Graphically intense games=lower battery life on PSP?

[Querjek]

Big deal! I'm a hardcore DS supporter, yet I don't understand why this comment made many people more skeptical of the PSP's battery life. The DS is like this too.

What's all the hubbub?



(Oh, and on a side note, does having the sound on use battery life?)

[postulio]

well graphically intense games eat up more prcessing power, takes more batteries, same thing as when you play minesweeper on your laptop, or doom 3.

but thats not really why the psp has crap battery life, we attribute it to the fact that it uses optical media, moving parts, laser reading. that eats batteries like hell, especially since its a new type of blue dvd.

and yes having sound on uses up more batteries, but you should worry with your DS, i got 11 hours on a single charge will full volume on mario 64

[kai123]

The PSP uses UMD discs not Blue ray discs. Which is what I think you are referring to. If anything is eating away at the battery life it will be that giant ass screen. Which is not a bad thing.

[goatdan]

I've also got to disagree that it is the media that is responsible for most of the eating of the batteries. As I mentioned in another thread, I have a CD player in my car made by Sony that I play CDs on constantly when I drive. It probably gets 30-60 minutes of use a day. I replace the batteries on it probably less than six times a year.

Personally, I'm dumbfounded by the amount of batteries that the PSP is supposed to eat. I would have assumed that the DS would be a bigger hog with two screens, but unless Sony's trying to make a surprise, we all know it isn't. It comes down to the fact that either the PSP is really poorly designed which is nearly unbelievable, with all the resources they have to draw upon, or the PSP is EXTREMELY powerful, which then begs the question is it so powerful that you can't see the difference?

[CAR25]

I would have assumed that the DS would be a bigger hog with two screens

Even though the DS has 2 screens, they are not as bright... large, and it is lower quality than the PSP.... so the DS needs less watts to power the two screens.

Also, that type of media used in the PSP will greatly affect the power usage... playing MP3s or Video from a memory stick involves no moving parts... thus it uses less power.

Playing a game which involves less UMD spining uses less power... but playing a Movie UMD will take the most power since those discs will be spining all the time.

[goatdan]

Even though the DS has 2 screens, they are not as bright... large, and it is lower quality than the PSP.... so the DS needs less watts to power the two screens.

There are still two screens. When you put them together, they are larger than the PSPs one, unless I'm mistaken. The PSP also has an adjustable brightness if I recall correctly, which would mean that it doesn't always operate at such a brightness unless you want it to.

I don't think that the PSP's screen is the reason that the battery life would be so significantly lower. Maybe a few minutes or 30 minutes more, but not over an hour.

Also, that type of media used in the PSP will greatly affect the power usage... playing MP3s or Video from a memory stick involves no moving parts... thus it uses less power.

Playing a game which involves less UMD spining uses less power... but playing a Movie UMD will take the most power since those discs will be spining all the time.

Once a disk is in motion, for the most part it continues to spin all by itself. That's why CD players can get so much in the way of battery life. I'll admit that the CD player isn't moving the laser around, accessing more files (like the PSP will for gaming), but I can't imagine that laser would eat _that_ much battery power either.

Secondly, you're completely forgetting about processor power, which is HUGE. I have a laptop that has a P4 2.8 GHz processor in it. By design, that's a desktop processor that eats power and gets hot so it needs fans to blow on it. I have also played with a 1.8 GHz Pentium M processor (which is supposed to run equal in power to a 2.8 P4 or something...). By comparison, my laptop has a battery life of approximately two hours, less if I'm running a game (less than an hour for Doom 3). The Pentium M can run for eight hours, but I'm sure it would be cut to less if you were playing a game.

When the PSP comes out and we actually know the battery life, it will be even more interesting to see what is done to keep the battery power there. The only reason why I'm thinking about getting a portable would be to carry it with me when I'm on the bus headed to work, and that would be approximately two hours per day. I don't want to have to plug the system into the wall in between games if I can help it. Unlike my laptop, if I'm somewhere where I can get power, I'll probably sit and play a console game.

I'm not saying that the PSP battery power is a killer wrong thing, but it will be something to consider for the few of us that would actually use it as a portable system. I still wouldn't be surprised if Sony has done something to fix this by the time the system launches, but as of right now it doesn't seem to make any sense.

[postulio]

UMD discs use special blue dvd lasers, and cd player technology is very different from this. the best example i can give you are the first and second generation sony MD players, they lasted about 4-5 hours on a single charge, and thats music only.

the DS's 2 screens and psp's screen use about the same amount of energy, its the processing power and media that is to blame, beat this topic all you want but i worked on many interesting projects involving lcd portable devices at my school so im no stranger to these problems.