Nintendo 3DS Battery Only Allows 3-8 Hours Gaming Per Charge? – Don’t Leave Home Without Your Charger!
Written by Rob Nichols on January 8, 2011 · Filed under Games
Whilst the Nintendo 3DS has received a lot of publicity for all the right reasons being the first handheld games console to provide glasses-free 3D, no less. However, this isn’t quite in the same bracket as the rest when it comes to the battery life, which will last a purported 8 hours, maximum.
The key word there is maximum, as we know that battery life always differs from the manufacturers claims in real terms, so what exactly can we expect? Well, with a new 3D game in there it could last between 3 and 5 hours. Meagre, to say the least, but with an old DS title going you can get up to 8. That’s shocking, and when compared to the old DS endurance it’s down right miserable.
The original DS kept on giving right up to the 14 hour mark, while it’s successor, the DS Lite, 19. The Nintendo DSi dropped back down to 14, but the Nintendo DSi XL hit 17. All these figures are of course claims made by Nintendo themselves, so are comparable to the claimed 8 hours on the 3DS.
Without a doubt it was to be expected that a glasses-free 3D display would have some impact on battery life, the drastic downfall takes it to less than half what the DS Lite or DSi XL gave. 5 hours doesn’t even make it viable for a long haul flight without clutching your charger intently for the entire journey.
Could this be yet another stumbling block in the fortunes of the Nintendo 3DS? With all the hype surrounding it, this could end up being a real turn-off (quite literally) for enthusiasts, that despite the 3DS health warnings, will want longer gaming sessions on their DS – a marathon of Mario, Pokemon or Professor Layton probably won’t be on the cards.
Do you think that a relatively short battery time will stop people buying the Nintendo 3DS? Or are you still eager to get your hands on one, even if it means always making sure you have a charger nearby?
Via – Engadget
Considering that the battery for the 3DS is better then the one for the DSi and DS games on the 3DS will run from 5 to 8 hours It would be impossible for that to be the lowest brightness setting considering the lowest brightness setting on the DSi runs from 9 to 14 hours and I don’t see why DS games would use up more power on the 3DS then they did on the DS. You also have to consider that Nintendo said that the battery of the 3DS will be close to the DSi whose battery length on the max brightness is 3 to 4 hours which is close to the 3 to 5 hour stated for the 3DS. If 3 to 5 hours really was the lowest brightness setting considering that the DSi had 5 brightness levels the highest brightness setting would be close to zero and that would be ridiculous or the 3DS only has one brightness setting like the original DS.