3ds/Vita battery life, why is this such an issue?

[cleveland4life]

I just want to be enlightened, why is 4:30 hours-5hours so absolutely terrible in terms of battery life? I understand the older systems had better but does anyone really play a handheld system for 5 hours in 1 day, in a sitting where they dont have the ability to charge it?

[Wilian]

I just want to be enlightened, why is 4:30 hours-5hours so absolutely terrible in terms of battery life? I understand the older systems had better but does anyone really play a handheld system for 5 hours in 1 day, in a sitting where they dont have the ability to charge it?

Summer cottage without electricity comes to my mind.

[Chrysia]

Summer cottage without electricity comes to my mind.

It would seem that if you are taking a Vita or 3DS to a summer cottage with no electricity, you don't actually want to be at the summer cottage. Go home, win.

[Aoyi]

I like to have one with me when I fly. As I'm usually sitting in the airport for an hour to an hour and a half before my flight, then in the air for 4-6 hours, I'd like it to have a bit more battery life. Outside of flying though, I think the battery works just fine. It just usually makes for a boring last hour or two of the flight with its current battery life (3DS).

[Skelington]

Skelington does all the time, yes. He has no open plugs near him(leaving this spot is not an option), and the charging cord is waaaaaaay over there. Convenience is always lovely, and more hours do just that.

[Duruka]

I'm almost always right next to a plug, but I do see how it could be an issue to some people. Hopefully it's something Nintendo will fix if they ever do a 3DS update (it's really the only thing they would have to update), as more battery life is always nice even if you don't necessarily need it.

[cleveland4life]

Skelington does all the time, yes. He has no open plugs near him(leaving this spot is not an option), and the charging cord is waaaaaaay over there. Convenience is always lovely, and more hours do just that.

Yea, of course id like a bagel that toasted itself-thats not what im talking about. Im talking about people who say this is the be all end all of both systems- that 5 hours is Dreadful, its like-How often do you plan on playing this for 5 hours with nothing near?

[mistuhbull]

I just want to be enlightened, why is 4:30 hours-5hours so absolutely terrible in terms of battery life? I understand the older systems had better but does anyone really play a handheld system for 5 hours in 1 day, in a sitting where they dont have the ability to charge it?

Trans Atlantic plane flight. Hell even Cali to NY or Hawaii is approaching the 6 hour mark, and often those flights won't have outlets since they are domestic

[Bubbletrance]

Yea, of course id like a bagel that toasted itself-thats not what im talking about. Im talking about people who say this is the be all end all of both systems- that 5 hours is Dreadful, its like-How often do you plan on playing this for 5 hours with nothing near?

Two reasons:
1) 5 hours is where it STARTS at. Have your system for 6 months - 1 year? It'll probably be down to 3.0 - 4.0 hours max life.
2) The battery is difficult to swap out. It's hinders carrying extras.

That's just bad design. It is dreadful, and there's really no reason for it.

[Minrolol]

Yea, of course id like a bagel that toasted itself-thats not what im talking about. Im talking about people who say this is the be all end all of both systems- that 5 hours is Dreadful, its like-How often do you plan on playing this for 5 hours with nothing near?

Some people don't just play handhelds for the convicne of gaming on the go some play them to enjoy the actual games they cant get on consoles. 4-5 hours is not a lot depending on the person. I used to travel a lot ontop of enjoying some handheld only games I can honestly say 4-5 hours isnt great but it isnt doomsday.

Just a little sad I can only watch two hour and a half movies then play a game for a little while if the system can do both. But like others have said the more battery life the better.

[cleveland4life]

Two reasons:
1) 5 hours is where it STARTS at. Have your system for 6 months - 1 year? It'll probably be down to 3.0 - 4.0 hours max life.
2) The battery is difficult to swap out. It's hinders carrying extras.

That's just bad design. It is dreadful, and there's really no reason for it.

I didint mind this comment till you said the design was dreadful, I dont think your an engineer for all you know it was the only option. But all I see people complaining about is scenarios that happen once a year, how often are you watching 2 movies outside? Like really.

