Battery Life is the Enemy. Discuss
With the revelation that Nintendo’s 3DS handheld will tout a battery life of between three and five hours, it got me thinking about the nature of handhelds. What should a handheld gaming experience deliver? And how does the humble battery cell affect how we use the device – and shape our gaming habits in general?
For many, inadequate battery life is a pet peeve that has been boiling away in the background for a long time. Handheld gaming has, since its inception, been ruled by two deeply conflicted hardware needs: capability versus energy cost. You cannot have one without considering the other – and both are underscored by price. Now, with the advent of the Nintendo 3DS just around the corner, I’m here yet again.
What’s my issue? I think it’s the assumption that players should need to watch the clock when gaming – and worse, knock down the settings to optimize battery life. Moreover, we’re potentially paying a premium for hardware with a myriad of brilliant functionality – arguably tempered by battery life that cannot sustain it. We saw it in some ways with the PSP when it launched, and even today players are often tethered to a power socket.
That’s a valid problem in my eyes. Nintendo is advising gamers to run the system at the lowest brightness and minimum additional functions like wireless and 3D output running in order to push the battery life upwards of 3 hours. For a system being sold on its 3D display and wireless connectivity, we’re left scratching our heads at the dinky battery life.
Let’s take a step back for a moment and look at the bigger picture.A handheld is essentially comprised of the same raw component types that make up a console: your core processors, sound chip and memory. These take a lot of juice to power. Then, given the standalone nature of a handheld, there’s the backlit screen (or two) and direct-input controls like buttons, sticks and motion-sensing hardware. Suddenly, the single battery cell is powering a heck of a lot of hardware. Finally, toss cameras and wireless connectivity into the mix and you’re talking about serious energy drain.
With the advent of backlighting, even in the early ’90s with the Atari Lynx and Game Gear, we were already starting to see the impact new technology would play on battery life. Backlit screens are notoriously power hungry – and on maximum screen brightness, even the newest, most efficient technology still guzzles charges like a fat man though chocolate milk.
The drain on disposable batteries is less and less of a consideration these days – though, for owners of Wiis and Xbox 360s, the default controller still requires two AA batteries. While there are various first and third-party rechargeable options available today, back in the ’90s, you were generally stuck with replacing the cells regularly.
Rechargeable batteries come in a variety of chemical compositions, sizes and densities. Most commonly the Lithium-Ion battery is used in gaming handhelds these days – but while these batteries offer excellent energy density, they are very expensive to produce. This is why, ultimately, hardware manufacturers opt for smaller, lower density versions as standard in their handhelds; it keeps costs low, which in turn factors into a better profit/loss ratio.
In the case of the redesigned PSP, a smaller capacity battery (one that was also physically thinner) was adopted to keep the streamlined shape – though, hardware efficiency was purportedly increased to compensate. We’re now wondering whether, in order to keep the 3DS roughly the same dimensions as the DS Lite, if Nintendo has taken the same route.
It’s constantly a cost-versus-efficiency question – and the customer generally tends to play second fiddle. The 3DS is perhaps in a unique position. While packing a 1300 mAh battery – which is an increase from the DSi XL’s 1050 mAh cell (which provided a full 13 or so hours of gameplay time), the 3DS’ jump in processing power and larger screens has clearly taken a serious bite out of the lithium-ion fuel source. Even after bumping up the density of the battery, Nintendo’s R&D has hit something of a performance wall. Sure, Nintendo could opt for a larger capacity battery – but that means: a) more cost to Nintendo that must be recouped, and b) potentially adding to the size, weight …and retail price.
It’s not publically known at this stage what the raw production cost of the 3DS is, but we’re confident in saying that Nintendo’s pricing strategy will comfortably cover manufacturing costs. To be certain, Nintendo doesn’t want to eat into profitability. As it’s demonstrated with Wii, the company’s business model has, for a while now, been steadfastly against selling at a loss and recouping that loss though sheer numbers.
There’s another consideration to the laptop battery debate that should be factored in: accessories. Is it really in a company’s interests to extend the included battery life?
With just about every handheld platform ever, there has been a third-party power extending option available. There’s a significant market here and major players like Nintendo and Sony know this. Sometimes, as was the case with the PSP, it released its own first-party solution: that is, an optional bigger battery. As we’re going to see with the 3DS, a charge cradle is included with the handheld. While it’s not going to give your spiffy new handheld more juice, it will make it easier to top the sucker up between portable sessions or play at your desk.
There’s always money to be made from this approach; so too from planned obsolescence – or the creation of technology that’s always just a little under-featured. You need only look at the approaches taken by companies like Apple, Sony (with the PSP) and Nintendo (again, with the DS) to see the immediate financial benefit of annual refinements and updates.
As new technologies are eventually made more affordable to manufacture, then we see adoption by the mainstream. I have a feeling batteries – particularly lithium-ion rechargeable ones that are the current standard – will be here for a long time, but new and more efficient portable cells are already starting to creep into the market. Given another five years, perhaps we’ll finally have a viable and affordable solution to our long-term portable power wants. Until then, though, we’ll have to get by knowing sometimes it’s better to be handcuffed to a power point than missing out completely.
About the Author
We specialize in substitute batteries(laptop battery, Digital Camera Battery, power tool battery) and battery packs for laptops, camcorders, digital cameras, PDAs, mobile phones, and power tools, etc. as well as battery chargers! All products are high quality, brand new with 1 year warranty!.Welcom to www.ibuynow.com.au at any time.
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