Microsoft: Surface Pro Battery Life Half That of Surface RT

[Guest]

Like so much fish kill, M$ Surface Pro floats on an over priced load of crap, for close to macbook AIR prices!

 

[ethanolson]

I need more tech. I might need this. I definitely need a wall-mounted all-in-one with a touch-screen.

 

[bigdragon]

Beats my Core 2 Duo tablet PC that only gets 45 minutes of battery. 3 to 5 hours isn't as good as the competition, but it's good enough for me. I'd actually like it if Microsoft increased the weight and thickness just a bit to accommodate more battery. I need to try it before I buy it though.

 

[pacomac]

Surface RT was always doomed to failure since you can't un existing software. I'm a developer who made a living writing Windows Mobile and now iPad/Android apps. I don't need another ARM based development environment which forces us to write in C# and Silverlight... Android is bad enough forcing you to write in Java. Give me good old fashion low level C and C++ and I might be interested. Windows Surface Pro however will do well once manufacturers drop the price. The Acer W700 looks like an excellent buy with similar specs to the Microsoft tablet, 128Gb, bigger 11.6" screen, 9 hour battery life and a cheaper price.

 

[killerclick]

Hahaha Pro is as dead as RT. Other Windows tablets are not selling either. Bye bye Metro hahaha

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]vmem[/nom]At the end of the day, if it can run a decent x86 app like photoshop with 4hr battery life, that's a HUGE win for microsoft in the business and professionals sector. That aside, I think this thing might be able to run WoW or other MMOs at a lower resolution... this is a big deal because most modern MMOs have daily quests/tasks with decent rewards to promote users to log on daily. obsessive players will get the surface just so they can check in on the run[/citation]

Why would I gimp CS6 on a tablet, that is what my 4.4Ghz Quad core system is for, real work.

 

[killerclick]

[citation][nom]moricon[/nom]Why would I gimp CS6 on a tablet, that is what my 4.4Ghz Quad core system is for, real work.[/citation]

But you can run it on your desktop and on your tablet, you just have to pay... what, $700 for another copy? Why wouldn't you want to do that?

 

[ericburnby]

[citation][nom]zorky9[/nom]When you can finish the job in half the time vs Win RT then the reduced battery life is justified.[/citation]
Please. Faster computers DO NOT increase productivity linearly. Can you type twice as fast? Will your Internet browsing suddenly speed up (at both ends)? Can you read content twice as fast?

There's a very limited group of people (photo or vidro editors, for example) where a faster machine would give a significant boost to productivity. But those people won't be buying a Surface Pro for those tasks.

 

[goodegg]

This is a bizarre product. It's EXACTLY like an ultrabook once you attach the Type Cover, which I'm assuming most people would want to do. Except it gets less battery life than an ultrabook and it costs more. It might be slightly lighter. It might have a slightly better screen. But most ultrabooks shipping with Win8 are touchscreen.

And then there's the deal of "well duh it has less battery life". When the original iPad was released, it had 10 hours of battery. It's been doubled in speed every cycle and even the resolution is 4x more. AND it's been made thinner. Yet, it still boasts the same 10 hour battery life. So I don't accept the battery life excuses. I'm aware we're LITERALLY talking apples to oranges here, but from a design point of view, I just believe that they sacrificed battery life for cramming in more performance than they needed.

 

[Guest]

[And then there's the deal of "well duh it has less battery life". When the original iPad was released, it had 10 hours of battery. It's been doubled in speed every cycle and even the resolution is 4x more. AND it's been made thinner. Yet, it still boasts the same 10 hour battery life. So I don't accept the battery life excuses. I'm aware we're LITERALLY talking apples to oranges here, but from a design point of view, I just believe that they sacrificed battery life for cramming in more performance than they needed.]

There are actually 3 segments of tablets running Windows 8. The bottom segment is the ARM based tablet running RT, which due to CPU advantage has great battery life. The mid segment is the Cedar Trail Atom based tablet running x86 Windows 8, which is said to have around 8-10 hours of battery life from most vendors like HP, Lenovo, Asus etc. Microsoft does not make any Atom based Surface tablet, so interested parties will need to get such device from other vendors. The top segment, is cater for the people who need performance over anything else, it will have the fastest performance over all other tablet classes, but due to current Intel CPU limitations, has much shorter battery life.

Maybe one day Intel will invent a little-big CPU design into their high end CPU, with one CPU having lower performance but extremely power efficient, couple with another normal high performance CPU. Users can opt to switch which CPU they want to use on the fly, so you can get that 10 hours of battery life for lighter tasks when you only need iPad level of performance, but can switch to high performance when you need it. It certainly seems feasible using today's technology.

