Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Microsoft tablet: Surface team addresses Pro’s battery/storage issues in Reddit AMA

By
microsoft-surface-pro01
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Check out our full review of the Microsoft Surface Pro tablet. 

Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet hits stores this weekend, more than three months after the less powerful RT version of the device went on sale.

Recommended Videos

Recent reviews of the Windows 8 Surface Pro have been mixed, with the device’s battery life and storage capacity among several areas of concern. Both issues were addressed by the general manager of the Surface team, Panos Panay, and a number of Microsoft engineers in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit on Wednesday.

Related

Battery

According to a post on one of Microsoft’s official Twitter feeds a couple of months back, the battery life of the 10.1-inch Pro tablet is, to put it mildly, a bit feeble. The tweet said that the Pro tablet has “approximately half the battery life of the Surface RT” – in other words, about 4.5 hours.

In Wednesday’s AMA, the Microsoft team said it’d wanted to create a product that didn’t compromise on speed or performance.

“With that, we wanted to be the best notebook/laptop product in its class, but still deliver you the tablet form factor,” the team said. “This product is optimized in every way to take advantage of the full third generation core i5 it runs, yet give the best battery life.”

The response went on to say that if compared to a MacBook Air, “you will quickly see that pound for pound in battery size vs battery life, you will find dead battery icon energy power gadgets battery lifeoptimizations that puts Surface best in its class. That said we picked a smaller battery to be sure we were able to give you the same performance and to keep it thin.”

That’s all well and good, but will it really be enough to help consumers forget that the Surface Pro’s tablet competitors – the 9.7-inch iPad, Amazon’s 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD and Google’s Nexus 10 among them – claim battery time upwards of eight hours?

What might help is the team’s hint that some kind of external battery may be in the works, possibly as part of a thicker Touch or Type Cover. When asked during the AMA if there were any plans for such a product, the Surface team wrote, “That would require extending the design of the accessory spine to include some way to transfer higher current between the peripheral and the main battery. Which we did…”

Storage

Regarding the storage issue – which hit the headlines last week when Microsoft said the 64GB version of the Pro tablet would ship with only 23GB of storage space, while the 128GB version would have only 83GB of available space – the Surface team said during the AMA that these were in fact “conservative” estimates. “Our final production units are coming in with ~6-7GB additional free space,” the team wrote. The reduced capacity is down to the space taken up by the operating system and native apps.

But this extra space still leaves it way short of, for example, the 64GB iPad which gives users about 57GB of free space out of the box. Fortunately, those who do decide to pick up one of the new Surface Pro tablets in the coming months will be able to use the device’s microSDXC card slot to increase its storage capacity by up to 64GB.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5, Surface Pro 9 heavily discounted today
The Surface Pro 9 in laptop mode on a table.

Microsoft's Surface devices are well known for their versatility and performance, but they command premium prices. That's why there's always high demand for Surface Laptop and Surface Pro deals, as who doesn't want to enjoy a discount when making a huge investment? If you're interested, Best Buy is offering the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 at $300 off, which brings its price down to $1,000 from $1,300, and the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 at $540 off, which lowers its price also to $1,000 from $1,540, ahead of the arrival of the consumer versions of the Surface Laptop 6 and Surface Pro 10. You need to push through with your transaction as soon as possible if either of these bargains caught your attention, as we're not sure how much time is remaining before they disappear.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 -- $1,000, was $1,300

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 is a traditional Windows 11 laptop that's powered by the 12th-generation Intel Core i5 Evo processor, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and 8GB of RAM. It won't match up to the performance of the best laptops, but it's going to be more than enough to handle daily tasks for work or school. The laptop features a 13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen with vibrant colors and sharp details, a battery that can last up to 18 hours on a single charge, and a 512GB SSD that provides ample storage space for your files. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 also comes with a 720p webcam and dual far-field Studio Mics for clear video calls.

Read more
Microsoft Surface sale: Save on Surface Laptop 9, Pro 9, and more
The Surface Pro 9 with the Type Cover keyboard lifted up.

For anyone seeking great laptop deals, Best Buy is perfect for fans of the Microsoft Surface range. Right now, you can buy select Microsoft Surface Pro 9 models for over $500 off while the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 can be purchased for $200 off. Just a few of the examples in the sale that spans over 20 different devices, hit the button below to see the full sale for yourself. Alternatively, take a look at some of our favorites while we guide you through things.

What to shop for in the Microsoft Surface sale
The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 tops our look at the best 2-in-1 laptops so this should be your first port of call. The most appealing option for many people is the which is usually $1,540 but is currently down to $1,000. The laptop has a 12th-generation Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 16GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage. Its 13-inch touchscreen has Dynamic refresh rates up to 120Hz while there’s Dolby Vision support so it’s great for watching shows on the move.

Read more
The Surface Pro could finally live up to its potential this year
The back of the Surface Pro 9, with the kickstand pulled out.

The Surface Pro hasn't changed much over the years. The design has been tweaked slightly from generation to generation, but the central premise has remained. Its strengths have been bolstered, but its weaknesses have stayed around, too.

This year, however, the Surface Pro 10 is reportedly coming out. And unlike previous versions of the Surface Pro, this one might finally reinvent this device into something that profoundly fulfills the promise of what it always could be.
The problem of the 2-in-1

Read more