Battery Life: 3DS Vs. Game Gear

[chessage]

This video says it all...

[xelement5x]

Summary: Game gear wins.

What would be interesting though would be to wire a fully charged 3DS battery into use for the Game Gear and then see the outcome. I'm not exactly sure what the specs on the 3DS are, but as long as it's greater than 10V 850mA it'd be a more balanced test.

[Kogen]

Well it is Nintendo, what do you expect?

Everything will be worse than anything else on the market. iPods probably have better battery life and graphics (probably cheaper too).

[QuickSciFi]

I had already lost my interest in the 3DS, but this now certainly gave me a new perspective when looking at the Game Gear.

I'd still want RGB-out or a better screen though.

[chessage]

I'd still want RGB-out or a better screen though.

Composite output is a more preferred & universal choice, though.

[Guntz]

I'd suggest investing some money in getting a Game Gear RGB de/encoder PCB manufactured, because making the board yourself is tedious as all hell. It makes the CCAM look like an RCA mod...

I'll probably buy a 3DS to play the new Nintendo games, but not for right now...

[kool kitty89]

Summary: Game gear wins.

What would be interesting though would be to wire a fully charged 3DS battery into use for the Game Gear and then see the outcome. I'm not exactly sure what the specs on the 3DS are, but as long as it's greater than 10V 850mA it'd be a more balanced test.

There's also a lot of other variables to consider: 3DS has variable power consumption depending on what it's doing (playing DS games is less intensive than 3DS or multimedia, and some 3DS games may be more intensive than others) . . . then there's variables on the GG's end depending on the model GG used (late models have significantly better life) and the types of batteries used.

10v 850mA doesn't really say much about anything . . . what matters is the mAh, and using good quality alkalines (as in the video) could give an advantage.
The 3DS's stock battery is listed as 1300 mAH, WAY, WAY less than good alkaline AAs. (so the GG would have 9V at something like 2000-2500 mAh)


Edit:
Wow, almost 7 1/2 hours on the GG with continuous play (not intermittent play -so no rest for the batteries) . . . I wonder if that's a Majesco GG. (even so, those are quoted at ~6 hours max)

[Bastardcat]

The difference being that the 3DS comes with a rechargeable power supply. Where as with an out of the box GG, you're feeding it a steady diet of AAs.

[GohanX]

Yeah, don't forget that quality batteries today tend to last longer than they did back in the Game Gear's heyday. We can thank digital cameras for that! Also, the 3DS's battery is 3.6v.

[kool kitty89]

Yeah, don't forget that quality batteries today tend to last longer than they did back in the Game Gear's heyday. We can thank digital cameras for that! Also, the 3DS's battery is 3.6v.

Standard, good quality alkaline AAs shouldn't have changed much since then . . . neither have NiCd rechargeables or cheap-o dry cells (zinc-carbon batteries).

I wonder how many of those old battery life accounts were done with crappy dry cells. (would be less than 1/2 the duration of Alkalines, more extreme for continuous play testing -dry cells have far more serious voltage drop issues as they discharge, and tend to die temporarily for a few hours after being under heavy continuous load -alkalines do that to a much lesser degree, lithiums almost not at all)

What's available today that wasn't then are NiMH rechargeables with double (or more) the capacity as old NiCd cells (and far less of a problem with partial discharge) and lithium cells (specifically Li/FeS cells outputting 1.5V -so usable for standard AA/AAA/D/C batteries, unlike the 3V li/MnO2 cells).

Good NiMH cells rival Alkalines for charge capacity. (you can technically recharge normal alkalines too, but it risks rupture -moreso after multiple charges- . . . they used to sell Alkalines specifically intended for recharging fairly commonly, but I haven't seen those around recently)

The difference being that the 3DS comes with a rechargeable power supply. Where as with an out of the box GG, you're feeding it a steady diet of AAs.

Or you could just use NiMH rechargeables for similar battery life as the Alkalines in that video.

Investing in a few (or more than a few) NiMH cells and a charger is a really good idea for almost anyone . . . unless they have few to no commonly use devices with batteries.

For many things I honestly prefer standard batteries (especially common AAs) to built-in battery packs. Sure, it involves a bit of work to swap in a freshly charged set of batteries, but you don't have to worry about charging the system (just do a quick swap -so long as you've got a good supply of batteries on hand), and you can easily upgrade to higher capacity cells. (or opt for alkalines or lithiums if you wanted) Plus you avoid the hassle of a device-specific charger to misplace/break or forget to take with you. (I'll take the original GBA over the SP for that reason . . . and the form factor -just the lack of lighting is the problem)

If you're on the go, you could also swap in new batteries if needed. (used to do that on road trips, vacations, camping, and various other outings with down-time involved -actually, going to my dad's SCCA races left a lot of down time like that)


Of course, back in the early/mid 90s, you basically had crappy dry cells, alkalines, and NiCd rechargeables to choose from, and only Alkalines gave a good battery life. (NiCd are a bitch to charge properly too) The battery technology used in the 3DS obviously didn't exist in common use either.

[omp]

Wow that is surprising, don't own a 3DS myself, but I thought the idea was neat.......for a while. A mate has one and it was good to play, but I could see it would a gimmick.

I have to purchase some new rechargeable batteries to revisit my NDSi backlit GG, just so damn busy with other stuff.

[gamevet]

You'd be lucky to get 2 hours with an Atari Lynx.

[j_factor]

People just like to exaggerate. I never felt the Game Gear had a bad battery life. Not as good as the Game Boy, sure, but still not that bad, and definitely better than the Lynx. Maybe some people were buying their batteries at the 99-cent store or something.

Nor do I remember battery life being a big deal back in the day. People preferred Game Boy because it was cheaper and had Tetris and Mario, etc. At least, that's what everyone said about the Game Boy when I didn't have one and they did. None of them said they got one because the batteries last longer. In fact, when the Pocket came out, it had much worse battery life than the original, and that didn't seem to be often commented upon.

[Bastardcat]

Did someone say Tetris?
Gameboy Tetris > Most Lynx and Game Gear games combined. You pick it up, and you just can't stop playing it.
This is coming from someone who REALLY loves his Tetris though, so take that as you will.

[Thunderblaze16]

Jesus fucking Christ, OVER 7 HOURS!?, go Game Gear! I never knew it could this long, lol.

EDIT: It kinda makes sense though on why the game boy last longer than the game game. The dam thing was only black n green, the gear had black lighting and colors.