Surface 2 Batttery Life

[borka105]

I've noticed that my battery life with my surface has not been what I expected. What I didn't know was whether it was based on my usage, or whether it was an issue with the battery life.

I've gone ahead and run a battery report and it points to how my full charge capacity is greater than the design capacity. This looks good to me. But when I look at my current estimated battery life, it shows that my surface is only producing a little over 6 hours of usage. Should I be concerned? Here is a paste of that statistic below:

Current estimate of battery life based on all observed drains since OS install

Since OS install 6:11:31
275:31:40
6 % / 16 h 6:07:46
272:44:52
6 % / 16 h

Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to return my surface because physically it is perfect, but the performance seems off to me.

Thanks

 

[kristalsoldier]

Are you getting a little over 6 hours of battery life during your normal usage?

 

[itsmeagain]

Can you upload the full battery report? Or can you tell me how much mwh it is at design capacity? I have also a topic about this, it's called 'please check your battery report'. I have a bit the same problem as you do.

 

[borka105]

Yes, based on the battery report it has been consistent since the day I got my Surface.

I can't seem to upload the html file or in word. How do I upload for you to view?


Thanks.

 

[oion]

Did you ever actually run your battery down from full to auto-shutdown (or below 10% as MS says)? This is supposed to calibrate the battery and is recommended procedure; MS says once a month, though I tend to do that every couple months.

 

[kristalsoldier]

This is something I recently came across and while it may tangentially apply to the OP, can other Surface 2 users confirm this experience?

See here: How to Prevent Surface RT (Surface 2?) Device from - Microsoft Community

On my part, I have notice a slight drain when my Surface 2 is on Connected Standby, but that is naturally to be expected - nature of the beast. But I have not really noticed a drop in battery charge when I actually shut down the device (which I usually don't do).

The other thing is that recently - say since Dec 12, I have noticed a slightly faster drain of the battery on my Surface within my normal workflow. Let's say that reduction that I am noticing is around 10-15%. Nothing really significant but enough for me to notice.

 

[borka105]

According to the battery report I am consistently seeing 6 hours of battery life since day one. What is odd though is the fact that it says my battery health is fine (at least that is my interpretation). I'd like to upload here for someone to read and interpret. Any recommendations on how to upload a html file here?


Here is a bit more of a copy & paste of my battery report:


AT FULL CHARGE AT DESIGN CAPACITY
PERIOD ACTIVE CONNECTED STANDBY ACTIVE CONNECTED STANDBY
2013-11-07 - 2013-11-14 - - - -
2013-11-14 - 2013-11-21 5:57:07 286:50:01
6 % / 16 h 5:54:47 284:57:29
6 % / 16 h
2013-11-21 - 2013-11-28 6:05:48 268:41:46
6 % / 16 h 6:01:30 265:31:54
6 % / 16 h
2013-11-28 - 2013-12-05 5:59:58 353:10:42
5 % / 16 h 5:57:21 350:36:47
5 % / 16 h
2013-12-06 5:31:12 368:23:10
4 % / 16 h 5:28:48 365:41:55
4 % / 16 h
2013-12-07 6:25:01 179:33:29
9 % / 16 h 6:21:53 178:05:44
9 % / 16 h
2013-12-08 5:55:33 268:59:22
6 % / 16 h 5:51:48 266:09:27
6 % / 16 h
2013-12-09 7:06:08 365:46:12
4 % / 16 h 7:01:16 361:35:15
4 % / 16 h
2013-12-10 5:27:23 341:05:37
5 % / 16 h 5:24:37 338:12:29
5 % / 16 h
2013-12-11 5:02:30 243:36:38
7 % / 16 h 4:59:44 241:22:54
7 % / 16 h
2013-12-12 4:52:26 175:45:30
9 % / 16 h 4:49:58 174:16:38
9 % / 16 h
2013-12-13 6:56:25 183:59:44
9 % / 16 h 6:52:08 182:05:55
9 % / 16 h
2013-12-14 6:26:30 247:47:17
6 % / 16 h 6:21:40 244:41:32
7 % / 16 h
2013-12-15 8:37:51 378:54:03
4 % / 16 h 8:32:17 374:49:44
4 % / 16 h
2013-12-16 6:06:04 186:22:29
9 % / 16 h 6:01:23 183:59:37
9 % / 16 h

 

[itsmeagain]

you can't upload a html file here, but you can upload a zip file (you can create a zip file with Peazip PeaZip | Free Zip files utility, free Rar files extractor ) when it's installed, you can click with the right mouse button on the html file, and you will be able to 'archive' it. when you do that, you can create a zip file which you can upload here.

 

[borka105]

Thanks for the help. Here is my batter report. Can you please take a look and see if you agree with my observation that the battery is healthy, but the amount of battery life I am getting is low.

 

[itsmeagain]

No problem. I looked in your battery report and your battery comes from a different manufacturer than my surface 2. Your capacity seems still to be normal, but it is indeed a short battery life.
It could be the way you use it, because when I looked into your battery-report I saw different drain rates: from 1% in 2-3 minutes to 1% in 5 minutes and some in between. Maybe if you turn the screen brightness to 30-35% that your surface 2 can be used longer. Turning bluetooth off could also help. When you use and you really want to fully close it, you have to swipe it down and wait until the tile turns and then you can take your finger off the screen because the app is fully closed then. It could also be an app that you use that drains the energy because it's bad programmed or because it uses a lot of resources from your surface 2 I hope this helped.

itsmeagain

 

[borka105]

No problem. I looked in your battery report and your battery comes from a different manufacturer than my surface 2. Your capacity seems still to be normal, but it is indeed a short battery life.
It could be the way you use it, because when I looked into your battery-report I saw different drain rates: from 1% in 2-3 minutes to 1% in 5 minutes and some in between. Maybe if you turn the screen brightness to 30-35% that your surface 2 can be used longer. Turning bluetooth off could also help. When you use and you really want to fully close it, you have to swipe it down and wait until the tile turns and then you can take your finger off the screen because the app is fully closed then. It could also be an app that you use that drains the energy because it's bad programmed or because it uses a lot of resources from your surface 2 I hope this helped.

itsmeagain

Is it not odd though that my battery's actual capacity is greater than the design capacity?

The drain rates are pretty insane. I'll literally start using it with just IE and it will drop by 1-2% right away. My screen brightness is usually at 50%, but I've turned off auto brightness because it is annoying/ distracting.

I am thinking along the lines of what you are saying, but I still can't figure out the culprit. I always permanently close down the apps, and I don't have more than 3-4 apps running. I am usually just running IE and Facebook/Twitter and the News App.



I find it odd that my battery like is a good 40-50% less than what they are advertising.

 

[itsmeagain]

Except for the screen brightness I see no reason why the battery is draining that quick sometimes. For the design capacity and actual capacity it's possible that they are a bit strange behaving, I saw on xda forums that people were reporting that. I also have that strange drain when I start IE, have you many tabs opened?
Maybe you could try to put the screen brightness on 30-35% just to check if it really longers the battery life.

You can also contact the surface support: Microsoft Surface support | Surface help and how-to | Surface setup and troubleshooting
They helped me really good when I had troubles with my surface 2.