3DS - It's been said before but DAMN

[fishsandwich]

The battery life on the 3DS really is appalling. I'm averaging a little over 3 hours on the new Zelda with the 3D turned OFF.

I almost feel like I'm back to playing a Sega Game Gear except that I can recharge it overnight instead of buying a load of batteries.

Anyone familiar with the company Mugen? They claim to have a battery that lasts 4.5 hours than the normal 3DS battery. Costs $100 though. Says out of stock.

http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/mugen-power-5800mah-extended-battery-for-nintendo-3ds.html

I've been spoiled by the GBA.


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[substantial_snake]

Wow.

That reminds me of playing the GTA games on psp. They seemed to get about 3 hours out of the system before they started dying. That is pretty disappointing, definitely waiting for the hardware revision for the 3DS here.

[skaar]

Yeah I'm having that problem myself. Charging it every day now, just playing Zelda DX.

[jamesfriedman]

That is pretty pathetic. And if you are playing on 3D I would suspect that the battery would drain even faster. That just plain sucks. If it were me and I wanted to enjoy a game like Zelda, I would invest in the higher capacity battery. But check the reviews on the 'net first.
__________________
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Lego games rule. I like one to have LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon (http://www.squidoo.com/lego-star-wars-millennium-falcon-) and the lego harry potter hogwarts castle (http://hubpages.com/hub/LEGO-Harry-Potter-Hogwarts-Castle-Full-Review) in it.

[alec006]

Well back to the ole tethered to the charger trick, works every time. :)

[Robocop2]

The abysmal battery life is one of the things that has kept me from getting a 3DS. Perhaps with time that will change.

[Emuaust]

its all part of a clever Nintendo plan, once the 3DSi/3DSlite or whatever the next model will be comes with with a proper battery life they will make even more 2k monies selling you the hardware all over again!!

[pixelsnpolygons]

They should have made it black and white and released 3DS Color a couple years from now when the battery was strong enough to handle it. To be honest, portable battery life has never been an issue for me. I usually would never play a portable game for more than 3 hours without easily being able to plug it in. However, I'll be flying to Australia next month and Ocarina of Time would have been perfect for the combined 30+ hours of flying. There actually might be a plug between each seat (I guess some Airbus jets have them), but I'm not holding my breath. No doubt the battery life will improve with the inevitable 3DS revisions but that will ultimately involve me buying a whole new unit.

[dairugger]

i dont get what the big deal is, its the price we pay for console-like power in your pocket. In this day and age when you need to recharge your phone at least once a day, charging your handhelds not a problem. btw, nyko i believe also makes a extended battery which costs 29.99 with the cradle.

[substantial_snake]

i dont get what the big deal is, its the price we pay for console-like power in your pocket. In this day and age when you need to recharge your phone at least once a day, charging your handhelds not a problem. btw, nyko i believe also makes a extended battery which costs 29.99 with the cradle.

Yes because the DS with comparable N64 capabilities was such a power hog.

[kupomogli]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_5a-ir0UQnn4/SR-f4wfKmgI/AAAAAAAABjc/LU39tGI1y5k/s200/PowerPig+%28orson+from+Garfield%29.gif

[Ed Oscuro]

i dont get what the big deal is, its the price we pay for console-like power in your pocket. In this day and age when you need to recharge your phone at least once a day, charging your handhelds not a problem. btw, nyko i believe also makes a extended battery which costs 29.99 with the cradle.
What phone are you using that you have to recharge it every day? Standby times of less than days are considered scandalous now.

[dairugger]

i was trying to be positive, my mistake, i forgot the cool thing on the web is to whine about everything. gotcha! ;-)

[dairugger]

What phone are you using that you have to recharge it every day? Standby times of less than days are considered scandalous now.

a htc evo, but i use it to watch netflix, browse the web, etc. im used to having it in the charging dock while im not using it.

[Ed Oscuro]

In that case, it's probably worth considering that you are able to use it through the full day doing a pretty heavy load of practical mixed tasks...but it's not constantly draining the battery doing those things, which is important. Plugging it in from habit is pretty universal.

In my view, this isn't a fatal flaw, but it's bumping up against it. 3 hours is a long time to game - for one session only, though I expect people will keep bumping up against that limit all the time. Given the right game, I could see myself bumping up against that run time - and wouldn't it suck if you were right in the middle of something?

From the business perspective, this is interesting because it shows Nintendo clearly abandoning the less graphics-intensive platforms they have championed openly since the Wii and the DS, for the bleeding-edge (expensive, now in various ways) model that they have been quick to criticize from competition. That said, from a developer's perspective this is probably no big deal because it's probably an easier and more capable machine - more in line with what developers are expecting. The core 3D chip even has its own Futuremark (Mad Onion, 3DMark-style) demo.

Expect public wall sockets to be hogged constantly in the near future.

[dairugger]

In that case, it's probably worth considering that you are able to use it through the full day doing a pretty heavy load of practical mixed tasks...but it's not constantly draining the battery doing those things, which is important. Plugging it in from habit is pretty universal.

In my view, this isn't a fatal flaw, but it's bumping up against it. 3 hours is a long time to game - for one session only, though I expect people will keep bumping up against that limit all the time. Given the right game, I could see myself bumping up against that run time - and wouldn't it suck if you were right in the middle of something?

Expect public wall sockets to be hogged constantly in the near future.

yeah, lol, smartphone battery life was quite a shock coming from a razr which i could leave unplugged for days. when i first got the evo it died after two hours of use consisting of one 10 min phone call and 6 text messages. now that is just crazy! thank god that doesnt happen anymore.

