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Real Sony PSP Battery Life – 2 hours?
Tuesday, Nov. 2 2004 | Author: derekKen Kutaragi admitted in an interview with a Japanese gaming site that when playing graphically intensive games like Ridge Racer, as opposed to simple puzzle games, the PSP’s battery life may be considerably shorter than the initial estimates.
The original estimates were also figured with headphones rather than using the built-in speakers, the wireless networking feature turned off, and the screen dimmed to a certain level.
Looks like something fishy is going on over there at Sony. Ken claims that “in the future” as battery technology advances, they will revise the system to increase the battery life. What that means for people that may actually want to buy the system when it comes out, is up in the air for now. Just be warned that if you buy an early version you may be spending a lot of time next to a power plug.
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52 Responses for "Real Sony PSP Battery Life – 2 hours?"
November 2nd, 2004 at 5:49 pm
1Go back to 1989, Nintendo ruled the handheld market much like it does today, a year later Sega puts out Game Gear which was inarguably superior… except it required 6 AA batteries and drained them under two hours (if memory serves me right). I’m not saying history will repeat itself, just food for thought, since one of the main reasons the Game Gear faded into obscurity was the rather short battery life.
The other one was the price tag, but in this regard the PSP hits the sweet spot I think, if you take into account its other possibilities.
November 6th, 2004 at 8:12 pm
2no one will ever be able tomatch nintendo’s ability to make their handhelds have the greatest battery life. back in the 80’s when GB first came out, there were games that ran on color screens already, we had the technology to do it. and yet, those systems didn’t sell as well as the gameboy because the battery life was crap. look at gamegear; gamegear was awesome, great games, big and color screen, but it took SIXTEEN AA batteries! first the thing costed around $300-$500 if my memory serves correctly, then you had to drop more money for another uber pack of batteries by the end of every week. therefore, nintendo stayed strong until they knew that the battery life of their first color screen unit could challenge the battery life of their black and white. then all of a sudden came GBA, which blew the GB color away. and just when i bought my GBA, the DS release date was announced. lately, i’ve been playing the project 64 emulator just because i miss those games so much, and now, i can take super mario 64 with me, ANYWHERE AND WITH GOOD BATTERY LIFE?! anyone that disses on DS is crazy. don’t buy PSP, its just gonna be another gamegear, but with better graphics. go with the DS.
November 8th, 2004 at 8:39 pm
3They better make the battery life better or else no ones gonna buy it
November 17th, 2004 at 1:27 pm
4This makes so much sense… its just like when Sega unveiled gamegear and it was a little more powerful in graphics and color, but!!! Nintendo won because of their reliable battery life and Great games that supported its Rather simple and Great Interface in a system…. History is repeating itself and Nintendo Will likely Win Full over the PSP and with The PSP costing them more than 350 per system and releasing about 2-3million units it will cost them over 1BILLION DOLLARS Theres noway Sony can win or yet alone go with this…
November 19th, 2004 at 3:01 am
5sony sony sony… what are you doing to yourself? at least give psp some chat ability. but still, two hours? how am i supposed to play final fantasy wherever i go with two hours? so sad to have to wait for psp 1.5 before i buy it. i might have to break down and get the ds. nintendo, you rascal you.
November 23rd, 2004 at 3:21 pm
6What company does NOT turn down all the specs when mesuring battery life. Well, duh it’s going to be lower.
December 3rd, 2004 at 9:53 am
7Some people want Nintendo to have a monopoly of the handheld market, I don’t. It’s hilarious how we talk about estimates of a product that won’t come out for some time now as though they were facts, as though there is no margin for error. There is always time to improve and we will never know exactly how much battery life it will have until it comes out.
December 8th, 2004 at 5:21 am
8Ummm…the other player named Nintendo? They have understated thier expected batterly life specs for a verry long time. I remeber being extremely happy when the GBA ran even longer than what the big N said it would run and on another cloud when the GBA SP ran even longer than they said. I certainly wish Nintendo didn’t have such a monopoly on the handheld market though, but so far thier monopoly has done quite well for the consumer. Got my DS at midnight and have zero intentions of picking up a PSP. Probably only ways they’ll get a good battery life out of it is by putting a much larger battery in it or somehow get R&D & production going on half-life batteries (think verry safe nuclear material that decays continualy to create energy).
