Sony Announces PSP Extended Life Battery Kit

**JKKDARK** · December 1st, 2007, 14:39

via AC

n a post from Sony's official Playstation blog, Sony reveals a new longer lasting battery for its handheld gaming system, the PSP.

Battery life has always been a concern for Sony and the PSP as one of the main complaints about the PSP has been the short battery life. It can take as little as 3 hours for the PSP's battery to go from fully-charged to empty. In contrast, the battery life of the Nintendo DS is around 10 hours.

The PSP was released in 2005 in the U.S. when Sony decided to go head-to-head with Nintendo and the Nintendo DS. Nintendo has got a monopolistic hold on the handheld gaming market since the released of the Game Boy in the late 1980s. While the PSP is lagging far behind the Nintendo DS in sales, it still managed to capture and maintain a piece of the market share and is selling really well overall; that is something no other competitor has achieved against Nintendo in the handheld market.

The original PSP model (circa 2005- September 2007) comes with a 3.6v (voltage) battery that can hold 1800mAh (Milliamp Hour, or how much energy the battery can hold).

PSP 2000 (otherwise known as PSP Slim & Lite), a remodeling of the PSP, was released in the U.S. in September of this year. In addition to adding new features like TV output, the PSP 2000 is slightly lighter and smaller than the original model. The new model was also more energy efficient as it only needed a 3.6v battery that can hold 1200mAh. Despite having a lower mAh, the battery life of PSP 2000 lasts about as long as the older model.

The PSP Extended Life Battery Kit will come with a 3.6v battery that can hold 2200mAh. The new extended battery will last approximately 20 % longer than the battery for the original PSP model. The PSP Extended Life Battery Kit also approximately doubles the battery life of the PSP 2000.

The new extended battery is thicker than the PSP 2000's battery; fortunately, Sony will include two different battery covers (one colored in piano black, the other in ice silver) for PSP 2000 with the extended battery in the package.

Owners of the older PSP model won't be left out since The PSP Extended Life Battery Kit is compatible with both the original PSP model and the new PSP 2000. The PSP Extended Life Battery Kit will be availble in mid-December at the price of MSRP $44.99.