[Chrysia]

Two reasons:
1) 5 hours is where it STARTS at. Have your system for 6 months - 1 year? It'll probably be down to 3.0 - 4.0 hours max life.
2) The battery is difficult to swap out. It's hinders carrying extras.

That's just bad design. It is dreadful, and there's really no reason for it.

I think the main problem here is people are underestimating the power requirements of these things. If I remember right, the 3DS gains a nice surge in battery life if you turn the 3D slider to off, which a lot of people do anyway since it's so damn finicky.

Now, with the Vita, if I remember right, it's using Discs again. Discs take a lot of energy to spin. Short battery life isn't that surprising. Could they have gone for more? Sure, but then they either need to make it bigger, or switch away from discs, their preferred storage media.

[cleveland4life]

I think the main problem here is people are underestimating the power requirements of these things. If I remember right, the 3DS gains a nice surge in battery life if you turn the 3D slider to off, which a lot of people do anyway since it's so damn finicky.

Now, with the Vita, if I remember right, it's using Discs again. Discs take a lot of energy to spin. Short battery life isn't that surprising. Could they have gone for more? Sure, but then they either need to make it bigger, or switch away from discs, their preferred storage media.

No, its not-Its just running a quad core processor.

[Chrysia]

No, its not-Its just running a quad core processor.

Aah, then I remembered wrong. It would, indeed, be the processor chewing up battery life then. Quad cores aren't power light.

[Worgenite]

Summer cottage without electricity comes to my mind.

if you go to a summer cottage with no electricity, I'm sure even the older systems would run out of power(or at least gba sp, ds, and psp) before you got back to civilization. The older ones had batteries as power so that'd be a moot point.

As for flying, if your game goes dead, you'll be @ less than an hour without a game, 2 at most. Will the world really end if you sit bored in a plane for an hour? Read a book then. Or listen to music or something. Life doesn't revolve around games only :3

[pacox]

3-5 hours of continuous play is amazing. I remember having to carry around a pack of batteries with my gameboy. Any situation where you are going to be playing in 3-5 hr stretchs on Vita or 3DS is probably near an outlet. Its not hard to get a car charger or an outlet. Outlets are everywhere now because of cellphones and laptops. Personally I couldn't even play a handheld game that long. In the rare cases I do its alway near an outlet. The battery life is more than enough for the average gamer.

---------- Post added 2012-02-14 at 02:49 AM ----------

I think the main problem here is people are underestimating the power requirements of these things. If I remember right, the 3DS gains a nice surge in battery life if you turn the 3D slider to off, which a lot of people do anyway since it's so damn finicky.

Now, with the Vita, if I remember right, it's using Discs again. Discs take a lot of energy to spin. Short battery life isn't that surprising. Could they have gone for more? Sure, but then they either need to make it bigger, or switch away from discs, their preferred storage media.

The Vita certainly isn't using disc. Most of its games are in the PSN Store but the physical copies are like SD Cards.

[Insanoflex]

i have no problem with my 3ds battery life.. this just reminds me of people whininig about iphone / mobile battery life after heavy use. oh no the battery is dying because i used the device heavily.

[Mistral]

I really often run out-of-battery when I play outside. And I don't like it to carry wires in my bed too. I really wish the 3DS would have a little bit more staying power.
That being said, it's not the end of the world and I bough myself one nonetheless.

[Majik8ball]

13 hour flight from LAX to Heathrow. 2-3 round trip flights a year. If my 3DS had a 15 hour battery life, I would cry from sheer joy

[Brightamethyst]

How often do you plan on playing this for 5 hours with nothing near?

If I'm playing a portable system at all it's probably because I'm somewhere without power. As someone who travels a lot I yearn for the days of longer lasting and/or replaceable batteries. My original gameboy would last an entire 10 hour car ride on a single set of batteries. Current systems barely last half that.

3-5 hours of continuous play is amazing. I remember having to carry around a pack of batteries with my gameboy.

Yeah, you needed AA batteries, but you got like 10-15 hours of life from them.