December 11th, 2004 at 7:36 pm
9Sony has also released an mp3 player held upside down by a japanese director in a release photo.
Doubt they have any idea what they’re doing…
December 15th, 2004 at 1:10 am
10You guys seem to forget something. Granted Gamegear had a bad battery life, but it had irritating software development, and a pathetic list of developers and titles during a time when gaming was just getting started up. That is what led to it’s downfall, it had nothing to do with battery life.
SONY however, is no amateur. They have an easy software creation system, wireless internet capabilities, and yes, a low battery life.
Let me ask you guys something, how often are you going to be completely away from all sources of power? You dont think you could find a power outlet at home that you can plug into to have unlimited power? Dont want to sit directly next to one, go to a dollar store and buy a friggin extension cord. They come in many sizes. How about cars, do you really think they wont make a car charger?
Unless you’re camping or on a plane, you really aren’t going to need more then 2 hours. And if your camping, you should be enjoying the sights and whatnot anyway. If your on a plane, take a spare battery on a long flights. That puts you at 4 hours. I’m sure you can tough it out for any flights longer then that, besides, how often are you going to fly such great distances. If it’s alot, I’m sure you can manage to buy several extra batteries. If your at school, you dont need to be playing anyway, but if you must, sit at the back near an outlet, cover the cord with your backpack.
As for you saying dissing DS is crazy, my only diss to DS is simply this, Nintendo used cartridges over and over and over again before Gamecube. Nintendo 64(great system, and I mean no disrespect to it) was lagging far behind Playstation because Sony used Discs which have higher capacity. It’s the same thing again, DS will fall far behind PSP because of the limited space on cartridge.
Nintendo is really geared more towards kids, so if you’re under say 18, you’ll lean towards DS, but personally, I’m not up for buying all those old games again, even if I can play them in the car now. I’ll stick with PSP who has a crap load of developers wetting themselves with excitement and ideas for this thing(we’re back to easier development).
Factoring in UMD movies, MP3 Capabilities, and Digital picture viewer, as well as superior graphics and wireless internet capability, games on cd’s conveniently protected from scratches by a case like a floppy(I know it’s technically a cartridge too, but it’s a cd based catridge unlike DS, so I call it a CD), and standard memory cards for saving, I dont see how any mature gamer can argue with it’s usefullness over something so trivial as battery life.
Finally, the mp3 photo is from a different branch of the company, granted whoever approved it wasn’t amazingly observant, but I think a screwy picture every now and then isn’t really something to condemn them over. Keep in mind that Sony is one of the, if not the biggest electronics and software creation and distribution companies around, I’d say they have a pretty damn good idea as to what they’re doing.
March 6th, 2005 at 6:43 am
11hey, c’on, where the need for speed underground price? i’m lookin’ it for 4 hour?where is it huh? busted gang? (bagi sikit)opps……its a malay language.
March 14th, 2005 at 3:25 am
12atari lynx had some great games , large catalog , good software development (it was based on the code friendly 6052 cpu that was also in the commodore 64) great color graphics and stereo sound . But it was big and lasted only 4 hours max on 4 AA alkaline batteries . the gameboy destroyed it .
portability is the main factor for a portable game system . the psp will not fail because of this but it will have a impact .
interestingly while the ds is said to have only 10 hours life I havent actually used all the power since it was first charged when I got it about 3 weeks ago . and ive got like 35 starts in mario 64 so its been going for a while .
March 24th, 2005 at 12:27 am
13When it all boils down, if you want to carry more than one game/movie on you w/ur psp, your going to have to take out that last “p”.
