Battery Life and Portability
Battery Life – Is it good enough?
As with all notebooks and tablets, one of the primary considerations is the battery life – how long can you use the device without being tethered to a wall outlet? Both the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book are using Intel’s latest processor and platform, codenamed Skylake, and thus should offer the best overall efficiency available on the market. Intel has definitely spent a lot of time and engineering hours working with Microsoft to tweak and modify the OS, the hardware and the firmware to present the Surface devices as the best of the best.
That being said, battery size trumps all and while the Surface Book has a tremendous combined battery size of 69Wh, 18Whr in the tablet and 51Whr in the keyboard dock, the Surface Pro 4 has a 38 Wh battery, actually a slight decrease from the battery in the Surface Pro 3.
Our battery testing is done using a custom application that uses a web browser and goes through a number of different sites, scrolling and navigating along the way. It’s a fairly intense Wi-Fi browsing test with new pages being loaded every 30 seconds.
The Surface Pro 4 was able to get 5.8 hours in our test while the Surface Book was able to reign in 9.23 hours! The Pro 4 result is good considering the somewhat smaller than average battery it includes (my XPS 13 has 50 Wh) but the Surface Book really impressed me, increasing battery life by 59% over the Pro 4, despite having the discrete NVIDIA GeForce GPU as part of the keyboard dock. That kind of battery life is definitely the “all day” category and is the primary reason I am considering retiring the XPS 13 in favor of the Surface Book. Clearly the combination of Intel’s new Skylake architecture, improvements to Windows 10 power management and an optimized system design are bringing strong dividends for Microsoft’s hardware division.
If you read online about battery life on the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book, you probably know about poor battery life when in sleep mode – coming back to a notebook with 20% less battery when left unplugged but asleep overnight. I definitely experienced this bug, but the most recent Windows Updates and firmware changes to the hardware seem to have corrected it for me. If you own either device, and you still have issues, definitely let me know in the comments below.
Portability – Weight and Size
Though I touched on it in the design section of the story, since we are talking about battery life and mobility, it makes sense to bring up the portability of both the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book again here. Clearly the Surface Pro 4 with the Type Cover is the slimmer and lighter offering of the two. It is slim and sleek, easy to toss in a bag, purse or even an urban satchel (we won’t call them purses) and it will not weigh down your shoulders. The Surface Book is bigger physically, thicker (because of the unique hinge design) and heavier as well. Those sacrifices are what allow for the added connectivity, better battery life and improved performance if you get the model with the discrete GPU in the keyboard.
The chargers for both machines are small and light, and, though it’s a minor thing, are built perfectly to take up only a single plug on a 110v outlet.
Though I am used to lighter notebooks like Dell’s XPS 13, I don’t think the increase in size and weight on the Surface Book is going to be enough to scare me away from migrating over to it. Those that are very sensitive to weight and size and bulk, the Book is likely just on the edge of acceptance.
Is it possible to take video
Is it possible to take video with the rear camera in “laptop mode” not “tablet mode”?
I want to continue to take notes in laptop mode, but also take video of my lectures with the rear view camera.
Hmm, I can try to find out.
Hmm, I can try to find out. What application would you record video with?
My Surface Pro 3 can do that.
My Surface Pro 3 can do that. You use the Camera app that comes installed on it and it works fine.
Ryan, I think your argument
Ryan, I think your argument about the discrete GPU not being worth it unless one plans on gaming or doing GPU intensive tasks is spot on.
I’ve seen a couple other sights see about 12% battery life improvements in models without the discrete GPU. Doesn’t sound like much, but that’s over an hour extra for $200 less…
Very instructive and helpful.
Very instructive and helpful. Thanks. Many of the non-tech people I know who have always used windows laptops are looking at Apple laptops now. Assuming it isn’t about the op system, but rather about the way it looks and feels, would you say this on par? Fortunately I have never had to own a laptop and the ones I have used were windows machines, so I am in no position to guide them.
Thanks Ryan, is it possible
Thanks Ryan, is it possible that the power connector blocks the displayport connector so you cannot use both at the same time?
The power connector is
The power connector is rotatable so you can avoid that.
On the surface book…
On the surface book…
Hi Ryan,
some corrections for
Hi Ryan,
some corrections for your summary table.
The Surface Pro 4 i7 is not the Core i7-6500U but it’s the Core i7-6650U that has better GPU than 6500U.
The 6650U has the Intel HD-540 (Iris Graphics) instead of HD-520.
While the Surface Book i7 version is the 6600U that has HD-520 (but it is not 6500U)
So the SP4 i7 is much better than the SB i7 (without nVidia).
Here some source:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2989906/laptop-computers/here-are-the-details-of-the-surface-book-and-surface-pro-4-chips-and-why-they-matter.html
http://ark.intel.com/it/products/family/88392/6th-Generation-Intel-Core-i7-Processors#@Mobile
Interesting, thanks.
Updated!
Interesting, thanks.
Updated!
Hi Ryan,
Have you tried
Hi Ryan,
Have you tried editing GoPro videos on Surface Book?
Thanks,
Can’t say that I have. Sorry!
Can't say that I have. Sorry!
I use the Surface Book for
I use the Surface Book for live-stream video productions and editing in real-time for my church. I also use it heavily with Photoshop/Illustrator. I do high-res graphics that are the size of billboard banners. I have not had this machine slow down on me for a single beat.
i7 with Nvidia
Does anybody know:
Is it
Does anybody know:
Is it possible ANYWHERE to get the surface book with 512gb *without* nvidia GPU?
I want the storage but have no desire for the nvidia.
Do you think this will be an option in the future? Should I wait?
Thanks!
The price is too high.
The price is too high.
Just wondering… Has anyone
Just wondering… Has anyone else noticed that the Surface Book fulcrum is identical to the hinge on the Martian heat ray weapon in the “War of the Worlds” (1953) movie?
You can’t help but love the
You can’t help but love the specs. http://www.interwebcom.com/microsoft-surface-book-review/
But I found the Surface Book a bit awkward while converting it from laptop to desktop mode.
The older Surface tablets connect to the Type Cover keyboard via fabric hinge. It works pretty well, but there’s always a tiny bit of flex. Worse still is the kickstand, which Microsoft has never quite figured out how to prevent it from digging into your thighs. The hinge solves all that, holding the monstrous tablet securely. It doesn’t wiggle. Internal, toothlike hooks help secure the tablet to the base.