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Microsoft's (MSFT) Next Surface Tablet is One Battery-Hungry Beast

November 30, 2012 6:49 AM EST
Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) new Surface Pro tablet should be amazing! If you can get your work done rather quickly, that is.

It's no secret that most mobile device users have "battery life" at the top of their list as most desired qualities in the next item they purchase. Most also suspect that the newest of devices will have a strong affinity toward power management which will extend battery life.

Microsoft is looking to break that trend via its new Surface Pro tablet. According to reports out Friday, Microsoft's upcoming portable PC will have about four hours of battery life when flying solo (read: not plugged into an outlet).

The announcement actually came from Microsoft itself, which said the Surface Pro will have about half the battery like of the Surface RT. Given that the RT is expected to last about eight hours, well, you can figure out the rest.

BoyGeniusReport is quick to point out one key detail behind this: the processor. While Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad 3 and iPad 4 will get about 10 hours of life on one charge, Microsoft's Surface Pro is a heavy-duty machine running an Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Core i5 processor...something you might find in a high-end PC. That means the Surface Pro is built to do work and doing work means it takes up more energy. You don't feed a pro football linebacker carrot sticks for dinner, right?

Shares of Microsoft are slightly lower Friday morning.


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