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Windows battery benchmarks have always been wildly overoptimistic on Surface products. Factor of 2 to 4 in my experience. Various bugs and bloat cause them to r

Windows battery benchmarks have always been wildly overoptimistic on Surface products. Factor of 2 to 4 in my experience. Various bugs and bloat cause them to run hot when idling, or in the case of my most recent purchase, when sleeping! In both cases the device had these problems from day one. As for performance benchmarks, I don't care what numbers they get if it takes a full 8 seconds to open a context menu when I right click something. I'm even less enthusiastic if I'm forced to use Windows 11 and put up with ads. Surface hardware is amazing, but if Windows doesn't lose all of this bloat then I am done with it.

petesergeant 2y ago
> battery benchmarks have always been wildly overoptimistic Assuming that’s accurate, isn’t that just straight consumer fraud?
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  That's why battery claims are always UP TO not AT LEAST.
  - brokenmachine 2y ago
    It still fraud (in my opinion) if you can never reach those numbers under any circumstances. It's not "up to a million hours usage", because it's impossible to use it for a million hours.
    - Rinzler89 2y ago
      >It still fraud (in my opinion) if you can never reach those numbers under any circumstances. Who said they never reach those numbers? All manufacturers have disclaimers that the "UP TO numbers" have been achieved in their labs in their own controlled environment, and some even specify some the conditions: Pass Mark, wifi, power-mode screen brightness, etc. Your car also specifies some very optimistic MPG/range specs that most owners will never reach but they were reached in a lab somewhere running on a dyno.
      - brokenmachine 2y ago
        The root comment we're replying to here is saying that the previous model Surface was out by 2-4x. I'm of the opinion that's getting into the realm of impossible numbers, absent evidence otherwise. If you get it out of the box and it doesn't get what they specify - that's misleading at best, fraud at worst. The car tests do specify the testing conditions, so I would expect that my car would perform the same under the specified conditions.
        Rinzler89 2y ago
        >The root comment we're replying to here is saying that the previous model Surface was out by 2-4x. And how can we verify that he didn't have some power virus running in the background to generalize that 2-4x claim as being a universal fault with all devices? The manufacturer makes a claim based on a (obviously biased) controlled lab condition. When you use the device outside that lab condition then it obviously won't apply anymore (duh). The manufacturer can't promise an exact battery life on YOUR use case since everyone's use case will be completely different, and once you introduce external apps beyond the manufacturer's own control, then everything goes out the window.
        brokenmachine 2y ago
        Of course. But if I get a new device out of the box, make no changes, and it doesn't get those numbers, then it's a lie. That's been my experience before (not with a Surface), and it was OP's experience with a Surface.
        Rinzler89 2y ago
        Sure, the question is, have you tested the device fresh out the box and found a 3-4x less battery life than advertised in the same test scenario? I guess that would be fraud, but that depends on what all the fine print on the battery claim states.
        2y ago
- qnleigh 2y ago
  I've always wondered this. For example I can't imagine how they ever achieved their quoted battery benchmarks with system processes running in the background, like indexing. These regularly consumed >50% CPU resources on my older Surface pro even on battery and were not easy to disable (I never did because doing so would cause other problems). But I can't see how you would achieve the quoted battery life without doing so... If they do disable these things in their test, then that's super dishonest.

petesergeant 2y ago

> battery benchmarks have always been wildly overoptimistic Assuming that’s accurate, isn’t that just straight consumer fraud?

Rinzler89 2y ago
That's why battery claims are always UP TO not AT LEAST.
- brokenmachine 2y ago
  It still fraud (in my opinion) if you can never reach those numbers under any circumstances. It's not "up to a million hours usage", because it's impossible to use it for a million hours.
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    >It still fraud (in my opinion) if you can never reach those numbers under any circumstances. Who said they never reach those numbers? All manufacturers have disclaimers that the "UP TO numbers" have been achieved in their labs in their own controlled environment, and some even specify some the conditions: Pass Mark, wifi, power-mode screen brightness, etc. Your car also specifies some very optimistic MPG/range specs that most owners will never reach but they were reached in a lab somewhere running on a dyno.
    - brokenmachine 2y ago
      The root comment we're replying to here is saying that the previous model Surface was out by 2-4x. I'm of the opinion that's getting into the realm of impossible numbers, absent evidence otherwise. If you get it out of the box and it doesn't get what they specify - that's misleading at best, fraud at worst. The car tests do specify the testing conditions, so I would expect that my car would perform the same under the specified conditions.
      - Rinzler89 2y ago
        >The root comment we're replying to here is saying that the previous model Surface was out by 2-4x. And how can we verify that he didn't have some power virus running in the background to generalize that 2-4x claim as being a universal fault with all devices? The manufacturer makes a claim based on a (obviously biased) controlled lab condition. When you use the device outside that lab condition then it obviously won't apply anymore (duh). The manufacturer can't promise an exact battery life on YOUR use case since everyone's use case will be completely different, and once you introduce external apps beyond the manufacturer's own control, then everything goes out the window.
        brokenmachine 2y ago
        Of course. But if I get a new device out of the box, make no changes, and it doesn't get those numbers, then it's a lie. That's been my experience before (not with a Surface), and it was OP's experience with a Surface.
        Rinzler89 2y ago
        Sure, the question is, have you tested the device fresh out the box and found a 3-4x less battery life than advertised in the same test scenario? I guess that would be fraud, but that depends on what all the fine print on the battery claim states.
        2y ago
qnleigh 2y ago
I've always wondered this. For example I can't imagine how they ever achieved their quoted battery benchmarks with system processes running in the background, like indexing. These regularly consumed >50% CPU resources on my older Surface pro even on battery and were not easy to disable (I never did because doing so would cause other problems). But I can't see how you would achieve the quoted battery life without doing so... If they do disable these things in their test, then that's super dishonest.