Surface Duo 2 Battery vs. Duo

[GraniteStateColin]

I know the Duo 2 has a bigger battery than Duo 1, but it seems to me to drain much more quickly, like 1% every 2 minutes while playing a game (3 hours to 0%). This is not a 3D game, just a simple 2D casual game like Plants vs. Zombies 2. Other activities seem OK (not sure yet if they're better or worse than Duo 1, but game play seems to be much worse). Could this be normal and just a consequence of the 90Hz screen refresh? Is there any way to drop this back to 60Hz when on battery and only use 90Hz when plugged in?

Has anyone else had this experience? Might I just have a weak battery, not dead, but weak, and maybe I should seek a replacement Duo 2 while it's under warranty? Or is it just the case that with 90Hz refresh rate, games will always suck the battery down faster than Duo 1, even with the larger battery?

I did let it run the battery completely down to 0 until the Duo turned itself off, then recharged it fully to see if that would fix anything (sometimes batteries get confused and don't realize how much life they have left until run all the way down), but that had no effect.

 

[Gayle Lynn]

I charged it to 100% last night before bed, unplugged, in the m it was down to 80%. At first I thought it was better, better than my first Duo, bought recently. So yes it is not good. No games but use it all day for casual use.

The charger from the OSD I had a pop up notification that it wasn't charging properly. Now using an Anker 40W dual ports. My Duo 1 was getting 40°C+ during charging during first weak according to Gsam battery pro. Good app. Scary. But not with SD2.

I'm trying to return but option on order page is not available.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

I charged it to 100% last night before bed, unplugged, in the m it was down to 80%. At first I thought it was better, better than my first Duo, bought recently. So yes it is not good.

Gayle, sorry, not sure I understand: are you saying it is better or worse than your original Duo?


I know there's a whole bell curve to battery life -- there is natural variation between how long the batteries last. You can get lucky and get a really good battery or get a unlucky and get a not-so-great battery. That's true for all phones.

In my case, maybe I had a really good one for the original Duo -- even after a full day's use, it always had a lot of juice left for me. If that's combined with a mediocre to slightly poor batter on Duo 2, I could be just in the minority of users who will naturally have less battery life with Duo 2 than Duo 1.

On the other hand, battery life when I'm not using the screen (e.g., phone is on, apps running in background, but phone is closed in my pocket) seems really good, maybe better than the Duo 1. So I'm specifically wondering if there are any additional recommended steps to preserve battery life with running apps. That's also why I suspect it may be apps like games that really push the 90 fps display. Is there any way to turn that off, back down to 60Hz? Does Battery Saver do that?

Thanks,
Colin

 

[Gayle Lynn]

The SD2 as of now is worse.

The SD1 went down 7% overnight from 100 to 93%
The SD2 went from 100 to 79%

The SD1 was overheating during first week, maybe bit longer. Anything over 37° and it would hit 40-41 rather a lot consistently.

In the past I used something other than Gsam but can't find or remember the name that showed charging data. Wish I had that now.

I wanted to give the Duo 2 a couple of weeks to settle down. But I do think it has gotten worse. Depleting overnight did not happen at first. I'm almost certain.

Normally I prefer waiting 6 months, even or especially with Apple, to let IOS catch up and to discover hardware and manufacturing bugs. Or if it's going to be another Note 7. This time I pre-ordered because I was happy with SD1.

Hope that helps.

The only thing to do seems to be reset and a clean install, no restore. I wanted to do that later with 12L but that could be April at this rate.

 

[Gayle Lynn]

I went and disabled develooer mode setting for always on when plugged, shouldn't be an issue but. Also recently installed Verizon Call Filter, worked on OSD but won't even allow signup and it keeps trying even in background spinning it's wheels. Uninstalled apps rarely used and might be questionable file manager. When I transferred and restored, I included some Samsung apps, support plug-ins for all the Galaxy bud members and watch (never use).

So far looks much better, on both SD's. If I am social media like Twitter along with Edge browser, is 10% per hour normal? Seems so on all platforms, iPad and Android. I don't think there is an issue or anything to be too concerned with, except Verizon. Both SDs are setup identically, helps to look for issues and as backups.

 

[GraniteStateColin]

10% per hour sounds reasonable if you're actively using the Duo. Of course, retaining cellular connectivity (not on a call, just pinging the towers) can be a huge drain if you're down below about 3 bars. The phone will dramatically increase it's wattage output to retain connection, which crushes the battery, even if the screen is off. This is easy to test by putting the phone in airplane mode and seeing if the battery loss remains roughly unchanged. With a strong cell signal, it won't change much. With a weak signal batter drain difference should be significant.

 

[Gayle Lynn]

I switched to Verizon hoping for better coverage over AT&T. Still seeing 1 bar.

I need to turn off cellular Sunday to see it's impact. My SD1 doesn't have sim so one reason it does better at times. At least now I can put it down and when I check later only down a few points.