at second lowest i get 7-12 on the DS.

no way.

Wiki gave the average at 15-19 hours...

 On the lowest I get like 20. Yes way. Disable the sound and it will work wonders.

Actually, carrying the extra battery around doesn't bother me nearly as much as carrying an AC adapter.  Even if the battery life is as low as 4 hours, two batteries gives 8 and I can at least live with that.

If the 3000 actually had a decent battery life (10+ hours without having to do a lot of finagling) it would be a day one sell, now it's back under maybe.  I suppose I'll have to wait until it's released to see how much I like it and probably wait until Decemberish to get it.

Actually, since FFIV gives you the time played I know I get about 14 hours out of mine on the second lowest setting (sometimes sound was off, sometimes on full blast).

-edit-

Note that this wasn't about 14 hours and dead, it was 14 hours and the light turned red.

Well to each their own Twesterm. I am glad you found an acceptable solution and get more games to play.

NB: My numbers are aquired through a similar means but I have been using FFTA2 as opposed to FFIV.

Well, perhaps mine is retarded. I have bad luck. 360 Red Ringed (Did towel trick, all better) Gamecube stopped reading discs, PC is where Spyware goes to party.

Fair enough on the games, but let's be clear:  I have never "carried the charger with me" except insofar as I took it on vacation and left it in the hotel room or in the car.  Even the DS can't last an entire 2 week vacation without needing to charge. 

Do you honestly play your DS more than 5 hours a day on workdays?  If yes, what is the best way to get a job like yours?  As for being too lazy to take it home, I guess that might be a dealbreaker for you but to me it sounds pretty weak, so whatever.  At worst, I think, you would have to leave the PSP in sleep mode on the second day instead of playing it again like you could the DS. 

I appreciate the fact that the PSP does not have the kind of battery life the DS does but, seriously, I think it's not so much that the PSP's is bad as it is that you've been spoiled by the DS.

Lets pretend I'm playing something like Professor Layton and the Curious Village and I have a map that takes me about 2-3 minutes to load and unload.  Both are fine assumptions since I Professor Layton is an awesome game and I'm dealing with production levels that can take time to load and unload everything in the editor.

I generally do one of these three things during those 2-3 minutes:

1. Just sit there and stare blankly at the screen for 2-3 minutes
   
2. Read news/forums
3. Play my DS for 2-3 minutes

Assuming it's a day where I feel like doing number three and there' no convienent way to charge my DS while sitting at my desk (my power strip is pretty full), my DS will stay on and/or in sleep mode for at least 8 hours.  So yes, again, battery life is important to me.

Why do people have such a hard time believing that battery life is an important factor for me?  I don't give a flying fuck if you're happy with the battery life because that doesn't make it work any better for me.  I've said this who knows how many times now but for some odd reason people just want to think what works for them works for everyone else.  I've read the advice and I'm taking that into consideration (which I've also said) and that should be plenty for people.

 It is just the way people work. Look at any request for game recomendations thread. Regardless of the gaming preferences the person asking for recomendations has the same list of games will be brought out and trumpeted as the best the system has to offer for anyone. People have a hard time stepping outside of themselves and looking at the situation from a perspective they do not have. On gaming sites where the average age is relatively low this becomes even more difficult for most posters. The end result is you have people using their own perspective as the only measure that seems to matter. It is kind of annoying, but thats part of being human I suppose.