@Perry59 You could install an app like BatteryBar Pro to see the power drain live. Then divide the battery capacity by power draw to see estimated battery life. That way you can see the effect of screen brightness, power profile, wifi etc clearly.
I’ll give that a try, thanks Joe.
I always keep it on the “recommended” setting, brightness @ 60 and refresh @ 60
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So just an FYI though once again, MS is stupidly short on detail…
There is a new version of the surface management extension in the store as of yesterday. One of my engineers got an email from an MS engineer that it has "significant improvements to smart battery management "
We are trying this morning to see what’s changed, though on the four systems (including mine) that we’ve installed it on so far, two of them now have the heart icon on the battery indicator and two of them that had them now do not, but instead show, on my system anyway, battery at 76% and that is is charging to 100%.
Obviously, they tweaked some things, but it’s unclear if it’s better, worse, or just different. 
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A 
isn’t a significant improvement?
Why do they overthink these things? My Lenovo has a switch that limits charge to 80%. It’ll drop below, charge back up, and never exceed that 80% until I flip the switch off. Easy; foolproof.
My Samsung Galaxy Book 12 from 2016 has the same kind of battery life extension switch, set to 85% max, and it has done its job flawlessly.
Stop trying to invent a better mousetrap, Microsoft. Don’t you have more important things to work on? Like WOA?
Wait, maybe it’s a bad idea to shift the ones responsible for the “heart” to anything important…
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It’s anecdotal at this point, but we’ve heard from several customers that the charge level reported is inconsistent in real world use and that there have been batteries that died significantly sooner than the charge level would lead you to expect.
In MS slight defense, what they are trying to do is good in principle especially for those that keep their systems for multiple years (unlike most here 
).
But this also one of those things that both has a huge number of variables, and is very difficult to do optimally for a majority of users.
Apple with their iPhone probably does better than anyone else, but it’s literally been multiple years and generations of IOS to get it where it is today.
Not only that, but phones have at least a somewhat more predictable basic use pattern. I.E> most people take the phone off the charger in the morning when they start their day and plug it in when they end their day. And of course, there is significant variability within that.
What you talk about is good, and works for you, but I’d speculate that the vast majority of people don’t show or want to for that matter, that level of engagement. In fact, I’d speculate the only ones that really pay attention are the ones that have been let down in the past.
Finally companies have another less obvious reason to at least attempt this which isn’t’ directly related to day-to-day use. That reason is a green one in that longer battery useful life means less going into the landfill. Apple even said as much when they started in earnest to be more environmentally friendly.
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Which fights with the other green one in that shorter battery lifetime equals more greenbacks as people buy new devices. Which makes the all-important quarterlies look better. 
Years ago Lenovo systems had a smart charging like system that caused unexpected shutdowns. I think the cause was that the incomplete charging would cause the internal battery calibration to drift/adapt, making the battery misreport actual charge level. Result: users would see a battery claiming to be at 40%, and then absolutely die because in reality the charge was fully depleted. A few full charge and discharge cycles would fix it, minus any permanent damage to the battery. Seems like proper battery management is hard.
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It really is. With our own custom devices, it’s something we’ve learned the hard way, multiple times.
What many don’t realize that a batteries capacity can shift both upward and downward over time, dependent on how/when/where its used.
For example, NICAD is infamous for the memory effect, where if your usage was typically three hours of battery use before you recharge, you’d eventually end up with a battery that lasted three hours.
Lithium Ion batteries have their own quirks as well especially when it comes to average ambient temperature. One of which puzzled us for months was that if for example a given battery was regularly charged/discharged at 65 degrees, the battery life would drop significantly if you changed it to say 50 degrees. And of course most would make the obvious inference that colder temps equals shorter battery life.
But what can be baffling is that the same drop is true if the average ambient temp is changed to 80 degrees. And to confound things even further, the battery in essence “recovers” to some degree if the new “norm” for temperature is sustained for a significant period.
And now you add performance and efficiency cores to the mix, not to mention things like Turboing. or “fast charging”…
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Anyone ever heard of replaceable batteries before (yes, a little thicker device, or another hatch, but hey, why should we be able to put in another battery when the first dies on an international flight…what a novel idea…
Oh, right, we have to remove the SCREEN instead of the base plate…
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And then you get the confusions when battery tech changes. Because of the prevalence of lithium batteries in nearly everything nowadays, some have forgotten (or never knew) the quirks and requirements for previous generation tech. Thus as a volunteer campground host more and more often I encounter RVers with dead and unresponsive lead acid house batteries because they were drained to empty repeatedly. Mostly younger folks as one would expect—they’re less likely to have lead acid battery experience. But seniors as well, newcomers to off-grid life.
One older couple last summer were astonished and almost disbelieving when I explained that their shiny new Airstream trailer’s “deep cycle” batteries were toast due to their admitted frequent draining below 50% to keep the furnace fans blowing all night. They had to abandon their campsite and stay down the mountain in town at a full hookup commercial campground the rest of their stay. Replacement batteries were a 150 mi round trip away.
/end off-topic anecdote
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That ship has long sailed and ain’t never coming back around.
Not only that, but most of the OEM’s pitch now argues that making the batteries nonreplaceable is actually more environmentally friendly in the long term, including everything from users not being able to casually discard them, to less plastic etc. and other raw materials being used in manufacture.
My Vaio TT from the late 00s had the feature too as did Thinkpads back then. Why can’t MS give us this old feature as an option? It be nice to just limit charge to 80% at nights & weekends.
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Yup, they can bury it where it won’t cause hypothetical harm to less hardcore users if they want. I’m still not seeing any downside, only upsides, to allowing that (hidden) choice. And if it’s such a bad idea I wonder why Lenovo and Samsung are still giving the option on their latest Windows 11 laptops. Are they ignorant of things that Microsoft knows better? Sorry, I’m just not buying it. 
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yep, my old samsung tablet had that feature and worked fine. Had this pro8 almost two months now and it still charges to 100% every time I plug it in. Don’t like that.
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One thing I really DO hate about the surface pro is that it turns on WAY to easy, just barely touch the button and it turns on. It’s turned on several times while in my bag and that’s bad!
Again, my old samsung you had to hold the power button for a couple seconds and then, if it was dark you would be prompted to press the volume button to confirm turning it on. A very smart feature that MS sorely lacks
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one other thing that irks me about the surface pro is that when I’m browsing a website and scrolling with my finger it will often just scale the page larger, then you have to scroll down to return it to normal size. I know you can pinch-zoom with two fingers but didn’t know you could do with just one, when you don’t want to. My samsung never did this.
I’ve seen this with the Surface Duo in Firefox: tap-drag is the same as pinch zoom. Can be annoying at times. Edge doesn’t seem to do it though.
I didn’t think I was “tap dragging” but maybe my finger was on the screen for a second prior to dragging. I also don’t recall if it was happening in chrome or edge or both. I will experiment a bit to narrow it down
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and now, windows hello is broken “can’t turn on camera” really having second thoughts about this purchase