Day 5 – Battery life and the Surface Pro
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet3/16/2013
Welcome to Day 5 of working with a Microsoft Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet for educators.
I now have two Windows 8 tablets in my life.
The first is a Samsung Ativ 500T Smart PC that I purchased to find out for myself if all the hype around the completely redesigned Windows 8 and the newly released tablet form factors would be worthy devices for teacher and student use.
They are!
I blogged about my Samsung Ativ 500T experience here as a series of blog posts similar to what I am doing with this Surface Pro.
The Samsung Ativ 500T is a wonderful device and after using it daily over the past three months it has become a favorite.
The only bad thing to say about the Ativ 500T is that I sometimes need more horsepower to get the heavy lifting done. Things like video editing and screencasting would strain the Clover Trail processor of the Ativ 500T so I would offload those tasks to a “real PC” with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor.
Enter the Surface Pro.
I am just beginning to explore and push the Surface Pro to its limits but so far I am impressed. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a “real PC” with an Intel i5 processor, 4GB RAM, and a 128GB SSD hard drive. It is fast, especially compared to the Clover Trail tablet I have been using.
The down side to all of this speed and power is that it only gets about half of the battery life of my Ativ 500T. I usually get over 10 hours of battery life on the Ativ 500T and rarely even think about running out of battery.
The Surface Pro on the other hand has been getting a little over 5 hours battery-life. This is comparable to other Ultrabooks on the market but I do need to “pace” the way I use the Surface Pro.
Since I am using the Surface Pro in my office much of the time I have been trying to form the habit of connecting the Surface Pro to its magnetic electrical connector that snaps on while using it at my desk. That way I just disconnect the magnetic catch and I am off to meetings or the classroom with a topped off battery. I really have not had any battery issues since I am aware of the need to connect the Surface Pro to the charger when available.
The Surface Pro gives you a battery is low warning with about 10% of charge remaining. I will get a second warning when the batter gets below 6% of charge left. At this point I shut it off and find an electrical outlet to recharge the battery. It is nice to get the two warnings.
Since I now have both devices I have been choosing the Ativ 500T as my “evening tablet” for browsing the web, listening to podcasts/music, watching videos, reading ebooks, and checking email. All light duty tasks.
If I need to get some “real work” done I have now moved the Surface Pro as my machine of choice when more horsepower is needed. I will be leaving the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook at the office and choosing to bring the lighter (2.3 pounds) Surface Pro home with me for work purposes.
I have been editing the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast with the Clover Trail Ativ 500T tablet for the past 3 months. This month I used the Surface Pro with its i5 processor to edit Episode 147 of TechTalk4Teachers and the extra horsepower was a big improvement over the Ativ 500T Clover Trail processor.
The Surface Pro really is a joy to edit an audio podcast with. I use the Audacity program and the digital Pen that comes with the Surface Pro for the edits. The Pen input is very fluid and precise and allows for very accurate selection of audio for editing purposes. Works great.
I love the Pen input available on the Surface Pro!
This is what a “Tablet PC” should have been all along. The technology has finally caught up with the Tablet PC vision with the Surface Pro.
Until next time...
Keep on Learning,
Tom Grissom, PhDKeep on Learning,
Blogged on my Surface Pro
Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom
Please subscribe and listen to the TechTalk4Teachers Podcast:
http://techtalk4teachers.blogspot.com
ITC Website:
http://eiu.edu/itc,
ITC Chronicles Blog:
http://eiuitc.blogspot.com/?view=magazine
ITC Website:
http://eiu.edu/itc,
ITC Chronicles Blog:
http://eiuitc.blogspot.com/?view=magazine
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