3DS Battery

[Cat333Pokémon]

For anyone who has had their 3DS for a while (a year or more), how is your battery life? Mine has been seeming a bit poor lately, so I leave it on the charger most of the time when I'm home.

[Ditto616]

I don't think I've noticed much of a change in mine. I can usually leave it on sleep for a day or two before it needs a charge. There are those third party battery life extenders. I've heard they work pretty well. They look pretty ergonomic too. Probably isn't too bad of an investment.

[Aquablast]

Originally Posted by Cat333Pokémon

For anyone who has had their 3DS for a while (a year or more), how is your battery life? Mine has been seeming a bit poor lately, so I leave it on the charger most of the time when I'm home.

It is around 4 to 5 hours for me.

[TurtwigX]

I usually keep mine on a setting of Power-Saving + 3rd Brightness, and that lasts me about 5 hours or so. It's also a launch date 3DS so it's like going on 2 years old. Whenever I'm not using it (most of the time) it's either in my pocket or sitting in the charging dock.

[Quadcentruo]

I haven't used my 3DS too extensively, so the battery should still be in good condition. I keep it on its charger when I play most of the time anyway, so I wouldn't know.

However, I do remember it dying once while it was in sleep mode.

[Twiggy]

Before I replaced my 3DS' battery with the Nyko, I think it lasted around 4-5 hours on brightness 3. 2D only.

[ThePokeMan]

I've always had the brightness low and Power-saving mode on, and the battery still has a decent life in my 3DS, around 5 hours in 2D mode after about a year now. I haven't been using mine much as of recently, I'm holding out for Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon before it will start to see any heavy use again.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Yeah, mine is definitely on its way out. A couple days ago, from merely being in sleep all day (~12 hours) after being taken off the charger and being used for only 26 minutes, the battery died. I'm thinking about just leaving it off completely when I'm not using it. Man, Nintendo really should've gone with a better battery. My DS Lite, on the other hand, which I've been using for White 2, has been doing much nicer on its battery life, and I've had that for almost five years.

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by Cat333Pokémon

Man, Nintendo really should've gone with a better battery. My DS Lite, on the other hand, which I've been using for White 2, has been doing much nicer on its battery life, and I've had that for almost five years.

It's more about the power consumption, really. Despite the 3DS having a larger battery, the system itself consumes a much larger amount of watts per second... and that gives the battery a load that is comparable to a smartphone. Couple that with always-on Wi-Fi and an old ARM processor, and you're looking at poor sleep power usage.

Still better than a real smartphone playing a game, though. With a 3DS, a lot of things are constant, while on a smartphone, it has to manage a lot of things in the background, and the parts are higher-power in general.

[LugiaDialga]

Well, I JUST got my 3DS XL and I must say, dat battery is amazing! Though I have abused it through two bad charges. I didn't let the system die all the way. Going to fix that starting next time it's battery depletes. How much does "battery saving mode" REALLY help save though is one question that comes to mind.

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by LugiaDialga

Well, I JUST got my 3DS XL and I must say, dat battery is amazing! Though I have abused it through two bad charges. I didn't let the system die all the way. Going to fix that starting next time it's battery depletes. How much does "battery saving mode" REALLY help save though is one question that comes to mind.

Bad charge? This is Li-On. You're better off charging when it reaches half charge, and only discharge completely when the meter's off. If you're leaving it alone for a long time, leave it at 75%. Discharging it completely all the time can potentially cut its cycles by half.

Battery Saving mode should give you 5%-10% extra time, with the differences being more obvious with higher brightness settings. It degrades image quality slightly (tweaks white balance and gamma) and reduces backlighting (especially when the scene is very dark, then it sets to lower than 1)

[LugiaDialga]

Originally Posted by Twiggy

Bad charge? This is Li-On. You're better off charging when it reaches half charge, and only discharge completely when the meter's off. If you're leaving it alone for a long time, leave it at 75%. Discharging it completely all the time can potentially cut its cycles by half.

Battery Saving mode should give you 5%-10% extra time, with the differences being more obvious with higher brightness settings. It degrades image quality slightly (tweaks white balance and gamma) and reduces backlighting (especially when the scene is very dark, then it sets to lower than 1)

Huh, well that's interesting. Thank-you for the information then, Twiggy! I shall see what i can do about charging it like that then. And yeah, I noticed that about the battery Saving mode. It bugs me most of the time, but if I'm bringing my 3DS to school, then it's helpful if I don't want my charger that day.

[kakashidragon]

my britness is on the lowest so i dont use much power unless im online witn it like being on netflix, also just got the 3ds a couple of weeks ago.