Tests show significant battery life improvements with Surface Pro 2 firmware update

An important factor for laptops, tablets and other mobile hardware is battery life. After Microsoft released the Surface Pro 2, the company pushed out a firmware update enabling the WiFi to go into lower power states and utilise even less power. AnandTech has run another battery life benchmark for the product after updating to see just how much of an improvement we're looking at. 

Too long, don't read version? The improvements are fairly significant. We'll simply grab a few of the results and cover them here for a short read, though we strongly urge you to head on over to AnandTech to enjoy the full read through. So, what benchmarks were ran? First up is a web browsing battery life test, simply because we all go through numerous web pages while on the go.

You'll now be able to take advantage of the web for well over 8 hours. That's not bad considering the original version lasted under 7 hours. In fact, the Surface Pro 2 overtook the ARM Surface 2. We'll look at one more, video playback. Playing through a Harry Potter movie (720p, 4Mbps HP H.264), the test showed improvements once again, with a considerable boost in battery life.

Even though there are improvements, the product and chip still lags behind competitor hardware, including the Surface 2 with video playback. However, it's positive to see such advances being made without having to purchase new hardware. Microsoft's tablet (sporting an Intel Haswell chip) is a solid performer considering just how much functionality is packed inside (sensors, capacitive touch, etc.). 

That said, 7 hours for video playback will get you through a film or two, which isn't bad going - especially with an i5 processor with a full HD display.

Head on over to AnandTech for the full test and read through.

Source: AnandTech