When u look at the diameter of the umd carts and the depth of it it’s just a tad big. When you look at the DS though, I can easily fit at least 12 games in my WALLET. The psp is also wider and slightly taller than the DS, thus giving you less pocket space. Not to mention the unprotected screen. Not that it just could scratch on the way in your pocket, but also it be damaged by accidental hits on chairs tables desks or by people. Not to mention the extra battery, I mean, seriously, who’s gonna actually charge their system evey day after playing it? Nobody does. When you look at it all, the ds is simply a better system, now if u talk games, that is opinion based and up to the person to decide. Now, WiFi play isn’t free on psp, as it will be on DS which is another psproblem. And what’s up with wipeout total? It looks like a cheap rip-off version of F-Zero. Well, just my thoughts.
March 24th, 2005 at 6:59 pm
14the only reason that nintendo has been able to dominate the game market is that it had the first real 8-bit gaming system which was alot better than anyone had seen, but when sony released the playstation they had an immediate grasp on a more mature audience. they soon developed a following and developed thier games around what we wanted. i have recently bought a ds and the only reason that i did was so i could get advance wars when it comes out. the only reason that the battery lasts so long is that they have no graphics heavy games. who cares how long the battery lasts on the psp, if you can’t afford to buy a couple extra batterys stick the ds and all of the crappy games nintendo releases.
March 24th, 2005 at 11:34 pm
15I dont know if any of you have actuly played the psp but I have one and it last’s about 4 and a half hours playing Need For Speed non stop. And the reson the battery does not last as long as the ds is because it has to power it’s amazing screen and graphics.
March 25th, 2005 at 6:34 pm
16I’m on my second PDA now and I’ve noticed that unless you’re using screen protection, you can get a lot of fine little scratches on your screen in a hurry from the stylus. I can’t see how the DS’s screen is going to last more than a year or two for a lot of kids that use way more pressure than necessary. Plus the second screen’s just a gimmick until the developers actually start using it.
March 28th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
17http://psp.ign.com/articles/574/574557p1.html
Take a look at that site it will prove to you that the psp will be able to play for mych longer than 2 hours and that it will be the next big hot toy. Every one will want one and those who cant get it will hate.
April 5th, 2005 at 12:33 am
18I totally agree with sebastion wolf and Bobby chapman. I own a PSP and have played a DS many of times. There is no comparason, the PSP blows it away in gameplay, graphics, sound and overall utilities with an upcoming option for Linux and a Wipeout Hack which allows internet surfing. When it comes to handhelds, it seems the mighty Nintendo has fallen.
April 7th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
19I dont know about you guys but who cares if its just 2 hours, heck it may be longer but its way better than the crappy graphics nintendo has, if i wanted crappy graphics i’d be playin a clecovision. Im just lookin for a hot new toy to show off 2 my friends and awesome graphics and toys. The psp kills the nintendo DS in graphics, gameplay, sound, options, and much much more
April 7th, 2005 at 11:06 pm
20i own both the psp and ds. If i were to sell one, the ds would go right away. i charged my psp to 81% and the battery has lasted me up to 6 hours playing tony hawk. DS however has a better battery life and i go days on end without charging it. My advice is charge the PSP nightly and you wont have a problem. Do not consider the batterylife when buying the psp because that is not a problem at all. the only thing you should consider is the price. (yikes!!)
April 14th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
21The PSP’s batteries are removeable, and are designed to be. I bet within 6 months there will be products like PSP charger dock that can seperately charge 2 extra batteries at once. Extra battery packs will be sold eventually as an optional accessory. For hardcore gamers, this would mean alot.
The only problem with this that I can see is that gameplay would be interrupted momentarily. Well, any hardcore gamer would know health risks of playing more than 2 hours continously anyway.
Comon folks, we damn well know that is not why game gear went under. Battery life wasn’t primarily the issue, but did contribute to the problem of fussing with batteries all the time. That is why it was hated. Batteries took up too much space and were clunky and fussy. It Doesn’t matter how many rechargeables you had, 6 was too many to deal with, period.
PSP will prevail over nintendo DS. But, DS will top system sales simply because of it’s pure innovation of technology, whereas PSP is an evolution. It’s hard to even consider them as competitors, when everyone thinks in black and white. Both systems are suited to totally different groups of people, there are just some things you can’t compare (Like the touch screen vs. psp’s photo and music features. Apples and oranges people.)
