MARCH 2020 • TECH ADVISOR 21of ‘25 hours’. Yes, the size of the battery matters.
SodoesthefactthattheSQ1is a semi-customchip
that’sbeentweaked for performance.
Butlet’stakea lookatthenumbers.We’ve
usedthedongle-streamingnumberasthemost
comparableto our other tests.
StreamingoverBluetooth:Sixhours, 25 minutes
Streaming over a USB-C dongle: Eight hours, 41
minutes
PCMark10’sbatterytest:Eighthours, 23 minutes
Real-world: Six hours, 46 minutes
That last number was a bit of a shocker, as you
would think that would be the most accurate test of
theSurfaceProX’sbatterylife.Butmytestssimply
reflectedwhat I do during an average day: I drove to
BART, found a seat on the train, connected via the
SurfaceProX’sintegratedcellularconnection,and
usedExcel, Word, the Mail app, and the built-in Edge
client. At work, I remained on cellular.
It’s worth noting that I had performed a battery
rundown test the night before, so I had only managed
to charge it to 72 percent by the time I left. But that
meant that I was at 4 percent battery by 12:49pm,
which extrapolated out to under seven hours of use.
Some of the glitches
Living with the Surface Pro X also forces you to
acknowledging that not everything works – a deal-
breaker right away for some, especially where apps
are concerned. But I was really annoyed to pull out