Surface Book Battery Life - what are you getting

This is a story of ups and downs for me too.  Luckily I don't have it as bad as some people, I get 7 hours or so doing random things but also if I loop a local movie it gets about 7:20 with low volume and 50% screen light.

When I first got this SB 256GB and GPU setup, I never got the battery life advertised.  I tried a bunch of stuff recommend by several forums (drivers, resetting PC, turning off Hello and/or Cortana, etc etc etc.).  Then one night I signed up for developer builds...and voila there was build 5011 (I think that was the version anyway), downloaded it and woah...12 hrs!?!  I looped a movie overnight and after 6-7 hours of looping I was only at 48% battery!  

So I said, woah, great!  That means the battery is fixed in build 5011, little did I know, 5011 was released to the public a day or two later.  So, rather than continue to receive possibly buggy dev builds, I opted back out of the program, reset my PC, then installed the new build off of the general updates.  

Annnnnndddd....pew pew...with that, my whisp of a hope of advertised battery life was GONE.  Never again could I repeat such good results.  Since then I have NOT opted back into dev builds as I'm just hoping one day a firmware/build will come that will fix the issue because I saw it fixed right before my eyes.  Maybe it was some concoction of the order in which I installed updates or did step A B and C but....I don't know.  I'm just...hoping.  

What confuses me is Microsoft seems strangely quiet on the subject?  All I hear is about people getting replacement SB and still getting the same thing.  Isn't someone up in arms about it and Microsoft is releasing a statement about a fix?  

To be honest, I am in fact pleased with 7-8 hrs of battery life - however its still 30% less than what was advertised; which was part of the reason I was willing to pay the big price tag.  I dreamed of the day I could go traveling for a weekend and not need to worry about charging it.

Kevin.. Totally right there with you. I'm satisfied with 7 hrs but not what was advertised. I'm thinking things are quiet because they're fine tuning the firmware update, it is indeed based on the one you installed (and newer ones) an update was expected on the 19th according to Paul  Thurrott and Mary Joe Foley but nothing yet. Pauls article "surface gate" is exactly on the money too. If Ms wants to retain its customers, new SB customers too (I switched from a perfectly fine working MBP!) they should release a statement saying it is coming. Not in here, but in their general press releases. 

Are you listening, Microsoft?!!!

Kevin.. Totally right there with you. I'm satisfied with 7 hrs but not what was advertised. I'm thinking things are quiet because they're fine tuning the firmware update, it is indeed based on the one you installed (and newer ones) an update was expected on the 19th according to Paul  Thurrott and Mary Joe Foley but nothing yet. Pauls article "surface gate" is exactly on the money too. If Ms wants to retain its customers, new SB customers too (I switched from a perfectly fine working MBP!) they should release a statement saying it is coming. Not in here, but in their general press releases. 

Are you listening, Microsoft?!!!

I really don't know what to make of all of this.  I'll freely admit that I'm on my 4th SB i7/16GB/512GB, but I started exchanging what I know now were perfectly good Surface Books because of video driver errors.  Those errors were fixed for me with the Dec 2nd driver update and I've not had a single error since.  The ONLY problem I have now is the "sleep" issue and for me it isn't a real problem if I simply power down COMPLETELY before putting my SB in my courier bag.  I get 8-10 hours of battery life at 75% brightness.  I can get 12+ hours if I'm willing to go to 50% brightness, and quite frankly I don't want to.  I like 75%.  My Surface Book is in use from early morning to late evening every day of the week.  I use it full time in my business and then on in to the evening.  It never fails me.

Quite frankly, if nothing changed whatsoever I would still be very happy with my Surface Book.  Having "sleep" work the way it should would just be icing on the cake for me as everything else is working perfectly.  For me the "sleep" issue is only a very minor inconvenience and nothing more.

My Surface Book settings are all at the defaults except for turning auto brightness off.  I've applied all the updates available so far.  I'm doing nothing exceptional or unusual with my settings.

In my trading business I run Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation.  I run Microsoft Office 365 subscription and use Excel, OneNote, and Word a good bit.  I run Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop CC subscription a lot with my photography.  I do a bit of software development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015.  My data and photos are kept on Microsoft OneDrive.  I think I probably push my SB more than most.

Can I really be the only one out there that is actually using his Surface Book as his only computer and is happy with how it is working?

Gary.. No, you aren't the only one. I'm happy with how my SB looks and the many ways I can use it to get work done.. (But looks and usage scenarios aren't everything. What about power and battery?) Either you have a better unit than the rest of us or you are way more forgiving than we are. I've read your posts and you seem like the perfect Microsoft cheerleader. Ha! Not putting you down, but you've read these forums as much as I have. It's apparent that others have worse problems than others do, which means every unit and user is NOT the same. (Remember the guy on here who was giving a business presentation and his SB overheated and switched off right in the middle of it? Embarrassing.) Different configurations, different expectations and different use cases. So no, you aren't the only one who's happy. I'm happy with my SB, but NOT the way it is now if it stays this way. Excessive battery drain.. These power mgmt issues. And the keyboard on mine failing ocasionally. This is not what was advertised and it needs to be fixed immediately. I have already seen 10+ tech friends return theirs hands down. With each return, Microsoft loses out on a lifetime of potential sales and repeat customers. Such a shame. They could stop the bleeding with a simple public acknowledgement of the issue, don't you agree? We all know you are having the best user experience on here, but put yourself in others' shoes. Don't you agree this is inexcusable? I love my SB. But I can't recommend it or rely on it when it won't last more than 5 hrs on battery with all the bells and whistles turned off.  I had a MacBook Pro before this that had 0 problems in 2 years.

I had the initial experience of driver crashes over and over, so I haven't had a good early experience either.  I brought my Surface Book back to the Microsoft Store thoroughly disappointed.  I certainly wasn't cheer leading then!

Before Dec 2nd I could not depend on my SB working without video driver problems.  Since Dec 2nd my SB hasn't had a single driver error.

If I power down completely I will always have 0-1% overnight battery depletion.  If I don't power down completely I will have 8-10% overnight battery depletion.

If I power down completely before putting my SB in my courier bag, it will be cold when I take it out of the bag.  If I don't power down completely and depend on "sleep", it will be hot when I take it out of the bag.

I don't think I'm cheer leading.  I think I'm understanding what is happening with my Surface Book and understanding what to do about it.

And of course, like everyone else, I want an update that fixes these problems without my having to work around them.  So please erase that picture of a "Perfect Microsoft Cheerleader".