April 14th, 2005 at 2:09 pm
22The ds is cheaper than the psp becausethe ds is meant for the younger generation. think about it the ds has crapier games because Nintendo(if you haven’t noticed) doesn’t make as many violent games, if you will, but makes more family friendly games. But Sony makes more games for the older more mature generations. I would buy a ds because i like advance wars, and mario,but i would buy a psp because it has an mp3 player, the graphics are good, and it has good games. And i am in agreement with Andy about the battery life, though i would probably charge them both every ight just to be on the safe side.
April 14th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
23night my bad
April 14th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
24Dont know what kind of shitty battery you guys have but ive gotten 12 hours out of the psp using different games. (ridge racer, world tour soccer, twisted metal)
April 24th, 2005 at 10:59 pm
25I have yet to have the battery die in less than 8 hours of hard, solid use (wipeout pure, twisted metal, untold legends, etc). Anyone who has not actually USED one should avoid repeating this silly rumor, most likely started by Nintendo’s PR department to boost their own sales. I assure you all… Sony knows EXACTLY what they are doing… even with the battery.
Honestly, I too was slightly worried about battery life when I purchased the PSP… but since the first day have been completely amazed at it’s longevity… and the speed with which it recharges. I will likely pick up a spare or two when they’re available for long trips and the like… but during the average day (in which I play for 4-6 hours)… I have yet to experience any need to recharge.
May 16th, 2005 at 5:15 pm
26And yet people seem to forget that 1/the battery is rechargeable 2/has a ac power unit – which recharges the battery as you use it 3/has a car cigarette socket adapter available, which recharges it as you use it 4/get a second battery for under $40 to double your game time between charges
After using it on/off for two days I needed to recharge (about 2 hours), but was still able to use the device while it was charging.
May 28th, 2005 at 3:14 pm
27The PSP rocks dudes.
June 20th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
28ok chapman heres the deal the lynx,gamegear,turbo grafix hand held,wonderswan
all of them have had better graphics more abilities but baf battery life and the ability to play a hand held system away from sources of power and size are the 2 legs of hand held systems as for not being away from uninteruptable power supply by your reasoning i can buy the freakin ps1 and an lcd screen plus the hundreds of considerably cheaper and graphically comparible games
June 20th, 2005 at 4:30 pm
29hey,
my little bro and i went to america and he bought a psp, there but i already had ds.
so while he ran out of battery in 1hour…..better beleive it….i keept goin to theend
July 2nd, 2005 at 2:29 pm
30Your point being
a. he probly didnt have it charged all the way
or
b. he had already drained the battery
in my experience the psp battery lasted more than 3 hours playing apiderman 2 (which looks freaken incredible btw on that kickass screen) and then still had enough battery life to set up all the wifi settings and browse the whole sampler disc. So just put this all to rest the psp has kickass battery life for what it does
and btw the ds is the shittiest looking handheld ever
and it doesnt have that feeling of substance the psp has
silver plastic looks cheap
July 4th, 2005 at 9:28 pm
31first of all I dont know why you guys keep blabbling on about gamegears battery life, and lynx’s battery life who gives a rats ass, that was nearly twenty years ago when practically everything that ran on batterys died in two hours or less, I mean come on its 2005 and the psp is really thin and mine lasted about 7 hours so I dont know why everybody is talking about the psp lasting 2 hours unless that was version 1.00 because I got version 1.5 and it even tells you how many hours you have left and its right. DOnt know what the hell you guys are talking about.
July 14th, 2005 at 4:29 am
32Right,
this whole issue is debatable, and could most likely go on forever. its really a matter of opinion. sony know what their target audeince want and can present it in a shiny package. Nintendo have all the right ideas bt just cant pull it off… im a huge nintendo fan myself, and suport them. i just know that sonny are doing a slightly betterjob and will probably take nintendos limelight. heh i live in england and its the social groups that sway towards the shiny things that want their “bling” and to be “down with their boys” they dnt game as gamers should, if any of that makes sense? no-one that plays racing games al day can call themselves a real gamer.
Truly though its a matter of what you prefer, sonny is aimed at a older audience thats un-questionable. heh every hardcore nintendo fan will hate sonny anyway for ripping of all their ideas, i mean come on the analouge stick? stick it where itll fit and hope for the best.
