Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo 3DS Battery Is Quick To Die and Slow To Charge
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from the Opposable Thumbs blog:
"The battery in the Nintendo 3DS is as bad as we had feared, and it's a major impediment to enjoying the system. ... With the screen at a reasonable brightness, 3D and wireless turned off when the game allowed it, and no sound, we were about to get to a little over 4.5 hours of playtime. If you like a brighter screen, keep 3D turned on, or if you have that speaker going, that time is only going to go down. ... Using the cradle whenever the system isn't being played is a habit you're going to want to pick up, especially with a charging time of around three and a half hours."
Pick 2 for handhelds: Slim, slow, long lasting, powerful, large.
Game Gear flashback incoming.
4.5 hours is still about 4 times what I get on my laptop, and twice what I get on my PSP.
Not to mention I'm a loser and have access to electrical outlets almost 24/7
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
You know kids are spoiled when they have a mobile gaming system that is 3D and think that 4.5 hours of battery is short! It's also a testament to Nintendo's games and system when 4.5 hours can be over before you know it. That is a long time. Seriously, if 4.5 hours of battery is the biggest complaint they have about this system I have no idea why this is front page news, the battery looks like you can just pop in a new one so what is the big deal?
To be sure, it isn't the battery that is "bad".
It is the same Li-ion rechargeable battery used in prior systems.
It even has more capacity: 1300 mAh. This is about 50% more than the 850 mAh battery used in DSi and 30% more than the 1000mAh batteries used in DsiXL and DSLite.
The problem, as the Republicans in the US often say, is spending. With the brighter screens necessary for 3D, wi-fi and better video and sound support, the thing will suck juice like a mutha.
The other option for Nintendo would have been to tack on a laptop style battery which wouldn't work for a portable game system.
To be honest, that seems like a reasonable life considering what it is doing. For those that feel it is a deal-breaker, I'm sure there are options to extend the battery.
Sounds great! Just tell me where I can go biking or running halfway through an international flight and I'll be golden!
Well, as we learned earlier on Slashdot, according to some theories, the universe WAS 2D a while ago. Maybe if we get enough complaints, we can roll back to there and leave out depth until we patch the bugs in the laws of physics. It wouldn't lay ALL that is 3D to death, as this universe is going to need to upgrade eventually to stay competitive with other universes, but it should make dimensional comprehension easier for now.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
Up and down the middle isle of course. You can use the stewardesses and meal carts as hurdles.
It's my observation that short charging times lead to early battery replacement. I'd rather the charger take it a bit slower and avoid overheating or overcharging the battery.
4.5 hours is what I'd call sad ... note that the metric is just a useful one based on time-to-die from a full charge while playing under certain settings. Realistic use is going to be play for an hour or few, suspend, play some more, suspend, etc. This eats up that juice with a lot of non-play-time. Unless you're diligent about plugging it in every time you turn it off (unreasonable for what should be a portable unit), every time you turn this on it'll be dead or dying.
This is essentially the insult on top of the "barely upgraded graphics" and "3D gives you a headache and only works if the device and your head are absolutely stationary" injury. (If you don't believe these are true, go try one ... Best Buy has demo units. 3D is definitely cool and I'd rather they just used polarized glasses.) My guess is they assume you're actually going to play with the thing on its charging base screwed to a table, so battery life wouldn't be an issue anyway.
Anyhow this unit is definitely the "original GBA" of its generation. I'm sure it'll be cited along with the "no backlight" design of the original GBA as "bad decisions that made a desirable device nearly unplayable". I'll stick with my DS Lite until they have the 3DSi Lite SP Turbo Plus Platinum XL or whatever the second revision is called.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
Besides keeping the cost and and size down by not fitting in a larger battery, this could also be a strategic choice to help reduce potential claims of eye strain/injury due to extended play sessions. They've already warned that children shouldn't really use the 3D feature on it, and even adults probably shouldn't use it more than a couple of hours at a time, as our eyes aren't really meant to look at "faked" 3D for extended periods of time.
I actually got a chance to try it out at Best Buy yesterday, and I have say the 3D was pretty good for the little demo I got to play (Pilotwings Resort), and the depth is easily adjustable with the slider on the side. The analog stick works well too. The only uncomfortable thing about using it was that Best Buy has it hard mounted to a stand about 36 inches off the ground and you're supposed to be 10-14 inches away from the screen for the 3D.
I can understand some complaints about the battery life for long flights or being stuck at the airport, but maybe users could try something else for a while, like reading?
If you're near an outlet, perhaps the solution is to simply play while tethered to a charger?
Won't help on international flights in cattle class with no seat power, but the old long car ride just means a connection to the cigarette lighter (or 12V power point these days since fewer cars are coming with real lighters).
Then it's 2-4 hours while away from a convenient plug, which is probably adequate.
And heck, you know the third party accessories are going to address this issue in their own ways, too.
I got caught up in the last couple Nintendo systems. I bought the first gameboy advance, with no backlighting, then the SP came out. I bought the Original DS, which was bulky as shit, then the Lite came out. Never again. I'll wait for the 3DS with better battery life.
I must thank you for that script. I have used it almost since the first you posted it. I have modified it to fix some of my pet peeves, like "Hell," --> "Furthermore," or "For example," based on context... not perfect but covers 90% . The "Hell," idiom is way overused.
I also use it to change "geek" to "nerd" and "password" to "********". seriously, if you type your ******** all I see are hunter2 lol.
Not that I'm totally against profanity, but I recently read a post by someone complaining about unnecessary profanity in some thread, and I thought for fun I would see what it looked like if I used your script to fix it.
fuck --> befriend
asshole --> beloved
bitch --> classy lady
bitching --> making insightful comments
It of course doesn't always work but the internet seems more friendly and polite with it on.
Anyway, thanks a lot. It really does improve things.
More music, fewer hits
According to the article, that's 4.5 hours with 3D OFF, WIRELESS OFF, and SOUND OFF. Still think it's decent?
Those batteries must have been of very low quality, as you can easily get something like 30 hours out of an original Game Boy.