MicroSD Power consumption

[Millstream]

I've ordered the 64/4 version of the Go, it's not yet arrived but I'll look forward to it! Before I use it though, I'm just curious whether having a MicroSD card plugged in will affect the battery life of the Go in a meaningful/substantial way. I'll be trying to get as much battery life out of it as possible, so every variable counts, seeing as I'll be using it for mainly note-taking, and light browsing, and not storing a huge amount of data on it. Thanks!!

 

[HeyCori]

I don't think I've ever seen an SD power consumption comparison, ever. I would highly doubt you'll lose much battery life.

 

[Mike Buckhurst]

It's an interesting theory, my surface pro 4 gets very warm when the micro SD is accessed (likewise the 128GB usb memory chip), heat equals energy consumption, thing is I can't imagine not using it, so I take it as a cost of owning the device both financial and battery life, my go had it's sd card inserted before I powered on for the first time, 128GB onboard is not enough for me, but with a 128gb microsd it's perfect.

 

[Millstream]

I thought it over and I got by with the 64gb model of the Surface 2, so I should be fine with the 64gb Surface Go, no SD card necessary.

Which reminds me of something I remember from using the Surface 2. Whenever I had a USB stick plugged in, it would heat up and drain the battery very quickly, even in standby mode, so much so that the battery would be gone in a day. I'm not sure about how it would treat the microSD (the reader does use a USB interface), but it could have something to do with how Windows treats these storage devices... Seems like it's something interesting to look at

 

[HeyCori]

I thought it over and I got by with the 64gb model of the Surface 2, so I should be fine with the 64gb Surface Go, no SD card necessary.

Which reminds me of something I remember from using the Surface 2. Whenever I had a USB stick plugged in, it would heat up and drain the battery very quickly, even in standby mode, so much so that the battery would be gone in a day. I'm not sure about how it would treat the microSD (the reader does use a USB interface), but it could have something to do with how Windows treats these storage devices... Seems like it's something interesting to look at

Were you also using the USB as additional RAM?

 

[LibbyLA]

Were you also using the USB as additional RAM?

USB cannot be RAM. It is storage.

 

[HeyCori]

USB cannot be RAM. It is storage.

I'm referencing ReadyBoost which I can't remember if it was an option on the Surface 2 or not.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff356869.aspx

 

[Millstream]

Nope, I wasn't using the USB as RAM/ using ReadyBoost. Was just using the USB drive to watch movies off of and left it plugged in afterwards for a while.