From the article comments: "Look on the bright side. The smaller the battery, the less likely it is to start a fatal fire. They should probably put that in their marketing."
As for the original PSP battery life? 7 hours? ROFL
I love it when fanboys feel the need to lie to justify their possestions. IGN did dozens of tests of dozens of PSPs. Results are nicly tabulated and open for anyone to see. http://psp.ign.com/articles/574/574557p2.html
Basic results:
-Gameplay w/speakers = 3.5 hours
-Gameplay w/headphones = 5.1 hours
As for the redesigned battery life? The whole thing makes perfect sense. If the old PSP had crappy battery life why shouldn't the new one? I can imagine the engineers talking it over...
Yamoto-san: "Okay, the new design is completed, it uses 50% as much power"
Nakashima: "Good, but we don't want this PSP to be that different from the old one"
Yamoto-san: "Hmm... We could just put in a battery that is only 50% as powerful"
Pure genius.
