3DS battery life is 3-to-5 hours for 3DS games

[thismeintiel]

LordTheNightKnight said:

oniyide said:

Anyone screaming "doom" is riduculous, you want 3d, WiFi, much better looking games, a price under 300 and you expect the battery life to be the same as the DS??? Honestly whoever thought that has been getting stoned way too much. The Wifi alone could kill a battery pretty quick, I can only imagine what the 3D will do. I had the PSP b4 they introduced the whole lithium battery. battery life is not a factor for me. 3-5 is just fine.

You had me until the last part. It's not only about how we feel personally about this, but also about how this might hurt sales. History has shown that when it comes to features or battery life, the latter is king. Not claiming this will doom the system, but it will very likely hurt sales, and force a better battery with the inevitable redesign.

Exactly.  While someone did clarify that "soft" actually meant software, the last two sentences of the translation also point to the 3-5 hrs not being the worst case scenario.

"The approximate battery life. May be less depending on operating conditions."

Now think about playing in 3-D mode.  Do you want it to be on the lowest brightness setting?  I know I wouldn't.  The 3-D wouldn't really look good.  It would have to be on a higher setting for it to really "pop."  Now, think about everyone who buys the 3DS for 3-D gaming.  I mean that's what its major appeal is.  Now, think how mad those people are going to be if they can only get 1-2 hrs out of the 3-D feature on a higher brightness setting.  Battery life is the same reason the Game Gear failed.  And I'm not going to claim the 3DS will fail, cause I don't think it will.  But, it will hurt sales.  Especially if Sony can release the PSP2 later this year superior graphics, and it can get 5-8 hrs of life with only a 1-2 hr charge.