PSP Battery Journal

ayersrj writes "The folks over at IGN have started a "Battery Journal" in an attempt to provide us with some relevant information regarding the battery life issue on the PSP in a realistic playing environment. The first run: a little under five hours with no wi-fi. Not too shabby."

Comments

You know, you could have linked without the ad

[Anonymous Crowhead]

link

Battery University

[The I Shing]

A while ago I stumbled across this site called Battery University, which has a lot of detailed information about how various kinds of batteries work and how best to make use of them. Not sure if this is relevant, but just wanted to toss that into the conversation.

GameSpot reports otherwise...

[unclethursday]

GameSpot reports on battery life.

Apparently depending on the game, the battery life can be HORRID. Simply grahic games can go for 5 or so hours with no WiFi turned on... more graphically intense games? Ridge Racers goes for 90 mins-3 hours, depending on screen brightness and speaker use.

90 minutes!!! Next Sony will be selling protable generators to carry on your back when taking your PSP and graphically intesnive games around with you (Metal Gear Ac!d, Gran Turismo, Ridge Racers, etc.).

[sarcasm]Yep, looks like IGN is right, as always...[/sarcasm]

Re:Yeah but...

[antifoidulus]

Heh, I know it's a joke, but TFA does mention that much like Apple laptops(don't know if others do this as well, probably do) if the battery level drops below a certain point, the PSP will put itself to sleep, allowing you to resume your adventures provided you charge it within a reasonable amount of time.

Re:DS does 10

[FuzzzyLogik]

Ok I'll bite. I own a GBA SP that they claim lasts 10 hours with frontlighting on and 16 with it off. My experience has been about 12-13 hours with the frontlight on and I can't comment on the frontlight off because I never turn it off. Nintendo typically gives correct numbers for batterly life, as you can see my battery life is actually HIGHER than they stated. So how's that for ya? I would trust nintendo, where I do not trust Sony.

Re:Whine, Whine, Whine

[chaboud]

You mean, the way that Sony did? cough

I can't think of a swap being much more easy than that.

Re:Less then 5 hours is "not too shabby"?

[k_187]

Nope, wrong. The PSP Battery is replaceable, new ones are just 45 bucks a pop. I do believe that the only way to charge them is plugged into the PSP though, so most of your point still stands, but you can charge them up and have standbys waiting.

Re:Turn the system on after use, and off before.

[antifoidulus]

Japan is over the international dateline, +17 hours west coast(14 east cost), so for example, right now it is 6:20 am Tuesday Japan time.

Re:peh

[Dance_Dance_Karnov]

I will tell you from personal experence that the battery life on the ds is more than 10 hours, I ran mine for 13 hours on a single charge. oh and to games not being 'adult' enought i point you here

Re:Whine, Whine, Whine

[Aero Leviathan]

Yes. I believe an RTFA is in order.

7:45PM: Battery died
And I was right in the middle of a huge score in the Industrial skin on Lumines! It's okay, though, because the PSP goes into sleep mode when the battery dies, allowing you to continue play exactly where you left off, once you've gotten more power to your system.

Gamespot says 90 minutes in real life tests

[_KiTA_]

Accordig to reports from Gamespot, the battery lasts approximately an hour and a half to 3 hours playing a complex 3d game like Ridge Racer. The benchmarks from Sony apparently come from using non-graphically intense, small games that don't require much CPU, VPU, or disc read time.

Sony did similar things when they were releasing benchmarks of the Playstation 2 -- they turned off all lights in the room, and rendered a black triangle polygon in a black room. The numbers were amazing. But they weren't real at all.

So yeah. PSP Battery Life: 90 minutes. This drops further if you enable WIFI.

Q: How long does the PSP's battery last?

A: The short answer is that it depends on what you're doing. The longer answer is that Sony has stated that the battery should last around six hours. With simpler-looking games, like Lumines or Mahjong Fight Club, that definitely seems to be the case. But with more graphically intensive games, like Ridge Racers, the battery doesn't last quite as long. Based on our estimates and a few battery-draining tests, Ridge Racers seems to last somewhere between 90 minutes and three hours. Playing with the wireless networking switch flipped on will also further reduce your battery life. The system has an auto-sleep function that stops the wireless drain, but that switch is there for a reason. Turn it off when you're not using it.

Re:DS does 10

[SetupWeasel]

I own a DS. I seem to get 8-10 hours from Super Mario 64 DS. I have heard as much as 12 hours, but I suspect that may be from someone using mainly GBA carts. I have also heard as little as 6-7 hours, and that would include some wireless play.

Here is an AP review

A quote:
"I managed 7-1/2 hours of battery life on a single charge, playing graphics-intensive games, blasting the music through the stereo speakers and connecting online with another DS."

Though it does not say if the wireless was used the entire time.

Re:Not too shabby?

[FrenZon]

I'm suprised that no-one's mentioned that the PSP has a user-accessible battery - it means that users can just carry an additional one around in their bag of UMDs. Sure, it's not an ideal situation, but it means that on your flight from whereever to whereever, you're not totally stuffed.

Re:Whine, Whine, Whine

[benzapp]

American Airlines most definitely has them, as does US Air. You probably just didn't notice, and I didn't mention you have to use a DC adapter.

Those are the only airlines I fly regularly so I couldn't tell you about the rest. I believe the DC power connectors are standard features on all new Airbus planes... so I would be very surprised if Alitalia didn't have them.

Business class and first class, these days, is defined more by other expensive features than a power outlet, especially given Airbus' move.