Won't effect my enjoyment in the slightest. An outlet is like a foot away from my gaming sofa
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Looking at my tablet power cable it outputs at 12v and 1.5A, USB2 outputs at 5v and 0.9A ...

This makes me think that USB doesn't provide enough power to charge the Wii U controller

Personally I didn't realise outlets were so rare for people. I think all the room sin my house have on on every wall.

Also after I typed thst I did go dig up a picture of the gamepad. It appears to be some form of mini USB. So guessign if you purcahse your own, perhaps you can charge it. My eyes are not that good but I think it say 5V next to it (hopefully not 2V)

Good catch. It says AC as in AC Adapter. If you flip it 180 degrees, it might look like the A is a V and C is the round part in 5.

I was just going to jump in on this.  You are pretty much 100% correct.  I had a 15 min battery recharger from Energizer when I first starting getting rechargable batteries.  While it does recharge fast it takes away from the battery life.  Right now I have charger that takes a few hours.

Thanks for that haha.

well what makes it mor einteresting is that we knwo the cradle plus into the bottom into that huge port. I wodner what the top AC port is for. Surely the ac adapter plug would also go into the bottom? If not and there is two options, then the top look slike a mini USB.

Now we jsu tneed to work out the voltage and amps the ac adapter is.

I pretty much constantly keep my laptop plugged in at home since the battery life doesn't got much beyond what the Wii U Game Pad does. It's not an issue with that piece of hardware, but on the other hand I'm not using my computer like I would a motion-based controller.

The issue that's come to mind is having to move around the Game Pad as a viewfinder, scanner etc., and the attached wire could make that a bit awkward. Maybe you have just enough length on the cord, but one quick pull in the wrong direction and it becomes an annoyance.

As well, most Wii U households will only have 1 Game Pad per system for quite some time (perhaps years). Game developers are going to be designing game experiences around that. You and your family/friends may be playing a game where you have to pass the Game Pad to the next person in order to complete a puzzle, task, etc. Being tied down by a cable can make it a bit less convenient.

Of course not all Game Pad's are going to be plugged into the wall 100% of the time. But much of the time games will be started without the controller completely juiced. And many times it won't be long before it needs to be plugged in a gain, even after just an hour or two.

The low battery life isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's definitely something that I'm going to have to consider when I'm thinking about which next-gen console to purchase. I'll even get annoyed when my laptop battery dies, so that sentiment may very well be amplified if I'm in the middle of a killer multiplayer game with friends and the Game Pad goes. It's a bit disappointing, and certainly I'm on the fence.

I think im spoiled at this point, I like that the other controllers last longer and I can plug my PS3 controller directly into the system and have it charge, its better than having to have it plugged into an outlet imho. 3-5 hours for a controller is lame, and the comparisons to Vita/Iphone/3ds dont even make sense, none of those are controllers they are stand alone devices

I'm pretty sure they'll be selling a cable to charge it off the WiiU's USB to be honest.

Yep, I feel the same about the wiimote. Built-in power packs FTL.

But I suspect it might take way too many cells to power the Wii U controller anyway. Rechargeable AA cells only provide 1.2V, and if USB doesn't provide enough juice to charge the Wii U controller at 5V, that means it would take at least five AA cells to power it. That's just too much weight. And too many batteries to ask people to buy, rechargeable or otherwise.