I say just make your own choice, i own both handhelds and both have their strengths and weaknesses. It boils down to what kind of gamer you are…
July 16th, 2005 at 10:12 am
33the battery life aint that bad. when i fully charge it, it says 100% and it has 8:22 hours left. sure, when i load need for speed, that alone takes about 4 mins of life but it takes like a second to charge that. and really, how long are you planning to play for?
i recently got my psp and im not complaining about the battery life considering that i played whenever i felt like it, as well as my friends playing with it, and by the end of the night i was down to 1 bar. when i got home i charged it. i wasnt crying that the psp didnt last longer. i didnt need it to. and if your a hardcore gamer, then putting out some extra money for another battery pack should be nothing.
July 17th, 2005 at 7:43 am
34the nintendo ds rocks dudes
July 24th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
35I’ve tried both consoles and honestly wouldn’t touch the DS with a bargepole. To me it just seems that there’s a bunch of people so desperate to have a top of the range handheld they rushed out and bought the (shite build quality) DS on release date, and now are on a mission to convince themselves they made the right decision not to wait for the bells n whistles of the PSP by ripping on the one aspect that doesn’t measure up to the DS.
In my opinion, someone should be fired for themontrosity that is the DS. It looks unfinished!!! Oh and the touch screen may bring a new aspect to your gaming, but seriously now, is it necessary at all? It’s too much of a gimmicky feature for me to take it seriously.
Comparing the PSP to a Gamegear is wrong on so many levels so i’m not even going to start. The PSP is NOT another gamegear and Sony have not wasted 1 billion dollars – the PSP is the most powerful, mutifunctional and robust handheld gaming system currently available, with an amazingly large widescreen display and intuitive controls (to anyone who’s ever used a PS2 – and lets face it, who hasn’t?). AAAArrrrggggh, enough of this stupid rant! If you need to convince yourself that your DS is better than a PSP, you do that.
August 17th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
36My most sincerest compliments to the Mr. Bobby Chapman for so pointing me in the direction of the Sony PSP which I will be receiving in a week, my so thought battles on whether I should get a ds or a psp have become a nuisance to my spare time. Yes truly I see now that the psp is a superior system to that of the DS, let’s face it, if all of you have to go on is poor battery life, then find something else to complain about, as far as battery life is concerened, like Mr. Chapman had explained, how far are you honestly from a power outlet? If you were as intent on playing video games as anyone else, you would know to keep your psp charged for full time, besides, what other hand helds have picture showing capabilities as well as holding your mp3 music, this truly is the handheld we have all been waiting for? So why are you all being so critical on battery life? PSP has lived up to almost every other expectation and if you mumbling fools could see through the battery life, you would see a miracle and evolution of handheld gaming. This is DaSempleton, out.
August 26th, 2005 at 6:15 pm
37Get a PSP. Guys at your school want call you gay. i walk around with it in my pocket and use it as a mp3 player. People think its a ipod cause of the white wire. Then i pull it out and there like dude thats lame. Then i go on the internet with it. 2.0 firmware rocks!
August 31st, 2005 at 3:15 pm
38Im gettin the psp in 3 hrs…iv played the DS for a weekend straight b4 + i must say i went through about a game a minute, completing them or throwin em away in boredom…i hav every console u can think of (except the unreleased of course ^.^)
Only gud point i can make is…..wario ware.
gr8 fun but gets boring after bout 30 mins.
longer battery life? haha never heard such rubbish. I couldnt play a DS long enough to test its battery. Game Gear is best handheld (PSP not counted cos i dont hav it yet) mine uses 6 batteries AA + i get about 9 hrs from it. playing the sega genesis 2 (megadrive) sonic games is gr8. The screen glows in the dark + u cant see any scratches on it due to the backlight. Back to the PSP… The 1GB memory card is only 40 english sterling pounds (bout 80 dollars) + thats not much of a sacrifice. anyway i compressed a full 1 1/2 hr film for a friend with the PSP + i cud fit it on a 32mb memory card (take that sony) =) mpeg etc is in the specs as compatable but it doesnt mention other formats such as .rm etc that can easily be installed. of topic….anyone played crusader of centy for SMD? my fav game ever!!!!
