Someone bothered to test the battery life of handhelds

[Twiggy]

Here's the linky!

I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how much better the 3DS XL's battery was, relatively speaking. (Note that the stats are for maximum brightness if applicable, which means brightness 5 for the 3DSes and DSis, brightness 4 for the DS Lite, light on for original DS and front-lit GBA SP, and level 2 for backlit GBA SP.

The Game Boy Color is a total champ, though. o.O (If only no one touched the Game Boy...)

[Quadcentruo]

GBC at 30-some hours? That would explain why it didn't die one time when I was playing it, left it on my couch (still running), left my house for about 2 hours, and it still was running strong. This happened when I was rather young. I was pretty surprised when I found it still on and running fine.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Ahh, I remember eating through batteries on the GBA back in the day. Good times.

[Shade]

This has given me interest in the Mugen line of products. A 10 hour gain in battery life? Wow.

I'm mostly surprised that the GBC beat out the original Game Boy. I would think the GB would have the best battery life due to it being monochrome.

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by Shade

This has given me interest in the Mugen line of products. A 10 hour gain in battery life? Wow.

I'm mostly surprised that the GBC beat out the original Game Boy. I would think the GB would have the best battery life due to it being monochrome.

Game Boy hardware is out from the eighties. Power efficiency?

[NismoZ]

I kinda want to see how a Game Boy Pocket would have fared here. It was from after the Color, had an equally crappy screen as the original, and only runs on two batteries.

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by NismoZ

I kinda want to see how a Game Boy Pocket would have fared here. It was from after the Color, had an equally crappy screen as the original, and only runs on two batteries.

Two AAA batteries, though. I wonder whether there is a difference between AA and AAA batteries, when it comes to capacity.

[ThePokeMan]

Originally Posted by Twiggy

Two AAA batteries, though. I wonder whether there is a difference between AA and AAA batteries, when it comes to capacity.

I have 2 Wiimotes that take different batteries, actually. I have the standard one that came with the system, and I bought a smaller one that takes 2 AAAs. As far as I can tell, it doesn't have much of a difference with power, though I've never really tested it. They seem to control equally well, though the smaller one takes a few minutes to warm up before it stops controlling slippery. I suppose there's a different voltage, which would impact a regular Wiimote, and the battery lives are probably a bit off, but I think the fact that the overall unit is smaller helps it run on smaller batteries.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Originally Posted by Twiggy

Two AAA batteries, though. I wonder whether there is a difference between AA and AAA batteries, when it comes to capacity.

The average alkaline AA is rated about 2,122 milliamp-hours, while the average AAA is rated about 1,150 milliamp-hours. Given a typical drain of 1.225 volts:

AA: 2.122 Ah * 1.225 V = 2.599 Wh
AAA: 1.150 Ah * 1.225 V = 1.409 Wh

And comparing the watt-hours:

100% * 2.599 Wh / 1.409 Wh - 100% = 84.5%

The typical AA battery has 84.5% greater capacity than the typical AAA battery, assuming identical composition.

For anyone else interested, the ampere-hour ratings on other common alkaline (at "1.5V", 1.225 true volts) cells:
C: 7,800 mAh (9.555 Wh), 554% greater than AAA
D: 17,000 mAh (20.825 Wh), 1100% greater than AAA