the fan is on the i7 model is where the LTE module has been placed in the fanless ones. It immediately made me wonder if the i7 models get LTE too.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I do have to get the 16GB IF I get a Surface Pro. But based on the battery life I might not get a SP.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the reviews. I was just hoping to lock in a pre-order in the next few days while I can still get education pricing. I was hoping someone might have some insider info.
Thanks for the help.

I'm curious, what process do you run that needs you to have 16GB RAM? I've run various software before and the most RAM used has been by MATLAB and affinity photo, about 4GB each

 

[convergent]

My opinion is that the difference in battery usage for similar tasks between i5 and i7 is negligible ... less than 10%, with the i7 using more. That is based on comparisons of other machines where the only difference was the processor. But with the i5 being fanless and the i7 not... my guess would be that would make the i7 use even more. I still think it will be pretty negligible.

 

[astondg]

I'm curious, what process do you run that needs you to have 16GB RAM? I've run various software before and the most RAM used has been by MATLAB and affinity photo, about 4GB each

Docker. I need to run several images as part of my software development environment and I need to allocate it 8GB of its own to get the best performance, then I need to run my IDE & Chrome on top of that.

My SP3 has it's 8GB maxed out most of the time and is paging to the SDD.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Docker. I need to run several images as part of my software development environment and I need to allocate it 8GB of its own to get the best performance, then I need to run my IDE & Chrome on top of that.

My SP3 has it's 8GB maxed out most of the time and is paging to the SDD.

An ordinary laptop with high end specs might do a better job at that rather than depending on a premium device like the surface pro

 

[astondg]

An ordinary laptop with high end specs might do a better job at that rather than depending on a premium device like the surface pro

I don't think I can go back to a laptop after my Surface Pro 3

The device I get will be my only computer for both work and home use so I want something nice to use at home too.

Also the company issued device is an i5 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM, so a Surface Pro with the same specs should do the job just as well.

 

[onlysublime]

the 13.5 hours is playing a video at medium brightness. under those conditions, the i7 will get the same battery life.

under more strenuous conditions, the i7 will outrun the i5 and use more battery in the process. speed costs energy. not only will the CPU require more electricity under load, it will also activate the fan system which will also drain battery. however, for people that need the power, it's worth it. I love my i7 SP4's. I would've loved to have 16 GB but it was outside the budget at the time.

There's another factor that's glossed over. The new Surface Pro has a bigger battery. It's not that much bigger but bigger is bigger. 42 Wh versus 39 Wh. Kaby Lake will help in that it fixes the bugs of Skylake. Remember that Skylake was the first revision and the Surface Pro 4 was one of the first machines to have Skylake and had to suffer sleep and power problems with Skylake. Microsoft and Intel have had to release numerous patches and firmware updates to get Skylake to a mature state.

 

[astondg]

the 13.5 hours is playing a video at medium brightness. under those conditions, the i7 will get the same battery life.

If that's the case then the i7 sounds perfect. I'm ok with using more battery when I'm doing CPU intensive stuff (i.e. my day job), but if it can get very similar battery life to the i5 when doing basic tasks (i.e. when I'm at home) then that's exactly what I want.

 

[GG002]

Even if I'd get 'only' 9-10 hours with the i7, I'd still take the i7 because of Intel Iris pro...
I mean, I've been pretty fine with the 5-6 hours I get from my nearly 3-year old SP3.