Average Battery Life for your SP3?

[mattmillerwastaken]

Hi guys,

I'm really loving the mobility and versatility of the Surface Pro 3 but I fear I may have gotten one with a damaged battery.

Microsoft is quoted at 9 hours but among reviews I've read on sites like WPCentral and Win Supersite, it appears that 7 hours is more likely the norm for every day use.

I work in an office and I have connected an external 1920x1080 monitor via Mini Displayport to HDMI. I regularly have Word, Excel, OneNote, Acrobat, Xbox Music, IE 11 and Firefox open. I know that may bog it down a bit, but I don't think I'm getting ANYWHERE near 7 hours of battery. Maybe more like 4.

Do you think this is acceptable since I'm running so many programs or do you think I should take this back to the Microsoft store and ask for a possible exchange? What's your average battery life on your SP3?

Thanks, all!

 

[jameskk1]

Same here. Around 4 hours tops. Screen brightness never above 50%. My only disappointment so far.

 

[mozman68]

I'm sure the 9 hour number is tablet only (no keyboard, monitor, etc.) and web browsing only.

 

[wynand32]

I've been using mine pretty extensively, with and without Type Cover, and I'm getting closer to 6 hours. Maybe more. Also, battery life during the first few days while everything syncs will likely be less than over time, so I've been accounting for that as well.

 

[infinitelurker]

What are you all using for the Power Settings? The default Balanced mode, Power Saver, or something else?

 

[mattmillerwastaken]

I use it at 50% brightness and always with balanced power settings. I plan to do a full battery test tomorrow. I'll reply again paying careful attention to apps, settings and specific times.

 

[SeeVuPlay]

SP3 was taken off the charger at around 7:30 a.m. At 8:00 pm, I had 19%

Useage:

Word document editing/word processing: about 2 hours
Browsing: about 4 hours
Pen/sketching usage: about 1 hours

The rest was connected standby/sleep mode. Brightness is about 80% .Bluetooth and Wifi was on all day with keyboard on 80% of the time. Im fairly happy with the battery performance.

 

[Gken]

Took notes at 75% charge for like 7.5 hours of continuous use. But that was at maybe 20% brightness. Plus light browsing in between and during note taking.

 

[sakai135]

I've noticed that having Chrome running, even in the background, is bad for your battery.

Try running

powercfg /energy

and

powercfg /batteryreport

to see where your battery is going.

 

[mattmillerwastaken]

I don't use Chrome but I'm sure having two other browsers with multiple windows eats up some battery. I'll run one of those to see. Thanks! I'll have to test it on the weekend to see how long light use gets. I'm sure that would be more around 7-10 hours.

 

[houkoholic]

Looking at your list I'd say Firefox would be the first suspect for battery eating process (more so if you are running multiple add-on/extensions). Next would be XBox Music.

 

[Mr. Brown]

Hi guys,

I'm really loving the mobility and versatility of the Surface Pro 3 but I fear I may have gotten one with a damaged battery.

Microsoft is quoted at 9 hours but among reviews I've read on sites like WPCentral and Win Supersite, it appears that 7 hours is more likely the norm for every day use.

I work in an office and I have connected an external 1920x1080 monitor via Mini Displayport to HDMI. I regularly have Word, Excel, OneNote, Acrobat, Xbox Music, IE 11 and Firefox open. I know that may bog it down a bit, but I don't think I'm getting ANYWHERE near 7 hours of battery. Maybe more like 4.

Do you think this is acceptable since I'm running so many programs or do you think I should take this back to the Microsoft store and ask for a possible exchange? What's your average battery life on your SP3?

Thanks, all!

I think your biggest drain is coming from the external monitor. Powering a external monitor requires a bit more cpu cycles.

 

[mattmillerwastaken]

Well, after doing a full test straight through the day, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought:

Unplugged at 100% at 1:30 PM
81% at 2:45 PM
66% at 4:03 PM
50% at 5:15 PM
27% at 6:38 PM
18% at 7:00 PM
10% at 7:32 PM – Turned OFF

Running a 1920x1080 monitor via Mini Displayport – HDMI cable
50% Brightness
Bluetooth Microsoft Wedge Mouse
Attached Cyan Type Cover
2-3 IE Tabs
Xbox Music (All streaming music, no local files)
Word
Excel
OneNote
OneNote (Metro)
Acrobat
Calculator (Metro)

Basically 6 hours with all that attached and running. Not too shabby. Next, I'll test it with light browsing without an external browser. I'm guessing it'll be nearer to 9 hours.

 

[EwingMCSE]

I use it as my laptop replacement at work and a tablet at home. I generally have enough juice for 2 days between charges.
Work Use - OneNote, Word, Excel for 2-3 hours per day
Home Use - Web Browsing and Kind for roughly 1 hour per day