September 2nd, 2005 at 5:30 am
39Do you have to recharge the battery first time
September 10th, 2005 at 10:43 am
40My PSP battery lasts 6 hours if I don’t have it set for single person use. Meaning I turn off the switch that allows me to browse the web and play games with people wirelessly.
I even took it on a trip with me from west NY to central Indiana. Lasted the whole way with almost constant use.
September 24th, 2005 at 9:26 pm
41My PSP battery lasts 15+ hours per charge because i’m using a new batterygeek ultra high capacity lithium psp battery pack. This thing is amazing because it is so small and lightweight yet it is so packed with power.
November 15th, 2005 at 3:16 am
42We produce the battery for psp game player, the capacity is 3200mAH.
My information:+86-755-83740423 +86-755-13802562162
December 4th, 2005 at 12:48 am
43ok wellll i own bothe i stole the ds… i think its the shit -touch screen makes it more “hands on” and a bit more fun. i bought my psp on ebay for 170 n it came with a 256mb chip … i can fit several movies musicvideo porn what ever tickles your fancy.. anyway they are pretty much two totally different systems and i cant say one is better than the other only that is what you are looking to get out of the system ….
December 26th, 2005 at 10:32 am
44#45 Joe?
You’re totally advertising for that battery. And you guys are overcharging. Limited time blowout price of $69.99? I found it elsewhere for $50.
December 26th, 2005 at 10:33 am
45i mean you’re advertising for you batterygeek website
February 25th, 2006 at 11:31 am
46Where can u buy that battery geek ultra high capacity lithium battery from and how much do they cost.
Thanx.
February 28th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
47The GBA is awsome and so is the PSP . I belive the batterys dont last long because of the great graphics , Nintendo cant beat that and any ways , you only read one side of the story so stop geetn worked up even the nentendo way over estimates battery life .I mean the games they have are the same as the 64 and thats old move on u here me ?The psp has great graphics and better games i mean realy does DS have Call of Duty , or Brothers in arms ?Does it even have as many games that you have even heard of ? They probly over estimated it because , they added a few last minute bonuses ………..sense you are destined to spend cash and so eagerly want a portable system go for the one thats newer i mean older systems in hysory always die out first in 5 years SP DS game boy color and game boy advance will be gone replaced with better things .look at it this way your already spending 100-300 dollars on the system why not just get an extra battery there what $10 -$20 and charge the other one while your playing on the one that was just charged ?
March 24th, 2006 at 9:44 am
48I own the GBA, GB SP, DS and PSP. I enjoyed the GBA and held off on the GB-SP until Crystal Chronicles came out. The GB-SP has that new brighter screen which rocks and it is so easy to hold and use. I got the DS last Nov and played the dogs game and Kirby. I lost interest in the DS, the battery did not last as long as I would have liked and I got bored with the games for it. I picked up my GB-SP and would play it over the DS just because the battery life would last longer on the GB-SP. I picked up a PSP for travel, I travel allot via plane and I get bored playing games or reading magazines after a long trip and a laptop just to watch movies is too bulky to deal with at the end of a long business trip. So I found with my PSP and an IGO travel adapter I can plug in my psp anywhere during my trips and Play, Surf, Watch whatever I want whenever. The battery life may be a factor, but I have found the PSP the best travel entertainment system and there are solutions to help extend the battery life.
April 1st, 2006 at 5:09 am
49i dunno
August 30th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
50moot point, but in reference to the gamegear using 16AA batteries- are you crazy! it was 8. little kids couldn’t support the device if it weighed that much.
November 29th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
51i dont know if someone posted this before but sony are releasing a big battery pack with a 4gb memory stick built in
January 14th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
52I have had a PSP for a couple of weeks and it rocks in almost every way. I am an American and since its not difficult for me to get accesories i have found that almost every feature of it can be upgraded. There are sound docks with dolby surround sound processors, extended battery,s i have even seen an 8 GB memory card for it. the DS is really just old news.
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