Looks like we are all going to be playing portable games in 3 hour bursts this generation. Sony has reported the battery life for its upcoming Playstation Vita handheld will be “3-5 hours” with each full charge; a Eurogamer report has estimated that figure to mean “9 hours of music playback” or “5 hours of video playback” with a “two hour and forty-five minute” charge time from empty. To compare, the Nintendo 3DS offers a similarly slim battery life of “3-8 hours”, depending on the amount of 3D tech in use.
Is a shorter battery life worth it for Playstation Vita’s announced game library, EGs? What is your ideal battery life for a handheld? Comment below!
I hate this trend in handhelds and smart phones. Short batteries keep us tethered to a wall outlet when we are supposed to be able to make them portable.
It is just like with Laptops when they first came out, they had crap battery lives but now they can be up to nine hours on a charge. Battery life on portables has increased at the price of having better visuals. Sure the games look good, but if I have to be plugged into play them, then I would rather have a console with a big screen or play on my PC.
I do like the library of Vita games announced and being able to play PSP games that you buy on the store, but I really need at least a 10 hour battery for a dedicated gaming device for me to be totally satisfied (the GBA SP was over 30 hours on a charge).
Battery life is hard for them to ‘crack’ these days, can either have performance or battery life, it’s like most netbooks have very good battery life because they’re made regular ‘light’ tasks(internet browsing etc) and have very small screens.
Average laptops have bigger screens and usually better performance for games or heavy stuff like decoding so the battery life… stinks being honest.
The PS Vita’s battery is ok if it’s 5 hours being honest, hope they update the software on it to be able to use it longer.
Your comment on the laptop battery lifespan is a little off. While Ultrabooks and smaller laptops may have a 8-9 hour battery lifespan, dedicated gaming laptops last may an hour and a half. You must also remember that a gaming device like the Vita or even gaming consoles barely ever go into idle mode;there is almost always something going on.
I agree that battery technology is really holding us back, but until a new magic material lets us make more efficient batteries, we are stuck with what we have.
Theoretically,Would you buy a battery that is twice the size of the one that is coming in the Vita?
Speaking of bigger battery, Sony has confirmed a clip-on battery add-on for the PSV.
Yeah I understand the whole gaming laptop thing compared to a netbook (I owned a gaming laptop until I built my rig), but having such a small battery for a “portable” is ironic.
I would buy a bigger battery if Sony allowed me to replace it and if it didn’t add bulk to the system (Sony doesn’t want another “Pandora Batter” hacking thing again, so they sealed the system shut and put the touch pad there as extra security).
Sony is in a really tough position, they have to make a system that is secure, and also achieves its objective to be a portable gaming device.
I think there decision to choose a smaller battery was because if I remember correctly, the size of the device makes a huge decision on whether people will buy it in Japan,which is a huge market for Sony.