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Surface 2 battery stress test

laken

New Member
Hi, i would like to know has anyone here tried using SF2 non stop(browsing online, playing FB games and streaming videos, excel editing) and observe how long does the battery perform?

I have recently purchased my SF2 and realized that the battery isnt surviving as long as what some reviews online have praised. Im kinda regretting choosing this over ASUS T100.

I have to say that SF2 looks gorgeous and nothing beats its FHD 1080p screen but the battery life has been bothering me for the past 1 week. =(

I get about 20-25% drain per hour doing the above mentioned tasks. Is it normal?

Your advises are kindly appreciated!! =)
 
Hi, my only complaint about S2 is, you guessed it... battery life :)

I get about seven hours in general, but only 5-6 hours under more intensive use (loading pages and streaming video). I am also confused by some reviewers who say they get consistently 10 hours of battery life. On the other side, there are reports like mine and yours...

Regarding Asus T100... I am using it on my work for app testing purpopses, and I can tell you this: I'd take Surface 2, even Surface RT, over T100 any day. T100 has really bad screen, low end cheap plastic, cramped keyboard... Not even close :)
 
Well...there are a couple of things to keep in mind about the Surface 2. First, apparently, the Surface 2 has been optimized for playing videos - note - playing videos - not streaming videos. This means, you either have the videos on the internal drive or on the SD card. According to MS, if you do this, you should get about 10 hours of battery life. I have never tried this, so, can't comment. Second, I am not so sure the Surface 2 has been optimized for web activities - browsing, streaming etc. Strange, I know, but there it is. I have a reason for making this assertion. Take a look at the two links below. The first one is about the Surface 2 and the second is about the Surface Pro 3 (yes, the one that is going to be released on June 20th).

Surface 2: Surface 2- The 10 inch tablet with Office (Look under battery life - it clearly says: "Up to 10 hours video playback"

Surface Pro 3: Surface Pro 3 - The tablet that can replace your laptop. (Again look under battery life - it clearly says: "Up to 9 hours of web browsing"

Notice the difference? From this I conclude that the Surface 2 is not really web-optimized, while counter-intuitively, the Surface Pro 3 is (I am not complaining, I am intending to buy one as soon as the device hits the store shelves!).

That said, I currently use the Surface 2 (RT) for the following purposes: (1) Office (primarily Word and Powerpoint); (2) Mail, Calendar (I use the Modern UI App not Outlook) with 2 accounts checking mail as it arrives and with notifications on; (3) Browsing (I most often use the Modern UI version of IE) - usually, I have about 3 tabs open when I am browsing - the sites I frequent have a lot of flash content etc.; (4) Flipboard - occasionally; (5) Bing Recipes - very occasionally; (6) Weather app - this is always on; (7) Plex - occasionally; I also use a few other apps like Currency Converter, Here/ Bing Maps, Calculator etc. from time to time. But I do remember to fully close them - by dragging the app window down and waiting for it to flip over - when I finish with them. Brightness is at about 40% with Adaptive Lighting enabled. Camera is off, BT is off, WIFI is on when I am using it or when I am at work or at home. In transit, if I remember, I put it on flight mode though I should mention that I usually also have the tethering facility on my phone on and when there are gaps in my WIFI coverage (for example if I am moving around) then the device is connected to my phone.

With this profile, in about 8 hours, I find the battery level dropping down to somewhere between 35-40%. I have noticed that the days when I am doing a lot of web-centric work, the battery levels are lower, which kind of confirms my speculation as mentioned above.

Again, I think MS should have optimized the Surface 2 for web browsing/ web-related stuff, but there you have it!
 
Thanks for the sharing roger and kristal.
I do believe that turning off BT and Wifi helps in prolonging the battery life after trying to watch an hour video which only depletes 9% of my battery.

Initially i was expecting to see an 10 full hours of usage not noticing that the claims made by MS is only for "10 hours of video playback". Maybe Tegra 4 isnt optimize for 10 full hours of web browsing.

Same sentiments Roger, when i physically picked up the demo set of S2 and did a comparison with T100, S2 just give me the good vibe about it. I mean the form factor, texture of the tablet and the elegance are so convincing to justify for the price difference over T100. Although i did rant about the costly type cover but overall i feel like im carrying a premium product just like a macbook air. I like the front camera as well because the quality is great for skyping. =)

Hope MS can release new updates which can optimize the battery life for web browsing(without 'surfacing' new problems)
 
Yes, it is clearly optimised for playing video, I have noticed this too. Playing video is the only task that can give me 10+ hours of battery life.

Having said that, it is a bit dissapointing to see that even SP2 gets longer battery life than S2 in general. After all, we agreed to compromises that ARM processors introduce (no desktop programs) to have longer battery life :)

Ah, waiting for Surface 3 (ARM)...
 
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As I have recently posted, I can get just over 8 hours of productive continuous or accumulated time with MS Word + PDF reader with split screen on a full charge for the Surface 2. You all confirmed my experience. I'm really wanting that Power Cover now, since I'd like not to carry the charger to plug in to maintain power.

Has anyone have the Power Cover on the Surface 2? I'm curious to know how much longer it really gives than the stated 70% MS claims it can give.
 
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