Massive PSP battery life breakdown at IGN

Each page is dedicated to a specific test they did to figure out battery times under different conditions. It's actually pretty good.
 
captainbiotch said:
Yes it is for the varying tests, it takes all of 1 minute to scan through them all.

2 hours and 45 minutes for wifi gaming, bleh.
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Yea, sell Girl Scout cookies. Blah blah blah, ad nauseum.
 
Test 1 Hard Performance Test
GAME: Ridge Racers
SCREEN: Full brightness
AUDIO: Speakers, full volume
WIFI: OFF
UMD: Low use
MEMORY STICK: No use
FINAL RESULTS: 3 hours, 32 minutes

Test 2 Heavy UMD Gameplay Loading (Low Visual Intensity)
GAME: Darkstalkers Chronicle
SCREEN: Full brightness
AUDIO: Headphones, full volume
WIFI: OFF
UMD: Frequent
MEMORY STICK: No use
FINAL RESULTS: 5 hours, 9 minutes

Test 3 Sleep Mode Test
SCREEN: OFF (exect when out of Sleep mode - Full Brightness after Sleep)
AUDIO: OFF (exect when out of Sleep mode - Full Volume after Sleep)
WIFI: OFF
UMD: OFF (exect when out of Sleep mode - disc spins up for 1 minute approx. every hour)
MEMORY STICK: OFF
FINAL RESULTS: Negligible Battery Impact Over 24 hours (battery still at 86%)

Test 4 WiFi Multiplayer Test
GAME: Ridge Racers
SCREEN: Full brightness
AUDIO: Speakers, full volume
WIFI: On, Ad-Hoc Mode
UMD: Low Use
MEMORY STICK: No use
FINAL RESULTS: 2 hours, 46 minutes
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Go read the whole feature for the details
 
f_elz said:
165minutes :o
PSPwned
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Agreed. After perusing this tragedy I'd strongly recommend a DS with RRDS to get the real Ridge Racer experience. Simply no use enduring nearly 3 hours of torture playing the battery-sucking travesty of Ridger Racers with 8 other people. Simply no use I say.
 
MassiveAttack said:
Yea, sell the PSPs you don't have, it's all over. Goodbye Sony. Blah blah blah, ad nauseum.
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:D
I was all set to buy one at US launch, but this, questionable build quality, the cost of the unit + extra battery + memory sticks + games, the ds getting an mp3/mpeg4 player, and realizing I could buy 2 gba games a month and be busy for the next year have put those plans on hold. System is beautiful though. We'll see in March.
 
Now I know, though, if I use the system at minimum brightness for long trips (which is fine for "everyday use" I'm told) that I'll probably be able to spin thirty minutes to an hour more out of this time. I'm still buying two batteries.
 
Did I miss something in these tests? Did they even play a game during the test? Or just let replays roll and tape the buttons down untill the battery died. Would it be so hard to put a few guys in a room with a few games and say play whatever untill the batteries die? Just a nice normal gaming session.
 
ThongyDonk said:
That'll be an extra $50!
Take on that if you plan on holding a decent amount of MP3s you're gonna need a 512mb Pro Duo at £210!!
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US prices are different from Japanese prices. I bet we'll see an extra battery go for 29.99 or 39.99.

And as for the memory stick pro duo...

...I already purchased one. I got a 1GB SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo for 154 dollars. A great price, if I do say so myself, to turn that beautiful system into an awesome multimedia center.
 
MassiveAttack said:
Yea, sell the PSPs you don't have, it's all over. Goodbye Sony. Blah blah blah, ad nauseum.
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Dude.

And sleep mode seems very impressive. Considered me, you know, impressed.
 
i dunno about classifying ridge racers as "low umd use" -- apparently it streams music off the umd. so i guess that 2hrs 46mins figure is close to an absolute low. strange that they only tested at full brightness and full speaker volume...if battery life is a concern, obviously you wouldn't play that way.
 
