3DS battery life, power save mode detailed
When Nintendo revealed a battery life of around 3.5 to 5 hours for the 3DS (5 to 8 hours when playing standard DS games), many presumed that was an estimate for only the system’s highest brightness setting.
Not so, explains 3DS system designer Ryuji Umezu:
“We announced the other day that the battery duration for playing Nintendo 3DS games on it is about three to five hours. When I measured it by playing several Nintendo games, with the backlight set to the brightest level and the power save mode turned off, battery duration was about three hours.
But if you use the power save mode under the same conditions, it gets about 10 to 20 percent longer. And if you set the backlight to the darkest setting, the battery lasts five hours, but the power save mode makes less of a difference.”
There’s a 25 percent difference in the system’s battery life when playing in 2D at the system’s highest brightness level versus playing in 3D with the same setting.
Umezu also mentioned how leaving the portable’s wireless on for StreetPass affects the 3DS’s battery life:
“In StreetPass mode, the system isn’t always communicating, so there isn’t much of a drain on the battery, but games that communicate a lot through local play and online play—with the backlight set to high—have an over 10% effect on the battery.”
How does all that compare against the newly announced PSP2, or NGP (Next Gen Portable)? According to a report from Eurogamer, Sony sys that system will have a 4 to 5 hour battery life, so it’s about the same.
Ah, but does the NGP have a charging dock that features a face in a place? Doubt it!
Preorder: Nintendo 3DS (March 27, $249.99)
See also: More Nintendo 3DS news and media
[Image via LV. 1, Attack of the Fanboy]
