Surface Pro 8 battery lasts only 4 hours on average use but advertised to last 16hr!

With respect, the tablet, even using the settings here, is NOT lasting the advertised promise.

I'm not sure what or how you test them, but the most I can get out of average use is about 6 continuous hours, not 11. The only way to get that would be to reduce the screen brightness to a level so low as to be almost useless.

I've tried this over several days and that is the result. And I only used it for writing and a bit of surfing, no game playing.

That said I'm pretty happy with the device. I just sincerely question who comes up with your figures. They are NOT, in my view, realistic. Maybe a robot can read the print when its below .... 30%, 20% or 10% screen brightness? But most of us CAN'T!

I do like my SP8. The exchanged one does charge to 100% and its a much slower walk to critical battery level. But you're living in La La Land if you think a normal person can use it up to 10-11 hours. IN the real world 6 USABLE hours is the max before a charge is necessary...unless you want it to run a screen saver all day.

I just wish Microsoft was more honest about the device's capabilities and priced it according to that. Otherwise its a nice unit with good horsepower...for Word and surfing... (I don't use it for gaming)...and likely a variety of other tasks. It boots up faster than my 'big rig' desktop too. But it DOES NOT HIT or COME CLOSE to the advertised length of usage on one charge. PERIOD.

IF you have further suggestions, let me know. For now I'm keeping an extra battery pack with me just in case I'm not near a plug during the day.

I appreciate what you say. But I don't have a 'nits' meter so what you're telling me is largely irrelevant. What I need to know to give an INFORMED response is what percentage of brightness those 'nits' represent!
Right now mine has automatic settings and I think a peak brightness of around 60%, but don't expect me to tell you what it is in "nits." That's like asking me to explain what the wind-chill is in watts. People don't think in tech-babble. We are practical and as a practical person and one who generally knows his way around a Windows machine, you need to speak in those terms.

I can tell you the size of the SSD and I understand RAM, CPU SPEED (including the core count and hyper-threading) and WIFI. I know how a web-browser works too and am often torn between which one I prefer, Chrome, and Edge, though I usually use EDGE because it is convenient.

That said I really think that my usage is far below even your testing. And even with that it still DOES NOT APPROACH what is advertised. I use it for FB, mostly, and general web browsing, with at the most TWO or THREE TABS OPEN. I also do a bit of banking and online shopping (Amazon). Beyond that the 'heaviest' use involves writing emails, and editing my book. With such a low power draw, I'd EXPECT it to reach the advertised level, or darn close to it.

IT DOES NOT. I am not making this up! IF I get six hours straight use, that's good but still NOWHERE NEAR what I believe you Microsoft advertises. That is the TRUTH!

I don't believe the unit is flawed. I simply believe that you guys have EXAGGERATED the length of battery life. Previous to this tablet I had a Surface Go 3. I loooooved the form factor. It was smaller but much easier for me to carry around. And I would have kept it, even with a slower processor, IF IT'S BATTERY LIFE lasted as long as it was advertised (I barely got 3 hours, with similar usage). But I traded it in and upgraded this beast simply because i felt the batter life was better. IT IS but it's a bigger machine (which I really don't like, the 10-inch form factor being ideal for me) and has more power (which I do like) but it also costs more and not as practical to lug around.

Anyhow, like I said, I don't know what you guys are using to test your machines. Honestly you need to reevaluate your criterion and speak in HUMAN TALK not tech-babble. Tell me what percentage of brightness your 'nits' represent? Tell me what power-draining apps I should keep closed. I still have it only on 60 hzs refresh, too.

Again I'm not a power user. If I want to play games, my BIG RIG Desktop will blow away any Surface or similar tablet. I need this tablet for portability, usability and reliability (battery). AS it stands I was forced to buy a 65 watt battery back up and an accessory to allow it to charge up my tablet when it got low on juice, which was about a $100.00 outlay, not including the fact I had to get an MS Keyboard.

So if you have any suggestions on how to improve battery life without requiring me to squint or use bright lights in the room to see my typing, or to somehow reduce the power of the CPU so it saves juice without compromising speed, LET ME KNOW. Otherwise I suggest you FIRE the testers because they are not accurate.

6 hrs, of web browsing, word processing and emails is the most I can get out of this even after the tricks you asked me to use. That's a big disappointment and makes me leery of trusting Microsoft tablets in the future. Plus I paid a PREMIUM PRICE along with EXTRAS to make this last a full day (8 hrs.) and it does not!
So, any more suggestions or do you want to admit there is a degree of false advertising going on?! Which is it? I'm not lying about what I said. But someone at Microsoft clearly IS!

We have noticed that you haven’t replied to our last response. We would like to know if you still need assistance with your concern.

A few months ago I got fed up with it and got a iPad mini new generation. It works great. It actually looks very very good. It’s smaller lighter, and much more efficient. I should’ve bought this in the first place.

So I’m done with the Surface tablet.

Thank you for posting your inquiry here in Microsoft Community, I.M.Ulysses.

I understand that having a device with a longer battery life is very important specially for daily use. The Surface devices undergo series of extensive battery stress test before it goes live for sale. Let's try to perform the methods below from Maximize your Surface battery life - Microsoft Support and see what's going on:

• Run the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check the settings for new Windows Update.
• Run the System File Checker.
• Refresh the Battery Driver. Go to device manager > Expand Batteries > Right-click Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System then choose Uninstall. > Restart the device.

- Check the Power modeslider. For best battery life, the slider should be set to **Balanced.**Go **** to settings > system > power & battery > under power mode, click the drop-down then choose Balanced.

• Check the app that shows a big impact in battery usage graph. Go to settings > Power & battery > Battery usage.
• After checking the Battery Usage graph, check task manager > under Processes, the app/s may stay active or running on the background even if you close them. If this happens, it will drain so much of your battery.
• Please disable the apps that starts automatically when the device is turned on. Task Manager > Startup
• Manually install the drivers package. Download the driver and firmware for your Surface, choose Surface Pro 8 and click download on the next page. Please choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next. After the download, runand installthe .msi then Restart the Surface Device.

Let me know how this goes.