2 hours and 45 minutes for wifi gaming, bleh.
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Right, but that is RIDGE RACERS. It's 3 1/2 hours with WiFi on, so depending on how much it hits lesser games (if LUMINES is only 3 hours on WiFi instead of its usual 5 or so, that's problems) that's not too deep a cut. And both tests were run with speakers instead of headphones, though there's really not a test to tell the difference between max headphones and max speakers.
 
It lasts as long as many laptops running games off of a battery...

Sure, my standards could be far lower than the battery-life standards set by Nintendo.

But then again, Sony has far exceeded Nintendo's standards when it comes to style and technology.

As far as mem sticks are concerned...I'm sure the price for a 512Gb stick will be very affordable in a couple of years...by that time it will still be early in the PSP's life.
 
Fight for Freeform said:
As far as mem sticks are concerned...I'm sure the price for a 512Gb stick will be very affordable in a couple of years...by that time it will still be early in the PSP's life.
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It's still not an affordable proposition but you can get 512GB sticks for less than 75 dollars now and you can get 1GB sticks for a little over 150 now.
 
Did I miss something in these tests? Did they even play a game during the test? Or just let replays roll and tape the buttons down untill the battery died.
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That's over 11 hours of gameplay tests with just these examples (not counting music or sleep mode.) And that's not switching the cart, or switching the stage, or putting the thing down to go take a crap and have an apple...there's the Battery Journal for more personal accounts and standard operating. This is supposed to be more of an at-its-worst test of specific functions of the hardware.

i dunno about classifying ridge racers as "low umd use" -- apparently it streams music off the umd.
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The PSP's UMD has this low spin mode for small-level streaming, so that's somewhere in between low and moderate use. It's not running access checks and scanning the disc and whirling it at full speed like it does when it loads a stage. But then again, it's not off - might be worth a test with the UMD all the way off.
 
the processors and the screen, anyway -- full brightness probably accounts for the difference between ign's figures and gaf's FIVE FUCKING HOURS.
 
How many brightness levels are available when you're running off of the battery?

They should also test the other options.
 
Right, but that is RIDGE RACERS. It's 3 1/2 hours with WiFi on, so depending on how much it hits lesser games (if LUMINES is only 3 hours on WiFi instead of its usual 5 or so, that's problems)
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You know you don't really have to guess - the total battery capacity IS public info, and along with time numbers in the same game for WiFi on/off, you have enough data here to calculate both mA figure for the WiFi and the impact of such number on another game yourself.

Cybamerc said:
This seems to validate my theory that the CPU is the major resource hog in the system.
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Depends what you mean by "major". In their Ridge tests the chipset (CPU/GPU/MP), takes less then UMD&Screen do together.
 
You know you don't really have to guess - the total battery capacity IS public info, and along with time numbers in the same game for WiFi on/off, you have enough data here to calculate both mA figure for the WiFi and the impact of such number on another game yourself.
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Suppose. But wouldn't LUMINES send data packets less frequently or in smaller chunks than a game like RIDGE, or is it a constant stream of data no matter what?

How many brightness levels are available when you're running off of the battery?
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Three? There's four on AC Tap.

seriously, this is very "Game Gear" like, hope sony will sell a better battery in the near future
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Game Gear's problem was that it cost $5 (or a flat fee of $15 of rechargeables, times two for a spare set to charge overnight) every time you wanted to play it some more, so this isn't exactly the same problem. Except for long plane flights or car rides or whatever, you'd only be playing bits at a time ... though it's not as fire-and-forget as something like DS, where you don't have to remember to plug it in every night.
 
jesus some of u will jump on anything. These are the absolute minimums

who the fuck plays with the volume on max (don't try it near me without headphones or u'll be getting an ass kicking) and from what i've seen of the screen playing at max brightness is just showing off.

seriously grow up.

