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As testers have discovered in recent days, the Surface Pro runs out of juice after about four or five hours, give or take. (By comparison, the Apple iPad, one of the chief Surface Pro competitors on the tablet side, can go up to 10 hours without a charge.) 

The good news: Microsoft may be mulling the release of some battery-extending hardware. In an AMA over at Reddit (hat tip to PC Mag), Panos Panay, who heads the Surface division at Microsoft, discussed "future peripherals that can click in and do more." 

A precondition for those peripherals, he said, "would require extending the design of the accessory spine to include some way to transfer higher current between the peripheral and the main battery. Which we did...."

As Jared Newman of PC World notes, Mr. Panay is probably referring to the new connector plates at the bottom of the Surface Pro. 

So yes, don't count out the possibility of some more battery life for the Surface Pro just yet. 

Here's Mr. Newman again: 

The Surface Pro hits shelves this weekend. The device has received generally positive marks from reviewers, who have praised the blazing speed and fluid user experience. 

"The Surface Pro is an important idea, almost a new category, and it will be the right machine for a lot of people," opines David Pogue of the New York Times. "It strikes a spot on the size/weight/speed/software spectrum that no machine has ever struck."

Still, besides the battery-life issue, some critics have taken issue with the storage space, to boot – although Microsoft says its base model Surface Pro gets 64 GB, The Verge estimates it may be more like 23 GB of real, usable storage. 

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