Nintendo 3DS Battery Is Quick To Die and Slow To Charge

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Nintendo 3DS Battery Is Quick To Die and Slow To Charge

Posted by Soulskill on Monday March 21, 2011 @07:03AM from the 3-d-may-have-been-a-reference-to-extra-batteries dept.

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."

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Re:Slim, slow, long lasting, powerful by TheCRAIGGERS · 2011-03-21 07:10 · Score: 5, Funny

Pick 2 for handhelds: Slim, slow, long lasting, powerful, large.
Slim and large, please.
Whoa... by Blues_39 · 2011-03-21 07:11 · Score: 4, Interesting

Game Gear flashback incoming.
1. Re:Whoa... by pushing-robot · 2011-03-21 07:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Not to mention the Lynx, the PSP... When will these companies ever learn that lean and cheap outsells powerful and expensive? They make the same mistakes over and over again, and Nintendo eats their lunch.
  I'm confident that Nintendo will steamroll over whoever makes this "3DS" thing.
  
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  How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Won't bother me personally. by JustAnotherIdiot · 2011-03-21 07:15 · Score: 4, Insightful

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

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What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Sad by llZENll · 2011-03-21 07:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

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?
1. Re:Sad by chispito · 2011-03-21 07:33 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I don't know about you, but I got alot more than 4.5 hours on my original game boy. And yes, I had the sound on and brightness maxed. Its not too much to expect an improvement in battery life with every iteration.
  We all had the brightness maxed out on our original Gameboys.
  
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  The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
2. Re:Sad by SethThresher · 2011-03-21 07:51 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  On top of that, this assumes that you have someone who would regularly sit down and play this 3DS, uninterrupted, for over 4 and a half hours. FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. For an adult like most of us here, at that point you're probably shirking some responsibility, not to mention eating, etc. For a teenager, when was the last time any teen had that much uninterrupted time free of homework, school, chores, sports, clubs, and all that crazy stuff? For a child, just for starters kids are advised to have, at a maximum, no more than 2 hours of screentime a day. And really, how many attentive and effective parents would allow their kid to veg out for that long? Sure, we have the irresponsible, the lazy, etc, but that's not what this is meant for. Yes, 4.5 hours is a heck of a lot shorter than the 12+ I get from my DS Lite with the brightness turned down and the WiFi off, but I'm not going to sit there and use it in one sitting. You will have outliers and extenuating circumstances, long car rides/flights included, but if you know you're going to be in a situation like that, you can probably plan for better than one form of entertainment for that long.
  
  Yes, Nintendo can try and engineer a fix for someone who wants to play gameboy for 6 hours straight, but should they? 4.5 is perfectly usable for normal use. Just get in the habit of plugging it in to charge when you're done playing.
Re:Slim, slow, long lasting, powerful by Shikaku · 2011-03-21 07:17 · Score: 4, Funny

Note to self, never try this again while trying to get first post. I failed forever =(
Nintendo 3DS Battery by prakslash · 2011-03-21 07:19 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.
Re:Slim, slow, long lasting, powerful by Anonymous Coward · 2011-03-21 07:20 · Score: 5, Funny

Don't worry, we meant what you knew.
Not bad for first in its class by jijacob · 2011-03-21 07:21 · Score: 3, Informative

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.
Re:not that big a deal by h4rr4r · 2011-03-21 07:35 · Score: 3, Funny

Up and down the middle isle of course. You can use the stewardesses and meal carts as hurdles.
Re:Slim, slow, long lasting, powerful by Shikaku · 2011-03-21 07:49 · Score: 3, Informative

1. Guess who is logged on that checked AC and replied. I'll give you a hint, sigs don't display if you aren't logged in with cookies disabled.
2. Disable sigs if it bothers you so much, or learn to make a greasemonkey script that filters text you don't like out. http://userscripts.org/scripts/review/56790 Here's an old one I whipped up a while ago for something else. You'd have to fiddle with it a little by removing all of my stupid filters, removing a tag from bad tags, and other random crap I am too lazy to actually do.
3. Very well actually. I have 12 referrals. They don't give me cash, just Dropbox space, FYI.
Thanks for the script! by OglinTatas · 2011-03-21 11:07 · Score: 3, Interesting

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.

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More music, fewer hits