Only 8 hours battery on new SP2017 i5 256GB?

[brendanhill]

I bought a SP2017 i5 256 GB last week and I'm getting nowhere near the 13.5 hours battery life expected: I have installed a few development tools on it but nothing which runs on startup or which runs in the background to my knowledge.

Right now:

- Latest update installed
- "Battery saver" mode selected
- Darkest screen mode selected
- Type cover is attached (?)
- Chrome is only application running
- Nothing obviously hogging the CPU

And the prognosis is:

- Both Windows battery bar and BatteryBarPro stay 96% remaining
- BatteryBarPro says 7:49 only hours remaining with a full runtime of only 8:05 - that's 5.5 hours than advertised!

I tried closing Chrome and d/c the type cover and it bought maybe 10 minutes extra on the expected battery time.

Is there a bunch of tricks which get you to the 13.5 hour battery life? Honestly I'd even accept 11-12 hours but the battery life was the reason I bought this thing and it is a big let down. I can't be confident it will get me through the day without lugging the power cord around too. Should I take it back?

 

[lars2206]

The estimated 13.5 hours is video playback - not use of internet or working on the machine. It says so on Microsoft’s website;

Surface Pro:
Up to 13.5 hours of video playback. Testing conducted by Microsoft in April 2017 using preproduction Intel Core i5, 256GB, 8 GB RAM device. Testing consisted of full battery discharge during video playback. All settings were default except: Wi-Fi was associated with a network and Auto-Brightness disabled. Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage, and other factors.

I think around 8 hours of actual use, sounds quite good depending on what you use the machine for.

 

[Jonnny4]

Since the last update I am getting less than 4. So feel lucky. I just reset it too. 4 hours isn't great for all day college classes. It was fine last semester.

 

[Demineerija]

7-8 Is the average i get while browsing on Edge.
I have disabled Turbo boost on battery + Intel Graphics on Max Battery mode with 25% display brightness WI-FI connected.

 

[MBSMD]

I bought a SP2017 i5 256 GB last week and I'm getting nowhere near the 13.5 hours battery life expected: I have installed a few development tools on it but nothing which runs on startup or which runs in the background to my knowledge.

Right now:

- Latest update installed
- "Battery saver" mode selected
- Darkest screen mode selected
- Type cover is attached (?)
- Chrome is only application running
- Nothing obviously hogging the CPU

And the prognosis is:

- Both Windows battery bar and BatteryBarPro stay 96% remaining
- BatteryBarPro says 7:49 only hours remaining with a full runtime of only 8:05 - that's 5.5 hours than advertised!

I tried closing Chrome and d/c the type cover and it bought maybe 10 minutes extra on the expected battery time.

Is there a bunch of tricks which get you to the 13.5 hour battery life? Honestly I'd even accept 11-12 hours but the battery life was the reason I bought this thing and it is a big let down. I can't be confident it will get me through the day without lugging the power cord around too. Should I take it back?

Chrome is a battery hog. It's fast and great, but uses a lot of power. Not sure if there's a good way around that.

Edge is much easier on the battery.

 

[Gamely Lounges]

Demineerija,
If you see this, can you please give us some more details on your settings?
Thanks!

 

[ochhanz]

Demineerija,
If you see this, can you please give us some more details on your settings?
Thanks!

, you change these settings in the change / customize a power plan. Personally I limit the max cpu usage when on battery, makes the device a bit slower (not that noticeable with browsing though) but increases battery life and the device runs cooler (also better for the internal parts).