[dairugger]

Yes because the DS with comparable N64 capabilities was such a power hog.

but these arent n64 graphics. i gotta say zelda looks nice. and consider that the system has to render it twice, plus the battery power that the 3d display consumes. its not like this was a shocker for petes sakes, the battery life wasnt hidden, nintendo informed people when it released the specs.

but it will get better. the same thing happend to the psp, it was then, and still is my favorite system.

[MachineGex]

If the oil companies would let the battery companies release longer lasting batteries, we all would be better off. I read(on the internet) that some guy developed a battery that allowed him to drive his electric car coast to coast on a single charge. The oil companies bought the technology and then had the guy killed and made it look like an accident.













</sarc>

[Robocop2]

i was trying to be positive, my mistake, i forgot the cool thing on the web is to whine about everything. gotcha! ;-)

I wasn't trying to sound like a whiner in my post I simply don't think three hours is long enough battery life for the way I use my handhelds. Since I typically play them mostly when traveling, three hours max simply won't cut the mustard satisfactorily. If and when they release a 3DS with better battery life (and they most likely will) I will be more interested. Sure the nyko power pak adds some battery life and that is a possibility but it does affect how it fits in the case which is a turn off. Just because people complain about a particular issue doesn't mean they are whining if they feel there is a shortcoming that affects their use of a product.

[Rickstilwell1]

If the oil companies would let the battery companies release longer lasting batteries, we all would be better off. I read(on the internet) that some guy developed a battery that allowed him to drive his electric car coast to coast on a single charge. The oil companies bought the technology and then had the guy killed and made it look like an accident.
</sarc>

Yeah, now we just have to build the battery ourselves and then keep it secret from the oil companies so we don't get killed. Then we will save tons of money and outsmart them.

Really all you need for a battery to last long enough with enough voltage is an increase in size. If you mod a TV remote that takes AAAs to take a D battery instead, it will last much longer. Now think about modding car batteries. Could you build a massive battery that sets in the back of your car and route some longer jumper cables to it? Why not?

There are also probably ways to make a smaller battery have more capacity but I'm not sure how that is done.

As far as that 3DS thing goes, it doesn't seem to die as quickly on me as people are saying. Did you charge it all the way up out of the box before using it? I hear with any electronics device you are supposed to do that to maximize its lifespan first.

[substantial_snake]

but these arent n64 graphics. i gotta say zelda looks nice. and consider that the system has to render it twice, plus the battery power that the 3d display consumes. its not like this was a shocker for petes sakes, the battery life wasnt hidden, nintendo informed people when it released the specs.

but it will get better. the same thing happend to the psp, it was then, and still is my favorite system.

If that's the argument then 3D should of never been a factor for the console. They should of called it the DS Squared (or some other marketing bs), included all the other enhancements but sold it for 50 bucks less.

The one thing I have always preferred about Nintendo handhelds over its competition is that they always seemed to make battery life a priority. Which meant that it was an effective handheld device, not needing a few spare batteries, or a more expensive hi-cap one, or a charger with you every where you go. I guess at this point I'm just ranting at my personal disappointment overall with the console's launch state..but the 3Ds in many ways seems like the anti-Nintendo portable which kills a lot of its sold portable-first appeal for me.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

The battery life on the 3DS really is appalling. I'm averaging a little over 3 hours on the new Zelda with the 3D turned OFF.

I almost feel like I'm back to playing a Sega Game Gear except that I can recharge it overnight instead of buying a load of batteries.

Anyone familiar with the company Mugen? They claim to have a battery that lasts 4.5 hours than the normal 3DS battery. Costs $100 though. Says out of stock.

http://www.mugen-power-batteries.com/mugen-power-5800mah-extended-battery-for-nintendo-3ds.html

I've been spoiled by the GBA.


!

I'm not sure how much power it would save, but make sure the Wifi switch on the side of the 3DS is turned off. Also, turn off Streetpass (it uses another type of signal). If all else fails, you can lower the brightness.

You're right about the GBA. It spoiled us all.

[Baloo]

Meh, when I take my portable systems somewhere I usually just play then in the hotel room or the room where I'm staying so they can continually be charged (I've taken both the Game Gear and Nomad plenty of places and the battery life never really annoyed me) so this part of the 3DS doesn't really bother me.

What disappoints me more is that I get sick looking at the 3D imagery while playing it.

[WanganRunner]

I never run into battery problems, but I've also been mostly been playing normal DS games on it (i.e. Pokemon).

I need to go pick up a copy of Zelda, methinks.

[NE146]

Add me as another person who hasn't had problems with the battery life.. seems fine to me. I'm currently at the Water Temple in OOT.. and I've only seen my battery light go red once.

..But then again I mostly play it at home and it gets stuck in it's cradle quite often when I'm not playing. But also just as often it's just left by the side of the bed overnight on hibernation, or in some other place of my house.. battery life seems fine even when I have a 2 hour+ session.

[fishsandwich]

Still less than three hours for me. I've found that I've been picking up the DS more often than not... it lasts much long and it's lighter.

The contruction quality of the 3DS is top-notch, though. The DS feels plasticy and cheap by comparison. I wonder how that will change when it's updated?

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[j_factor]

What phone are you using that you have to recharge it every day? Standby times of less than days are considered scandalous now.

What's the battery life on the iPhone like when it's used for games? I have an iPod Touch and it doesn't seem like it would last more than 3 hours of solid game-playing.

[jrokshady]

Remember the original GBA and how it sucked compared to the GBA SP. Remember how the DS was nowhere as good as the DS lite or DSi. Compare the first PSP to the 3000. Sensing a pattern here? That's why I don't buy handhelds at launch.

[kupomogli]

Remember the GBA SP and how it sucked compared to the original GBA. Remember how the DS Lite was unplayable compared to the DS

Yeah. I do.