What Do You Want in the Surface Pro 5

Battery Life: 8 hours of full power productivity software use. I don't care how long I can binge watch some TV program on Netflix, or surf social media sites. Eight hours of Outlook, OneNote, Word, and Excel.

Design: @kvoram - that is an amazing stat - 1mm for 25% more capacity - what are they thinking. It's just like the Clipboard on Surface Book which has space for an entire battery cell on one side - sure, it would effect balance, but worse yet, it would push the tablet part too close to the dreaded 2 pounds...

So, until the battery magic bullet arrives (won't be in my lifetime) I think I really need to consider full power laptops and an ultralight tablet for note taking - between the two, might make it through a day. In all honesty, the Surface Book will let me work eight hours on battery at 50% screen power, so maybe I already have the first half of the solution - now IF someone would give us a 6"+ smartphone with a pen and silo (LOOKING AT YOU SAMSUNG) and IF Microsoft would support Samsung's automatic tethering (so my Surface Book would connect to it without having to manually turn on the hotspot and connect)...

Sorry for straying off topic gang. However, it all applies to a Surface Pro 5 as well - 1mm more and a bezel-less display screen, and I'd nearly get my SB in a SP5 package.

 

I see there's an interesting discussion going on here!

Just like DStrauss said, it's all about battery capacity. I really won't mind if Microsoft makes battery life a priority by doing the following:

• Maintains current thickness
• Removes legacy ports and replaces with USB C (Thunderport) but KEEP the Mini SD Slot
• Rounds the edges to make the device more comfortable to hold
• Maintains current screen quality (no need for 4K on a tablet device)

If they did that, I don't see why they couldn't hit 46 watts or so. It'd also like them to provide a keyboard cover that maintains today's quality but is thicker and allows for an additional 20 watt capacity. Combine that will the more efficient Kabylake and we'd be seeing a device that's versatile and also offers good battery efficiency. Instead of 4 to 6 hours, I'd expect normal usage to see battery life of 7.5 to 11 hours.

I think the result would be about a 2.5 combined weight with the Surface Keyboard Cover, but the tablet itself would maintain its weight. It would also be awesome if the battery drained from the keyboard before it drained from the tablet. I'd buy that device. C'mon Microsoft, make it so!

 

<<...When people say 46 watts, they mean 46 Watt hours right...>>

...In this case, yes. But saying "watts" when you really mean "watt-hours" isn't correct. Watt-hours is the correct unit.

<<...battery specifications might list both mAh and Wh like here...Laptop Battery (4400 mAh / 48Wh)...how can both represent battery specifications because mAh is current...>>

...You are correct that citing mAh does not really characterize a battery's capacity. mAh must be multiplied by the battery's (effective) output voltage to derive Wh, which is a true characterization of a battery's capacity. In the example that you mention, someone has assume that the laptop battery outputs an average voltage of 11 V (which is reasonable for a laptop).

 

I still miss my old TC1000 and TC1100 with the hot swappable battery. Had several on a charger and could swap them with the computer in standby (system had a bridge battery to keep it alive during the swap). Instant full charge!

removable batteries offer lots of flexibility. until we get solid state types that charge in seconds. or a fuel cell that we can refill...

 

But they'll be great devices!lol
Only visible through the Great Wall!

 

It's funny you should ask this. I actually attended a class that day or maybe the day before in e-stim (electrical stimulation) and had to present a paper on that very subject. So when I got home I was burned out and purposely, in order to rebel against my class, used the incorrect terminology. Yes, I meant 46 watt hours, the total capacity of the battery. I believe the Surface Pro 4 currently has 38 watt hours, so that'd be a nice boost when combined with the more efficient processor.

 

Battery improvements - here's why it ain't going to happen - take for example the following headline in this article at Mashable Tech (http://mashable.com/2017/02/06/mit-research-solid-lithium-ion-battery/?utm_cid=hp-r-2#5asX38BkBmqS):

"Faster and stronger lithium-ion batteries might be in our future"

Then read the "if, ands, and buts" in the guts of the article:

"Co-author Frank McGrogan agrees. This exact form of the sulfide won't be the solid material that makes it into the form of lithium-ion batteries we use today. But since the team can study its properties and design new battery systems around that knowledge, someday it could still have potential for use."

In other words, a theoretical finding about material performance that may one day lead to a development of a battery chemistry that has "potential use." Sure, the headline was another click bait job by Mashable, and they got me, but read the entire article and it is clear this is a field with tiny improvements on the horizon - nothing that will be earth shattering in our lifetimes. Now the real scientists around here have full right to take me to task about the scientific method, which is at play here and it take MANY small steps to get from theory to production, but my point is this is fraught with many of the same hopes and barriers that keep people hoping for "cold fusion" as well - and back to my diatribe that the answer for the foreseeable future is to give us aback a few precious mm of battery space in order to give us longer up times on battery usage.

 

enjoy all the reading of new battery technology. But wait 17 years after all rights have expired to see it get adopted. Sad to say, but most technologies exist nearly two decades before becoming widely adopted. Just look at how long color TV took to get to the masses.

 

Personally, I don't mind a silo-less and battery-removal-less device. As long as I can at least roll it up and it hardly weighs a thing. Paper with the power of a PC.



And we'll have libraries with these again!

 

Swap-able batteries are the best - but I don't think they are ever coming back (thin is in, and all that rot). But you are on to the only other potential (next five years) solution - ultra-fast recharging. What if you could get another 1-2 hours for a few minutes on a charger...hmmmmmm