Sony: PSP Go Battery Life 3 to 6 Hours

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Adam Grant, PSP product manager for Sony Europe, has responded to some burning questions about the upcoming PSP Go. Specifically, we wanted to know about cross compatibility with existing UMD games, whether the device harbored any secret hardware improvements, and what would come included in the retail box. The Sony spokesman was good enough to provide answers to all of those questions, although his responses will leave some potential customers disappointed. Grant confirmed that other than the lack of a UMD drive and on-board flash memory, there are no other significant improvements to the PSP hardware, meaning that it has the same amount of RAM and processor power as the current model. The retail box will include a USB cable to facilitate data transfers from PC, as well as some media management software to organize all of your digital files. He also said that Sony is working on a "Goodwill programme" for owners of older UMD games that want to transfer them to the PSP Go, but that nothing concrete had been decided yet.

One of the biggest surprises to emerge from his answers is the revelation that the PSP will have a relatively short battery life, similar to the existing model.

"We have adopted an embedded battery to realise a smaller and lighter PSP system. The battery life is equivalent with the current models meaning approximately 3 to 6 hours for gameplay and approximately 3 to 5 hours for playing back videos. " he wrote.

We are somewhat disappointed by the short battery life of the PSP Go, which is most likely a concession to form-factor. Nevertheless, we had hoped that improvements in battery technology and the removal of spinning UMD parts would have increased autonomous life to more than 6 hours of play time. We eventually got used to the shorter battery life in our old PSP, mainly because we played it home plugged into the outlet. However, for a product designated "Go", this device might come up short for some heavy-playing road warriors.

[Source: Official Sony Blog]

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ergh sometimes I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND SONY!

I posted about this in the PSP Go will Fail thread as well.

http://kotaku.com/5288929/details-on-pspgo-battery-life-accessories--more

The PSPgo, according to official European word, will come with an "embedded battery" offering a charge "equivalent with the current models." That means approximately 3 to 6 hours for gameplay and 3 to 5 hours for playing back video. Looks like a smaller battery may cancel out power saving benefits achieved from dropping the UMD drive.

Oh well, PSP battery life is fine for me at the moment, though I did expect some improvements

Form over function won this time.

While it is definitely a portable I would actually consider taking with me somewhere (easily slips into a back pocket, no extra media to fuss with), the price was what made me laugh and say "guess I'll be sticking with the PSP3000 until the price drops!"

I foresee peripheral makers producing an external battery pack for the Go.

Really do like the form factor though; looks like you're playing with a phone rather than a children's toy.

That's really short.

How small does the battery have to be to cancel out savings from a spinning drive...

Well, as long as it holds up to that of the 3000, then I can't say anything bad about it. Sure, it's not exactly praise worthy, but when it's still on par, then I can deal with it.

By the way, would this "embedded battery" be the same deal as those Apple devices where you can't replace the battery yourself?

The fact is, one of the most requested feature/improvement wasn't done

I just can't understand how it costs $250.....unless SONY are absolutely making a killing of a profit out of it!

The PSP 3000 battery life is over 8 hours.

Seems odd that the battery life for the two is the same, the PSP Go should be higher?