Microsoft's new Surface Book gets 'about 3 hours' of battery life away from its keyboard

The Microsoft Surface Book only gets "about three hours" of battery life when away from its keyboard dock, according to a video from TechCrunch. 

In response to a question about battery life, a Microsoft employee explained that "three quarters of the battery is in the base, one quarter is in the top so you get about three hours of runtime in 'clipboard' mode." (The comments are made from 0:26.) 

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Microsoft is marketing the Surface Book as "the ultimate laptop" that can turn into a tablet, not vice versa, and so the keyboard-less battery life isn't too problematic. However anyone who wants to leave the dock at home will be disappointed. With the keyboard, the company claims the Surface Book can get up to 12 hours of video playback. 

A Microsoft retail employee took to Reddit to explain the charging situation of the Surface Book: "It appears to use the battery of the dock first, since its much bigger, then it switches and uses the very last part of the battery in the tablet as it winds closer to zero."