Terrible battery life of surface pro 4 - do you agree?

[WildKarrde]

I agree that the battery life on my SP4 i5 kinda sucks. I had to drop my CPU to 50%, my display to 15%, and my GPU to minimum performance to get even close to Microsofts claimed all-day battery life. Gaming between classes is a no/go without access to a wall plug. If it weren't for the Qi-Infinity 35000 mAh battery, I would have returned my SP4. I'd be an instant buyer if they released a good power cover for the SP4. I actually waited to buy an SP2 until the power cover was released, and skipped the SP3 because the Power Cover wasn't compatible. The SP4 was a big enough upgrade to coax me over anyway, but the battery life does suck. I need REAL all-day battery life, not theoretical all-day battery life.

 

[snakebitten]

I understand the desire. But a SP4 that actually got 9 hours of battery life using it like many folks do, would not be a SP4. That packaging is almost magic. It's certainly art.

 

[vlad0]

Don't use chrome.

IE11 or Edge (if you can handle it) ..

Either way, Windows 10 is not great when it comes to efficiency.. its worse than Win 8.1. In fact, Win10 acts more like Windows 7 than 8.1 , unfortunately.

 

[Geodude074]

My sleep drain is only 1% per hour now after all he updates. I used to have terrible sleep drain loss, but not anymore. i5/128GB SP4 setup.

That's... that's still pretty terrible. 1% per hour means your device will die in its sleep in 4 days. Compare that to iOS or Android where devices can sleep for weeks before the battery dies.

 

[ttsoldier]

That's... that's still pretty terrible. 1% per hour means your device will die in its sleep in 4 days. Compare that to iOS or Android where devices can sleep for weeks before the battery dies.

Are the IOS /Android devices in the same sleep state? Where it gets notifications etc when sleeping and allows for "instant resume" ?

 

[WildKarrde]

Are the IOS /Android devices in the same sleep state? Where it gets notifications etc when sleeping and allows for "instant resume" ?

I think the answer there is yes... as for notifications and instant resume, etc. I was under the impression that Windows 10's sleep function was inspired by phones.

But the processor in a phone is fundamentally different from an Intel processor, so while you can try to program a sleep mode that is similar... they won't be the same as the end result must be achieved through different means.

This coming from the guy who's never used sleep mode on a PC though, so take it for what it's worth.

 

[enmotio]

On my M3 Surface Pro 4 I stated in a comment earlier that MS Edge is one of the leading factors of battery drain. It always runs the CPU super high. I have noticed this now on all my devices running Win 10 (Vaio laptop, Dell Venue 8 Pro, Surface Pro 4).

Recently (after the big TH2 update) I updated my hosts file with a comprehensive list of all ad sites and such. Since that, Edge rarely uses high CPU. Maybe due to Edge not being able to block ads yet it is constantly churning in the background processing these things?

Not sure, but updating the hosts file has made a HUGE difference, and now I can use Edge as my primary browser without worrying about a battery hit. Not sure about others, but I actually like Edge.

 

[R S]

Had it a few days and been through just one cycle. It was under 4 hours which really surprised me. I did expect something better than that, especially as it is designed as a portable product.

 

[explosive0]

9 Hours of battery life is probably screen set to 30%, battery saver on, Airplane mode, etc. Why does everyone think when ANY company says 9 or 15 hours of battery life they think streaming Netflix (Huge battery drain from pulling data and the app), or playing a game (taxes out the CPU), or having brightness on 70% (thats around 300 nits which is 100% brightness on most laptops. 9 Hours has always been around 5-6 hours of real work, 15 hours has always been around 8-10 hours of real work. Notice the new Dell XPS 13 says 11 hours now instead of the claimed 18 hours of battery life lol. Tell all manufacturers to run the exact same test using the exact same brightness, wifi, bluetooth, brightness (controlled), and anything else that draws power. Otherwise it's all BS isn't it? Since I have owned every Surface and Surface Pro I knew exactly what it was going to do. But since I have owned thousands of laptops I know pretty much what all of them will do based on battery capacity, screen brightness and technology used, power consumption of the processor, RAM, etc..

Actually, when Apple says 9 hours, you typically expect to get 9 hours or more.

 

[badMojo69]

That's a very true statement...hate to admit it.

 

[boltman2013]

Actually, when Apple says 9 hours, you typically expect to get 9 hours or more.

..and on a mobile OS most of those devices sit

 

[new_surfacepro4_user]

Is there any small, lightweight portable external battery which could be used to extend the battery life from about hours to 6-10?

 

[Jan777]

Getting about 4 hours battery life (Surface pro 4, latest Fall update and firmware update, just surfing and watching some videos, edge and chrome. If it doesn't improve in the next update, I will return this device. 4 hours battery life is both unacceptable and abysmal for a premium device in 2015. Apple Macbook Air and iPad 4 have over 10 hours of battery life.

 

[bugelrex]

Getting about 4 hours battery life (Surface pro 4, latest Fall update and firmware update, just surfing and watching some videos, edge and chrome. If it doesn't improve in the next update, I will return this device. 4 hours battery life is both unacceptable and abysmal for a premium device in 2015. Apple Macbook Air and iPad 4 have over 10 hours of battery life.

Can you try disabling Adobe flash in Edge and also uninstalling Flash completely.. see if that makes any difference. Flash is a known battery hog (reason why Apple do not install it on ios)

 

[WildKarrde]

Is there any small, lightweight portable external battery which could be used to extend the battery life from about hours to 6-10?

I use a Qi-Infinity 35000 mAh battery to extend my SP4 i5 to all day usage. It's relatively small and light... about the same as a mid-sized external hard drive. It fits in my smallish computer carrier, along with a bunch of other gear.

 

[smanmit2]

So finally I returned the device. A device costing CANADIAN $1900 not lasting more than five hours is completely disappointing, unacceptable and total lie by Microsoft.

Thank you all for replying to my post.

 

[badMojo69]

Good for you and welcome to the club. Very poor battery life going off Microsoft claims.
If you use the tablet most of the time like a...well tablet I expect it to get tablet like battery life. The consumer should not have to jump through hoops to extend the battery.

 

[chattoe]

The battery life is awful, among other things the device just isn't ready to be sold. Im really disappointed and as much as I loved it I also returned mine.

 

[Nutmegz]

Add me to the returned list. I just couldn't stand the battery life and the sleep/wake issues.

 

[MCube74]

I am getting about 7 hours with my Surface Pro 4 i5 / 256gb/8gb.