The battery status appears in several places:

Windows alerts you when the battery starts to get low. When you’re alerted, be sure to attach the power supply. If you don’t recharge the battery, your Surface will eventually save your work and shut down.

Charging your Surface

When the battery is low, charge your Surface using the included power supply.

Important

Your Surface is designed to work best with the included power supply. Using a third-party power supply may result in slow charging.

Is it charging?

To make sure your Surface is charging, look in the lower-left corner of the taskbar for the battery status. When your Surface is charging, the battery icon appears with an electrical plug. Once the battery is fully charged, you can remove the power cord from the charging port.

How long does it take to charge Surface?

It can take a few hours to charge the battery fully from an empty state. It can take longer if you’re using your Surface for power-intensive activities like gaming or video streaming while you’re charging it.

The batteries in Surface Book may also charge at different rates, depending on the power state of each battery. Whichever battery has less than 20 percent remaining charge will be charged first. When both batteries reach this level, the clipboard will charge to 85 percent, and then both batteries will charge to 100 percent.

USB charging port (Surface Book and Surface Pro models only)

The power supply that comes with Surface Book and Surface Pro models includes a USB port. You can use it to charge other devices, like a phone, while your Surface charges.

Note

The Surface Pro 4 with Core M processor does not have a USB port on the charger.

The USB port on the power supply is only for charging, not for data transfer. Your Surface won’t recognize devices connected to the USB port on the power supply. If you want to use a USB device, plug it into the USB port on your Surface.

On, off, sleep, and restart

If you don’t use your Surface for a while, the screen may dim or your Surface may go into a power-saving sleep state to preserve battery life. In Settings, you can change when your Surface enters this power-saving state.

Change when the display dims and turns off

Turn off your Surface

• Go to Start , and select Power > Shut down.

Use Windows tips to improve Surface performance

First, see Battery saving tips in Windows 10 to learn how to make your battery charge last longer. For additional ways to save power with your Surface, read the following tips.

Surface and Windows updates

Installing the latest updates will help keep your Surface performing at its best. Get available updates via Settings > Update & security > Windows Update.

Adjust Power & sleep settings

Open Settings > System > Power & sleep. Enable Save me power when my device knows I’m away. Also, select Always or When I close the lid for the When my PC is asleep and on battery power, disconnect from the network setting, if these options are available to you.

Reduce screen brightness. Lowering the brightness to the lowest practical level for how the device is currently used can help save power. Just open Action Center from the notification area or swipe in from the right and tap Brightness to switch among the available levels.