Sony Says PSP Battery Life is Shorter than Quoted

SetupWeasel writes "Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that "Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has admitted that graphically intensive games will drain the PSP's battery more rapidly than the quoted figures." Sony also said that this would be corrected in future revisions of the hardware, but we know how well that plan worked for Nokia."

won't even last 1 trip

[fireduck]

so a portable with batteries that will last 2 hours. that's less than just about any air travel time. no thank you. the GBA, with its 10 hour battery life, has spoiled me.

future revisions?

[Jane_the_Great]

Corrected in future revisions of the hardware? Come on - why would someone buy the PSP with a statement like that? And what is Sony going to do for early adopters who purchase a PSP that drains radpily.

I'm all for people being honest BUT if you think you can correct the problem in later revisions of the hardware, why not make that later revision the first release and only bring to market a product that meets the specs?

Lame

[GR1NCH]

I forsee people hauling around massive external battery packs to play this thing. Honestly just get a DS and show Sony you wont put up with bullshit like this.

Re:future revisions?

[mausmalone]

It'll be corrected in a later version because as the cost of the lcd and other internals goes down, they'll be able to afford a better built-in battery. For now, though, I'm sure early adopters will be happy with a shitty battery and probably a battery extender that plugs in to the dc power port.

Re:stop complaining

[mausmalone]

You'd be surprised how little time 2 hours can be when you're on a long trip. You can easily burn through that when you're on a plane or stuck waiting in line somewhere. It's also nice to have a long battery time when you forget to recharge.

Re:I think sony made the right choice

[KevinKnSC]

For everything they offer in the psp the battery life is sufficient for release. Yes the DS will have about 5x longer playtime... for now. If Nintendo made something with the same size screen/processing power then they would run into the same problem as would any company.

That's just it, though. Nintendo isn't making something with the same screen size and processing power precisely because it would drain the battery so fast. Nintendo has owned this market for so long because they realize that, when you get right down to it, a good that lasts for a long time beats really good that lasts for a short time. It looks like the next round will play out the same way the others have.

Not a fatal problem to me

[Teppy]

I'm sure that 3rd party spare batteries will be popular early on, just as add-on lights were popular with early GameBoy Advances. If Sony sells a spare battery for $45, the 3rd parties will probably sell for $15; I'd be the first to pick up a couple for trips.

The gaming press hasn't noticed this yet.

[Anonymous Coward]

You begin to wonder if they are ignoring this news on purpose, because not ign, gamespy nor gamespot have mentioned this news.

Probably Sony wouldn't treat them well if they were proclaming the new truth about the system, even if revealed by Kutaragi himself.

At least, for one time Kutaragi is being honest about hardware (or maybe, the battery life is even worse than he says)

Re:stop complaining about complaints

[FLAGGR]

Step 1) Wire a few AA's together
Step 2) Get an AMD 64 FX-55 system, with geforce 6800 Ultra GPU
Step 3) Hook batteries into AC/DC converter, then to computer

Boom! You've got the fastest portable in the world, and hey, you don't have to worry about battery life, because you can almost boot up a machine that can push x polygons / sec

Are you listening to yourselves?!?

[kingsmedley]

I can't believe some of the comments I am hearing here.

"early adopters can afford extra batteries"
"the battery life is sufficient"
"simply buy extra battery packs"

Dang, people. You're living in denial. I said similair things back when I thought the Jaguar would be Atari's second coming.

"Just wait for the next game!"
"There are over 250 developers making games right now!"
"Club Drive is gonna be AWESOME!"

Yeah, you might eventually get a better battery life. Someday. Just don't hold your breath like I did - it's real embarassing when you pass out.

BTW, how many people remember the big horkin' D-cell power pack for the Lynx? Woohoo! 10 hours of full color backlit gaming goodness, on just $25 worth of batteries!

Re:I GIVE UP!!!

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

" all of my budget toting Dell friends want mine"

I have a Compal CL-56. 5 hour battery life *and* the same graphics power (Mobility Radeon 9700) as your A-51m.

Oh, and I paid $1400 for it. Probably a fair bit less than your overpriced Alienware.