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ShaunAFC3

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 28, 2016
171
49
Hey everyone i have had my Surface Pro 4(i5/8GB of RAM/256GB of storage) for over 4 months now and recently have been using it a lot more now in the past 2 weeks and the battery life so far is alright, I am getting about 3 to 4 hours of battery life in terms of on screen time and on stand by the Surface Pro 4 battery when fully charged can last for weeks on sleep mode which it is great. :D

Usage wise i have only been using my Surface Pro 4 for things like web browsing, watching videos, playing old classic games like The Simpsons: Hit & Run, The Incredibles, etc and backing up my Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone and my iPad Air 2(on iTunes) and transferring files like videos on to my iPad Air 2 on iTunes and have the screen brightness at about 50% or 25% sometimes with the Bluetooth off and so yeah nothing to demanding on the CPU.

I am quite happy with the battery life but i would really like the battery life to be a bit longer especially screen on time, So i don't have to charge it every single time when i use the Surface Pro 4 but a least the battery life is much better and last longer then my old 11.6 inch Acer Windows 8 tablet which had a i5 core CPU in it as well!! :D

But in my head/mind, I kind of wish that i waited for the new Surface Pro 2017 model because i have heard from lots of tech reviews and users that the battery life is so much more better then the Surface Pro 4 and that the battery life is almost on par with the iPads but at the same time at the time that i got the Surface Pro 4, i thought there would not be a new Surface Pro for a least 6 months to a year based on the internet rumours at the time of my purchase of my Surface Pro 4 and plus the new Surface Pro 2017 i5 core model is fanless as well unlike my Surface Pro 4 i5 model have to have fans which i don't really mind but to be honest the new Surface Pro 2017 i5 model is the better and near perfect device for then the Surface Pro 4 because of the better battery life and the i5 core model is fanless!!!

Anyway i still really like my Surface Pro 4, It is a great and awesome Windows 10 2-1 hybrid tablet and i am not looking sell it and get the new Surface Pro 2017 i5 model in anyway shape or form. :)


But i am wondering how to get better/longer battery life on my Surface Pro 4?? How to get 5 to 6 hours of screen time?? Any good and valid tips?? How much battery life are you getting with your Surface Pro 4??

Since i have the i5 core model, It might not be possible to get better/longer battery life on my Surface Pro 4...... :/

Typed this whole thread on the Surface Pro 4 Blue Type Cover haha!!! :D
 
Last edited:

convergent

macrumors 68040
May 6, 2008
3,034
3,083
First off, you'll probably get more suggestions on a Surface oriented forum than in a Mac forum. Message me if you need suggestions, or just search for "surface pro forum".

I tried a Surface Pro 4 for the return period a few months back, and then decided to wait for the new one, which I've now had for a month. The battery life on the 2017 Surface Pro is a lot better. I was on a business trip this week and intentionally didn't plug it in and made it through a whole day of interview meetings taking pen based notes, and then doing other work in Office between them. I am getting 8+ hours of what you called screen time.

I do have the fanless i5 model, and its great. It feels to me like it runs cooler than the Surface Pro 4 with same specs. The only time I feel it getting warm at all is when its plugged in charging. My understanding is that the i7 model's fan is also nearly silent.

The one tip I would give you is to hit the battery icon in the task bar and set it to the far left "Best Battery Life" mode, if on battery. You'll have to be the judge on whether you are happy with that mode. I don't see any real performance change for what I'm doing, but it does turn off things like auto update on Mail and such, and the screen brightness is a little lower. But its so bright anyways, that I don't find this brightness a problem, even in a well lit conference room.

Other than that, I think you just want to be a bit miserly with your apps... turn things off you don't need, and if you don't need WiFi then turn that off too. I had heard that people got more battery life than you are getting on the SP4... more like 5 hours. So you are doing something to drain it faster if you are only getting 3.
 
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