Heat, Battery, and the coming i3

[Seneleron]

Heat is really a subjective thing on these. . .it's not so much the device as the USER.

Best ackronym EVER: PEBKAC [problem exists between keyboard and chair]

Which means you have to take every review with a grain of salt, ESPECIALLY the nasty negative ones. You don't know if they decided they were too good for antivirus and some random malware decided to hijack their run cycles. You don't know what badly written software they've installed, or how they've treated it, loaded it up, gotten questionable or badly coded programs

They ALWAYS say they didn't. EVERYBODY LIES.

For a case in point, I just had a huge issue with my 5Ghz band connection. When I'd boot my SP3, it's get internet briefly and then drop out with "windows cannot detect network proxy settings". Made no sense to me whatsoever, as I don't USE a proxy setting. Started happening right after I installed Java, and disabling java auto updater at startup resolved the issue.

As for heat, It gets warm playing hearthstone and Bejeweled 3 [retail PC version, not modern UI]. I don't run a TON of games in modern UI, but the ones I have messed with didn't get THAT warm.

Battery wise, battery bar usually gives me estimates of 7 hours and change, with screen at 50-55%. I've never done a full battery drain myself, but I've run netflix for 3+ hours and still had more than 50% remaining.

As to your last question, the answer is "probably", but to what extent is unknown. you'd have to look at the difference in power draw between the two processors. I'd be surprised if you saw as much as 30 minutes additional out of the i3, however.

 

[Bandito]

Mine generally does not get very warm with one exception. Whenever I play Microsoft's Solitaire game, it warms right up very quickly. While the game has nice graphics, the screen is mostly static and the only animation occurs when actually moving cards. Nonetheless, it is apparently taxing the GPU enough to get things rather toasty. Not hot enough to cook an egg, mind you, but definitely quite warm or mildly hot.

 

[ipaq_101]

Didn't know this, quoted the article below:

http://blog.laptopmag.com/great-balls-of-fire-the-effects-and-causes-of-laptop-heat

"The amount of heat given off by a component will be the same no matter what notebook it’s used in. The differences from notebook to notebook, however, are based on air and heat flow within the system, the amount of power consumed, and notebook chassis material. While notebooks made from sleek-looking aluminum and other metals are increasingly popular, such systems tend to feel hotter. That’s because of differences in thermo-mechanical properties of the materials, according to Rajiv Mongia, principal engineer for Intel’s Thermal Technologies team. For example, an aluminum chassis will feel hotter to the touch than a plastic chassis of the same temperature.

“The aluminum chassis stores more heat by virtue of its thermal conductivity, its specific heat, and its density,” Mongia said. “So when you touch this aluminum, your hand reaches a temperature closer to that of the aluminum because of this thermal conductivity and the thermal density of the material.”

Manufacturers can cool aluminum skins with good air flow designs and by covering the exterior with less conductive materials. Unfortunately, some poorly cooled systems may rely on the metal surface to help dissipate heat that would otherwise harm internal components.

“A lot of vendors are essentially using their cases as giant heat sinks, which then go to your lap,” Lenovo’s Kohut said. “But when that metal gets hot to the touch, that’s unacceptable.”"

 

[GreyFox7]

I ran a graphics benchmark program to see what heat I could generate. it did warm up but not what id call Hot and not warmer than my MBA gets. also the fan started after a couple minutes but its way quieter then the MBA fan. using a temp probe on the back of the SP3 read 96.1 degrees that was a little crude testing so will repeat with a more precise method later. definitely no egg frying potential.

 

[hughlle]

With regard to heat, i care about it in the sense that it will cause throttling. But in terms of comfort, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. For years I've used tablets that get hot hot hot to the touch, front and back. I just accept it as a result of getting to have such a .overly thin device. With the SP3, I see it as no different. I can even accept the throttling as a compromise. I'd rather an sp3 that throttles to an sp2 that doesn't. My use case means the form factor is a more important factor than the performance increase that can be found on something less streamlined, like the sp2.

 

[MHC48]

I haven't experienced any heat problems with my i5.

 

[malberttoo]

I never once got 8 hours battery. I would go to store, open up a couple apps, and let 5 minutes pass and see the drop. The battery is average if that. You will need to carry your wall charger with you for sure.

I never did either, until I did a full reset/factory restore, wiped all data etc. That was about 2 weeks ago, maybe 3. All the firmware fixes were out by then. Doing the full restore fixed several issues I was having, one of which was battery life.

YMMV.