If independent normal use tests are showing 5 hrs using reasonable settings not the extreme setting here i'd be more likely to go with them. And the guys on this board are not konwn for their particular love of Sony and will call a spade a spade. So if their getting 5 hrs thats enough for me.
 
seanoff said:
jesus some of u will jump on anything. These are the absolute minimums

who the fuck plays with the volume on max (don't try it near me without headphones or u'll be getting an ass kicking) and from what i've seen of the screen playing at max brightness is just showing off.

seriously grow up.
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Indeed. I'm perfectly comfortable with the medium brightness setting. heck, even the lowest one is ok in a not too bright environment.
 
Well I see a lot of people downplaying the battery issue by arguing differential uses, and things like putting the PSP down to take a crap etc.

But if we were to apply a 'power conservation' playstyle to the GBA, DS and other handhelds, you would probably see similar extensions in battery life.

It's not really a fair comparison, at least the one that is implicitly being made. I think battery life is a problem for the PSP and all the hidden costs associated with the PSP will be a problem in the long term.

For the record, I do not own a NDS, nor do I want one at the moment. I'm holding off on the PSP.
 
cybamerc said:
How many brightness levels are available when you're running off of the battery?

They should also test the other options.
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There are a total of four brightness settings. The minimum setting is supposedly slightly less bright than the DS brightness (according to JackFrost and DCharlie). The medium setting is brighter than DS brightness. The max setting is like "the hand of God", according to JackFrost again. And there's a fourth setting available when the PSP is plugged in that can pretty much blind Jesus.

Kseutron said:
2H45

> D00M3D
seriously, this is very "Game Gear" like, hope sony will sell a better battery in the near future
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No, this is nothing at all like Game Gear. At this point saying this is as stupid as saying DS is the next Virtual Boy.
 
Amir0x said:
No, this is nothing at all like Game Gear. At this point saying this is as stupid as saying DS is the next Virtual Boy.
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He was talking about battery life. GameGear had horrible battery life.
 
I'm confused. What is the 5 hr. and 9 min. thing for? Isn't that for playing a game like ridge racer, that is load intensive, on the brightest setting?

I mean typically, isn't this how most people will be playing the PSP? (most likely though w/o the brightest setting, which will only extend the battery life even longer). 5 hr. seems awesome to me for playing a game like RR on a handheld. Am i not understanding what they're saying?
 
cybamerc said:
He was talking about battery life. GameGear had horrible battery life.
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I know precisely what he was talking about. And it's still just as stupid, if not even more stupid.
 
Any1 said:
I'm confused. What is the 5 hr. and 9 min. thing for? Isn't that for playing a game like ridge racer, that is load intensive, on the brightest setting?
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It's the result from playing Vampire Chronicle a 2D fighter, it's meant to juxtapose the battery life of Ridge Racers, a game that really pushes the system graphically.
 
cybamerc said:
He was talking about battery life. GameGear had horrible battery life.
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True, it did, but the argument to that is the Game Gear had 8 batteries that needed to be replaced every time. PSP just needs to be recharged.
 
AniHawk said:
True, it did, but the argument to that is the Game Gear had 8 batteries that needed to be replaced every time. PSP just needs to be recharged.
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On top of that, recharging the PSP battery takes significantly less time than recharging the DS battery. 2 hours 20 minutes vs. 4 hours.
 
On top of that, recharging the PSP battery takes significantly less time than recharging the DS battery. 2 hours 20 minutes vs. 4 hours.
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Well, the NDS battery lasts longer right?

For practical uses with my GBA SP, I usually play all day and charge during a stretch where I'm not using it for a long period.

From a user friendliness, it seems the DS cycle is much more prefered than having my gaming session interrupted by a battery issue then having to wait 2+ hours for the battery to charge. I suppose I could get a second set of charge battery as back up, but that's the hidden cost thing again that's really turned me off to the PSP.

For a unit with such a big problem with battery life, I can't really see how it can be a movie player, video game unit and mp3 player all in one. It doesn't seem i can do all three on one charge, which to me was the big selling point for the PSP.
 
