How is your battery life on the Surface Pro 7?

Anonymous
2020-01-03T19:11:20+00:00

I upgraded to the Surface Pro 7 - 8gb, 256GB from the SP4 8gb, 256GB. My SP4 hardly got an hour of battery and would shut off on battery without warning, so I constantly had it plugged into the wall wherever I went.  I was hoping for much better on the SP7. Currently I am struggling to get a full 5 hours...closer to 4 hours. 

Yes, I know I use Chrome and Edge, a number of Office windows open, might watch some YouTube and Netflix. 

4 to 5 hours seems pathetically small.

Any other comments, suggestions or comparisons? (I know there's a need to 'bed in' a new battery in, I've had the laptop almost 2 weeks now, the battery should be 'bedding' in by now.

thanks in advance

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-25T05:52:14+00:00

    I agree that battery life is very poor with the Surface Pro 7.  I typically expect 5 hours.   A few observations:

    • New Edge Chromium does help avoid higher CPU usage.  I feel this was a problem that Microsoft created almost 2 years ago when they rolled out an update to Edge  https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/forum/all/high-cpu-usage-when-edge-is-open-after-update/44b3f294-52fc-4294-8fe9-21dcb3d68910 . This was pre Surface Pro 7 so not much you can do about it.  It caused Edge to use CPU time for each tab open under it.  Previous to the update, you could have 300 tabs open and use 1% CPU.  CPU would only increase based on the number of viewed tabs during a session.  Close and reopen - Edge resets CPU usage and returns it to 1 tab usage despite having over 300 tabs opened.  After this "2 year ago update" the Old Edge uses resources for every tab open.  

    The New Edge Chromium seems to run much leaner.  This may help in our battery cause. 

    • March 2020 update caused significant battery drain.  A restore fixed the issue but I still contacted Surface help and a Tier 2 tech confirmed it was the last update.  Specifically the

    2020-01 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 bases Systems (kb4497165) and

    2020-03 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 bases Systems. 

    He said there was an incompatibility with these Window updates and I should wait for a fix.  

    If you ran these updates, you might be experiencing excessive battery drain as a result of them.

    Would you elaborate the specifics on the second update, e.g. the KB numbering?

    2020-01 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 bases Systems (kb4497165)

    2020-03 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 bases Systems. <--------

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-03-25T08:31:30+00:00

    I agree that battery life is very poor with the Surface Pro 7.  I typically expect 5 hours.   A few observations:

    • New Edge Chromium does help avoid higher CPU usage.  I feel this was a problem that Microsoft created almost 2 years ago when they rolled out an update to Edge  https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/forum/all/high-cpu-usage-when-edge-is-open-after-update/44b3f294-52fc-4294-8fe9-21dcb3d68910 . This was pre Surface Pro 7 so not much you can do about it.  It caused Edge to use CPU time for each tab open under it.  Previous to the update, you could have 300 tabs open and use 1% CPU.  CPU would only increase based on the number of viewed tabs during a session.  Close and reopen - Edge resets CPU usage and returns it to 1 tab usage despite having over 300 tabs opened.  After this "2 year ago update" the Old Edge uses resources for every tab open.  

    The New Edge Chromium seems to run much leaner.  This may help in our battery cause. 

    • March 2020 update caused significant battery drain.  A restore fixed the issue but I still contacted Surface help and a Tier 2 tech confirmed it was the last update.  Specifically the

    2020-01 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 bases Systems (kb4497165) and

    2020-03 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 bases Systems. 

    He said there was an incompatibility with these Window updates and I should wait for a fix.  

    If you ran these updates, you might be experiencing excessive battery drain as a result of them.

    Would you elaborate the specifics on the second update, e.g. the KB numbering?

    2020-01 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 bases Systems (kb4497165)

    2020-03 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 bases Systems. <--------

    I believe the 2020-03 update for Windows 10 version 1909 for x64 based Systems is KB4551762.  

    Note that I am now using Edge Version 89.0.774.57 (Official build) (64-bit) which helps keep the resources down.  I currently have 31 web tabs available with 4 tabs active open on Edge + MS Word + One Note 2016 (desktop version) + One Note for Windows 10 + Outlook (MS Office 2019) + File Manager + Task Manager open and only using 2-4% CPU resources.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-04-29T13:16:02+00:00

    I have the same issues. 4-5 hours of battery life. For a "Laptop" its not portable for very long before its dead. Is there a battery upgrade you can install in the SP7? This kind of sucks because I love the portability of the machine.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-04-30T01:50:32+00:00

    None. You can buy an external battery, thats it

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-05-03T09:40:23+00:00

    Same here, I barely get 2.5-3 hours on my Pro 7/i7...

    I looked around for answers but nothing really. It's extremely disappointing as battery life was one of the main reasons I bought this device... Obviously it was a mistake...

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