 

[Skeete_UK]

[citation][nom]worldofpadcraft[/nom]Users can opt to switch which CPU they want to use on the fly, so you can get that 10 hours of battery life for lighter tasks when you only need iPad level of performance, but can switch to high performance when you need it. It certainly seems feasible using today's technology.[/citation]

What a good idea. Would be better if this was controlled by the kernel of the system though and applications could call an API to decide which CPU per thread. Low power for menus etc.. High power for physics/complex code and so forth.

 

[Skeete_UK]

I remember when the iPad came out. Most intelligent people thought it was a bit of a gimmick and a rip off of MS slate.

But we were wrong. The iPad actually turned out to be pretty useful in many different ways. I have one myself.

I fail to see the advantages of having a slate Core i5 x86 app enabled tablet at the moment. BUT thats only because I have not worked out how to use it yet. If performance is good enough I reckon most applications will be in the office where most of the time it will be plugged in anyway. But who really knows.

I just know that I want one, will work out what to do with it later.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

They might want to knock a few bucks off the price due to the battery life.

 

[belardo]

No shock on the price... but you see... MS has always had $1000~3000 tablets on the market since 2002...

Nobody BUYS the $1000+ tablets because the PC market is cheap.

The #1 selling Mac notebooks are the $2000+ models with the $1000 iMacbook/Air coming in right behind.

Of all the PC notebooks in the world... the ones that SELL the most as the $400 models... the top 5 notebooks for PC are under $500.

 

[Guest]

@sylvez: "No. I will buy a 300hp car just because."

Sure, "just because". I'm pretty sure your problem is curable with pills that are *way* cheaper than a sports car. Just sayin'.

 

[nieur]

you will do your work in half of the time ARM tablet takes

 

[darkavenger123]

Seeing the specs is about same as a typical laptop, 4 - 5 hours usage is pretty normal. I don't care nor support Windows 8 or Surface. But this kind of news....what do you want to highlight?? You expect your 4.0cc car to run with 250hp and expect it to use petrol like a 600cc Japanese kei car???

 

[impreza]

4 hours is pretty meh, My laptop lasts almost that long doing normal stuff which isn't maxing it out. This goes to show Arm is just so much better for mobile devices. If your device won't last that long plane trip what is the point? So the only thing the surface pro has going for it is a pretty powerful cpu in a small package. Android still seems to be better. Cheaper, lots of apps, good tablets have great battery life and they run pretty well for movies and basic stuff like internet and word processing. A tablet is still not laptop or desktop replacement.

 

[dare2blink]

[citation][nom]mt2e[/nom]Microsoft needs to cut their crowd-surfing budget...these people need to get real jobs[/citation]

The surface pro is exactly like na ultrabook except that it does one better by also having all the advantages of a tablet. It is better than any ultrabook at that price.

 

[dare2blink]

[citation][nom]Skeete_UK[/nom]What a good idea. Would be better if this was controlled by the kernel of the system though and applications could call an API to decide which CPU per thread. Low power for menus etc.. High power for physics/complex code and so forth.[/citation]

Until apple invents a tablet that can run x86 programs your comparison is completely useless

 

[dare2blink]

[citation][nom]JOSHSKORN[/nom]They might want to knock a few bucks off the price due to the battery life.[/citation]

Actually you were right the first time around... the ipad is just a toy and the surface pro is 10 times more usefull for anyone who wants to do actual work on their tablet. ipad does not even have a usb port for goodness sake. It´s a mission to print anything with an ipad and you can´t simply "plug and play" hundreds of devices like you can on a surface, or do file management, etc. There is simply no comparison

 

[dare2blink]

[citation][nom]dare2blink[/nom]The surface pro is exactly like na ultrabook except that it does one better by also having all the advantages of a tablet. It is better than any ultrabook at that price.[/citation]

You are confused, because the surface pro is, in every sense of the word, a laptop replacement. It can do anything a laptop can and more.

 

[thecolorblue]

[citation][nom]phate[/nom]"Battery Life Half that of Surface RT"That statement is completely and utterly useless without a qualification about performance. I'm guessing the Performance is more than twice that of the ARM tablet.[/citation]
i disagree... i couldn't care less if it is 1000x more powerful, if the battery is dead in 4 hours... or at 3- something after less than a year then this product is dead before launch

 

[thecolorblue]

[citation][nom]dare2blink[/nom]You are confused, because the surface pro is, in every sense of the word, a laptop replacement. It can do anything a laptop can and more.[/citation]
that's a joke

 

[therogerwilco]

[citation][nom]pacomac[/nom]Surface RT was always doomed to failure since you can't un existing software. I'm a developer who made a living writing Windows Mobile and now iPad/Android apps. I don't need another ARM based development environment which forces us to write in C# and Silverlight... Android is bad enough forcing you to write in Java. Give me good old fashion low level C and C++ and I might be interested. Windows Surface Pro however will do well once manufacturers drop the price. The Acer W700 looks like an excellent buy with similar specs to the Microsoft tablet, 128Gb, bigger 11.6" screen, 9 hour battery life and a cheaper price.[/citation]

You CAN use C/C++