Terrible battery life surface laptop 5- 1% drained per minute

Hey!

I’m facing the same issue with the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5. I switched from a MacBook Pro M1 about a year ago because I needed to run specific software on Windows, but I deeply regret it.

The battery life is nowhere near the advertised 16-18 hours. On Windows, I barely get 3 hours, which is incredibly frustrating and feels like false advertising. For those struggling with the same problem, I suggest trying Ubuntu. After installing it, I’ve noticed the battery life improves to around 4-5 hours, which is still not great but a bit more manageable.

Next time, I’m definitely sticking with a Mac.

Hope this helps someone!

I have to agree with you all. I just bought the Surface 5 and my old Surface 2 has a far greater battery performance. It's disappointing as it's one of the biggest companies in the World to have got this so wrong.

It's a great laptop, however, the battery is so far from the advertised 16-18 hours.

I am also about 1% per minute sitting on Edge only doing my University studies.

That is having explored the battery saver options, etc.

I am at best getting 3 hours out of this new surface 5 with 1 to 2 tabs open and actually fretting not to open anymore.

Can you comment further Marrion on why this is happening having looked over your feedback above?

Kind regards,

Jason Metters

Same here - I bought mine on May 1st, 2023, and the battery's been poor the whole time. I started a new remote position on May 2, 2023, and thought it was the docking station- it is not! I wish I had returned it, but, I was busy and could not fathom it being a systemic issue. My company bought me a new Lenovo X1 and I've sent the Surface in for repair twice. Definitely, go through the support steps in the App so you can chat with someone - otherwise, they try to charge you for the repair (using that term loosely). As someone said, Microsoft did not tell me what they did as repairs, and It still has issues.

This is a known issue; if you read this and are in the return window, wipe it and return it.

Hi Chloe_762,

We haven't heard from you, so we assume that your issue has already been resolved. We will not be monitoring this thread moving forward so, if you need further assistance, please create a new thread to discuss these concerns by clicking this link: Create a new question or start a discussion (microsoft.com)

Thank you for understanding. 

Kind regards,
Marrion

Hi Chloe_762,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community and apologies for the inconvenience this has caused you. We understand how frustrating it is not to be able to get the worth of our hard-earned money when our device does not live up to its expectations.

Yes, the Surface Laptop 5 (13.5") is advertised to have up to 18 hours of battery life based on typical Surface device usage. Testing conducted by Microsoft in August 2022 using preproduction software and preproduction 13.5” Intel® Core™ i5, 256GB, 8GB RAM device. Testing consisted of full battery discharge with a mixture of active use and modern standby.  The active use portion consists of (1) a web browsing test accessing eight popular websites over multiple open tabs, (2) a productivity test utilizing Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote and Outlook, and (3) a portion of time with the device in use with idle applications. All settings were default except screen brightness was set to 150 nits with Auto-Brightness disabled.  Wi-Fi was connected to a network.  Tested with Windows Version 11.0.22621 (21H2).  Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage and other factors. (Surface Laptop 5: Fast, lightweight laptop with touchscreen | Microsoft Surface)

Kindly try going to Windows Settings > System > Power & Battery. Select View detailed info. Under Battery usage per app, check to see which app are affecting the battery life of the device. There are several sort options including "background" to help identify. Validate if there are any installed applications that may be using a lot of power.

In regard to options is getting your Surface serviced, yes, I understand that your device is still in warranty, and you should not be paying the fee in getting service. Please reach out to our support instead for further assistance on this as we do not have the necessary tools here to assist you when it comes to submitting the device for service. You may reach our live support through these steps:

1. Go to Contact Us - Microsoft Support
2. Choose how you would like to get support for your Surface device.
3. Type in the problem you need help with.
4. Look at any available solutions offered and select Contact Support.

Kind regards,
Marrion