Bad battery life

[kuau]

I am on my second Surface 2 and I am still only getting about 6.5 hours of continuous use.
I heard a rumor that one should leave on Blue Tooth.. is this true?
Yes I have done all the updates, patches etc. I primarily use the Surface for Web browsing, email, and you tube. So of course a lot of WiFi use.
I have my screen brightness at 50%
Are there any other suggestions or tips for better battery life?
Does the Surface Pro 2 actually get battery life?
Thanks
Steven

 

[oion]

It wouldn't hurt to try the bluetooth trick (turn on if wifi is on).

In my own tests, 100% Youtube usage got me well over 8 hours, but my screen brightness is usually between 35%-40%. You might try just lowering screen brightness and see how much that gets you; the screen is typically the biggest power hog of any mobile device.

 

[kristalsoldier]

It wouldn't hurt to try the bluetooth trick (turn on if wifi is on).

In my own tests, 100% Youtube usage got me well over 8 hours, but my screen brightness is usually between 35%-40%. You might try just lowering screen brightness and see how much that gets you; the screen is typically the biggest power hog of any mobile device.

And, do you leave BT on as a regular thing?

 

[oion]

And, do you leave BT on as a regular thing?

Er, mine is actually off since I don't have any BT devices. I figure since I got decent battery figures in my own usage (since my screen brightness is significantly lower than 50%), I don't need to see if I can tweak it further. Jeff mentioned in another thread that the BT/wifi is on the same chip-module-thing, so maybe they do work more efficiently if the whole thing is on/off, but that's speculation.

 

[kuau]

Thanks for the tips.
I will try dropping my screen brightness down to 40% see if I see any difference.
What's really bothering me is since I don't have the KB, I just use the on screen keyboard, which is fine for me, on some sites including wpcentral.com
If I try to do a post on that site using Metro IE11, which is what I always use, never go into desktop mode, The keyboard pops up for a second then disappears. So I can't post on that site using the on board keyboard. I have had the same issue on other forums, though on this forum it works perfect.
Not sure what the problem is.
Any ideas?

Steven

 

[FFX]

Someone here told me Bluetooth is a vital part of connected standby, so it should be active all the time. And yes it will improve you battery life.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Someone here told me Bluetooth is a vital part of connected standby, so it should be active all the time. And yes it will improve you battery life.

Iwondr why is BT so essential for connected standby. Can you provide a link to the post or any other information related to this?

 

[FFX]

Cant remember where this was stated. But from my personal experience, when doing battery reports on my Surface RT. Every time Bluetooth was off my Surface RT had trouble entering and staying in connected stand by, having high CPU activity which drained my battery fast.

 

[jnjroach]

I'm responsible for that line if thinking here, based on looking at Reliability Report and Battery Reports, there was also the confirmed bug in the Beta by Microsoft as stated in the Official Support Forums.

 

[kristalsoldier]

I'm responsible for that line if thinking here, based on looking at Reliability Report and Battery Reports, there was also the confirmed bug in the Beta by Microsoft as stated in the Official Support Forums.

But now does it matter if BT is on or off? I thought the latest firmware updates did something for the battery life.

 

[oion]

I'm responsible for that line if thinking here, based on looking at Reliability Report and Battery Reports, there was also the confirmed bug in the Beta by Microsoft as stated in the Official Support Forums.

A bug that wasn't fixed from the first generation...go figure. Guess I'll turn my BT on just because it wouldn't hurt to have more battery life even with my own usage. I'm pretty close to buying the BT adapter for the keyboard, though, so there's that...

But now does it matter if BT is on or off? I thought the latest firmware updates did something for the battery life.

The latest firmware patch was supposed to do that, yes, though I haven't tested it; I suppose the thinking is that if your battery life is already posting decent numbers with the BT off (wifi on), it's just up to you if you want to try the tweak. If your battery life is not posting decent numbers for what you need, then tweak away.

 

[kristalsoldier]

A bug that wasn't fixed from the first generation...go figure. Guess I'll turn my BT on just because it wouldn't hurt to have more battery life even with my own usage. I'm pretty close to buying the BT adapter for the keyboard, though, so there's that...



The latest firmware patch was supposed to do that, yes, though I haven't tested it; I suppose the thinking is that if your battery life is already posting decent numbers with the BT off (wifi on), it's just up to you if you want to try the tweak. If your battery life is not posting decent numbers for what you need, then tweak away.

Well... yes. The only reason that I am balking to turn on the BT radio is because I have noticed that when I do turn it on since there are no BT devices to connect to, it keeps searching. I thought that continually searching for a connection raises the transaction cost of using BT, which has a negative fallout on the power drawn to search, which ultimately impacts battery life. I could be wrong on this though.