Seriously, it's one of my main gripe with the Wii U.

It seems to me that it lasts only for 3-4 hours when fully charged.  But the worst is that if you don't use it during a few days, the battery is totally empty.... I never have any problem with my other batteries..... The 3DS battery doesn't go empty alone when not used, the PC batteries don't discharge themselves.... Only the Wii U gamepad battery does it.

How many time last your gamepad battery? How many of you are using a third party bigger battery? It seems Nintendo has chose the worst available battery.

use the pro controller instead (whenever possible)... its more comfy to use as well.

High capacity battery 2500mAh wii u gamepad is all you need

My god it's fucking awful. How Nintendo thought that it was acceptable I'll never understand, especially since you can't turn off the screen while you're not using it.

 Press home menu then go to control settings right under the Gamepad icon it says "display off". Use that to turn off the display on the gamepad. Its not fun but its there

haha, i actually forgot I replaced mine almost immediately after buying it cause of that same problem.

I'm guessing they overestimated the power of the battery.

Agree, also my only complain about gamepad, it has battery of around only 4 hours, but you can buy official high capacity battery 2500mAh, last around twice longer.

Two and a half hour for my original battery. It is a good reminder that I should do something else for a while. The draining of the battery when not using it is annoying though.
The ProPad is exceptional in how long the battery is working (80 hours ?)

i hate it. i have had times where its nearly at full battery, leave it for a day, and its dead. luckily i have power outlets right next to my tv so its not that big a deal and i can charge it whenever i need to.