AniHawk said:
True, it did, but the argument to that is the Game Gear had 8 batteries that needed to be replaced every time. PSP just needs to be recharged.
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It still may be an annoyance to some as I'm sure it was with the GameGear.
 
cybamerc said:
It's a perfectly valid comparison.
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Only to complete fucking idiots is it a valid comparrison. Let's see!

PSP can go five hours or more (on less than max settings admittedly) and then you have to recharge it! For Game Gear you'd often get much less than five hours and guess what, you needed to CONSTANTLY BUY NEW BATTERIES.

So let's see!

Paying to buy new batteries after every play time = Recharging the battery

Oh that's exactly alike. What a valid comparrison!

Wuster said:
Well, the NDS battery lasts longer right?

For practical uses with my GBA SP, I usually play all day and charge during a stretch where I'm not using it for a long period.

From a user friendliness, it seems the DS cycle is much more prefered than having my gaming session interrupted by a battery issue then having to wait 2+ hours for the battery to charge. I suppose I could get a second set of charge battery as back up, but that's the hidden cost thing again that's really turned me off to the PSP.
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The DS battery cycle is absolutely preferrable. All I meant was when you take all factors into consideration it is absolutely nothing like the Game Gear. And, as I elaborated on above, you'd have to be a fucking idiot to think otherwise.
 
You can play the PSP as it charges, right?

I'm not too keen on the DS's battery life, and shorter than that makes me feel I should wait for an upgrade from Sony, or for a chance to get the PSP for $50. There's enough games coming out next year, I don't need another system right away.

Unless Perfect Dark Zero is a Xenon launch title.
 
Amir0x:

> PSP can go five hours or more (on less than max settings admittedly) and then you
> have to recharge it!

Recharging equels interrupted gameplay.

> For Game Gear you'd often get much less than five hours and guess what, you
> needed to CONSTANTLY BUY NEW BATTERIES.

Unless you invested in rechargable batteries of course.

> Oh that's exactly alike.

He didn't say exactly alike. Learn to read.
 
cybamerc said:
Amir0x:

> PSP can go five hours or more (on less than max settings admittedly) and then you
> have to recharge it!

Recharging equels interrupted gameplay.
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It's "equals" and no matter what there's going to be a point where you must interrupt gameplay. It just so happens on the PSP it gets interrupted more than DS. On Game Gear your gameplay was interrupted even more.

cybamerc said:
> For Game Gear you'd often get much less than five hours and guess what, you
> needed to CONSTANTLY BUY NEW BATTERIES.

Unless you invested in rechargable batteries of course.
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...What? If you invest in one rechargeable battery, which by the way you don't have to at all, it still does not even come within the same fucking galaxy as Game Gear. Don't be dense.

cybamerc said:
> Oh that's exactly alike.

He didn't say exactly alike. Learn to read.
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He said this is "very" Game Gear like, which implies that they have remarkable similarities. They don't. And I'll say it once more for emphasis, because I understand your "positions" on this issue: IF you think any part of the PSP is anything like Game Gear you are an idiot that needs to be lobotomized.

I hope that's clear enough for you.
 
Amir0x said:
I hope that's clear enough for you.
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It's very clear to me that you're putting words in his mouth. If you can't accept that short battery life is an inconvenience to some that's your problem.
 
cybamerc said:
It's very clear to me that you're putting words in his mouth. If you can't accept that short battery life is an inconvenience to some that's your problem.
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I'm putting words in his mouth.

Quote: "seriously, this is very "Game Gear" like"...

Fact: No it's not.

And, uh, I know short battery life is an inconvenience. And I'd go a step further and say it's an inconvenience to everyone. The point is it's nothing at all like Game Gear in this regard. And that's the facts, jack.
 
Amirox, I understand ur point and, yes, with the psp you just have to recharge the battery instead of buying new ones

so ok, it's not exactly like the game gear, the "game gear like" thing was just about those 2h45 that still look quite short to me

(please notice that i didn't have to say stupid, idiots and fu*** three times in my post to communicate with you)
 
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