What is Surface Laptop 2 battery life like?

Significant improvement on the previous model

During the course of our Surface Laptop 2 review battery life was one of the key metrics we benchmarked. Using the PC Mark 8 Home Battery test, the Intel Core i5 Surface Laptop 2 came away with a score of six hours and 20 minutes.

The Core i5 2017 model Surface Laptop, by comparison, scored only five hours and seven minutes. Not only is the Surface Laptop 2 better, it's significantly better. You can expect at least a full extra hour of use from the Surface Laptop 2 over its predecessor.

It doesn't run any cooler than the original Surface Laptop, but the fan noise is fairly low, and when you consider that the Surface Laptop 2 has made the jump to a quad-core processor, it makes the results all the more pleasing.

Surface Laptop 2 handily beats Surface Pro 6

Not only is the Surface Laptop 2 a significant improvement on its predecessor, but it's also much stronger in the battery department than the Surface Pro 6.

At five hours and 25 minutes from the same PC Mark 8 test, the Surface Pro 6 outperforms the first Surface Laptop, but falls a long way short of the Surface Laptop 2.

If battery life is a key factor, the Surface Laptop 2 has the edge, and when you consider the pricing of a Surface Pro 6 with a Type Cover, the Surface Laptop 2 looks even more attractive.

Don't be alarmed by the benchmark

It's easy to look at the figures above and be a little alarmed. But you shouldn't be. The PC Mark test is designed to leverage both the CPU and GPU, and so it will always come out lower than you'd expect to see in day to day life.

Indeed, more regular computing, such as web browsing, media consumption, and work inside apps like Microsoft Office will yield a much stronger battery life. Microsoft's claims of 14.5 hours might be a stretch, but in everyday use, you can easily expect 8-10 hours from it.