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Surface Pro to Have Half the Battery Life of Surface RT

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News Posted: Fri, Nov 30 2012 2:14 PM
Microsoft's official Twitter account for Surface delivered a gut punch to potential Surface Pro shoppers by confirming that battery life on the x86 tablet will be less than that of its ARM-based Surface RT slates. Much less.

"Hey Shahroom, #Surface Pro will have approximately half the battery life of Surface RT," @Surface tweeted on Thursday, in response to a question about battery life.

That's not a total shocker, considering Surface Pro is a much more powerful tablet. It's essentially a full blown notebook in a tablet form factor, with all the compatibility to run Windows 7 applications. It has a 10.6-inch screen with a Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) resolution, Intel Core i5 processor, a full-size USB 3.0 port, and a Mini DisplayPort than can beam images up to 2560x1440 to an external display.

Microsoft Surface Pro

There will be two versions of Surface Pro at launch, one that starts at $899 with 64GB of internal storage, and another that runs $999 for 128GB. Both of these are standalone slates -- you can purchase a Touch Cover or Type Cover separately.

At those price points, and with half the battery life of Surface RT, Microsoft may have a tough time taking the tablet market by storm with Surface Pro. Not only that, but Microsoft's going to be competing with Ultrabooks that are less expensive, just as powerful, and last longer.
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Dorkstar replied on Fri, Nov 30 2012 3:17 PM

This thing looks so sweet, the price is a little high, but I get the feeling you would get a few years out of this thing rather then needing to upgrade it 2 years down the road.

  In my field of work we use the Samsung series 7 tablets for our product.  It allows the surgeons to look at the monitor and edit their work while remaining by the patients side.  Right now were paying a little over $1200 for these, and looking at the surface tablet, I'd really like to see us pick these up instead. 

  Imagine how many customers we could pick up just by mentioning that we will be installing surface tablets in all their operating rooms?  Plus, the Samsung series 7 tablet only held my attention for about the first 20 minutes I played with it, I need something new to play with.

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3vi1 replied on Fri, Nov 30 2012 4:55 PM

I totally expected this, as you could see from all my previous allusions to battery life.

Also, by 'half', I'll bet they mean 1/3rd.  Stopping halfway through the day to plug this thing in for several hours?  Impractical for normal use.

What part of "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" don't you understand?

++++++++++++[>++++>+++++++++>+++>+<<<<-]>+++.>++++++++++.-------------.+++.>---.>--.

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HarleyLowSpeed replied on Fri, Nov 30 2012 5:27 PM

Who cares! This is another dead product out of the Microsoft gate.

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CDeeter replied on Fri, Nov 30 2012 5:40 PM

Agreed 3vil, though I don't think anyone thought they would be able to run that class of hardware in a tablet form factor, and still have the battery life of an iPad. Gonna take a generation or three to pull that off.

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Dorkstar replied on Fri, Nov 30 2012 7:18 PM

Actually the ability to do it isn't far off.  The compnents required go into production next year.  Read up on memristors if you're interested.  It will revolutionalize the entire mobile industry.

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sevags replied on Fri, Nov 30 2012 8:16 PM

Those prices are AMAZING!!!!!! They are at least $200 less than what most of us that they would start at!!!!! The price is definitely not going to slow sales! Having poor battery life will...

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Dorkstar replied on Sat, Dec 1 2012 1:12 PM

sevags:

Those prices are AMAZING!!!!!! They are at least $200 less than what most of us that they would start at!!!!! The price is definitely not going to slow sales! Having poor battery life will...

I can't agree more, the pricing is very aggressive.  Plus with the release of windows 8 us tech savvy guys can have our slate computer and our spouses can still have the tablet feel.  I don't think the battery life is honestly an issue, how often are you going to spend a few hours away from an electric socket?  Hell, most cars have 110v outlets now.

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RiCoFrost replied on Sun, Dec 2 2012 6:36 PM

I thought about going the pro but I'm finding i can do mostly everything i need to do mobile on the RT. I am loving the battery life on the RT seeing that the battery life is only half that of the RT I've decided to stick with the RT for now.

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