PSP BATTERY LIFE STILL A PROBLEM !

Ken Kutaragi, the man who brought us the PlayStation and is responsible for the launch of Sony's PSP, has suggested that there are still problems with the eagerly awaited handheld system's battery life.[br]In an interview with Japanese website Impress PC Watch Kutaragi stated that more "intensive" games such as Ridge Racer would drain the battery's power quicker than, for example, a puzzle game like Puyo Puyo Fever.[br][br]Rumours suggesting the PSP's battery life would be as low as two hours have been circulating since last May's E3, but they were dismissed by Sony's announcement of the system's Japanese December 12 release date a couple of weeks ago (read all about it here). [br][br]In the accompanying technical specs the battery life was estimated as 4-6 hours for gaming and 4-5 hours for video playback. These measurements were taken with the backlit screen at medium luminance with volume at half level, headphones in use and the wireless LAN feature not in use, and Sony were quick to admit that any variation to this standard would affect power drain. Games that use many of the system's optional features like the wireless LAN, or require the processor to work overtime, will drain the battery especially quickly.[br][br]Yet Kutaragi was quick to point out that, "in the future, we'd like for a single charge to last for a flight from Tokyo Narita to New York." That's 14 hours, globetrotters.[br][br]So does this mean that Sony plans to improve the PSP's battery life as time goes on? Those keen to own the system as soon as possible could be a little taken aback by this possible admission that early versions will not be as functional as later iterations, but Kutaragi did emphasise that all portable gadgets - including the company's own Walkman - enjoy longer battery life as the technology develops.[br][br]In fact, Kutaragi even suggests in the interview that the solution may lie with developers. By optimising their games and working with the system's restrictions, Kutaragi reckons dev companies can juice extra performance from the power source. Developers, of course, will not be especially chuffed about this. It would certainly explain some of the voices of dissent coming from teams working on PSP projects over the last couple of months.[br][br]We should mention that Sony is making additional battery packs available for the PSP as an optional accessory. Nonetheless, early adopters of the system will not want to have to wear a bandito-style belt of additional batteries every time they go on a journey.[br][br]We'll have to wait until we get our hands on a real, living PSP before we know how the battery will perform for sure, but after the Sony's jaw-dropping price announcement these revelations could drag the system back into a mire of negative criticism.[br][br]More info as it becomes available, and you can catch up with the ongoing saga of the PSP's battery life here.

That means they're going to have revisions, which is nothing new in the console world. Maybe after a die shrink and some redesigning they'll produce one that eats less power, and/or they'll include a battery with even higher capacity.

In other words, the hardware is about two or three years too early, hence the high price and the low battery life. Give it three years, and the components in the PSP would be far cheaper to manufacture, and use so little power that you'd get twice the battery life, and we'd probably have more efficient batteries by then anyway...

If Sony do make several revisions of the design, that means that those who bought the first generation models will be completely screwed.

They should have run the tests at full brightness, full volume, with the WiFi on and running at 333 MHz and gave us the results.

yeah, but 15mins would sound bad! ;D

[quote author=BlackAura link=board=PSP;num=1099335477;start=0#2 date=11/02/04 at 06:46:18]If Sony do make several revisions of the design, that means that those who bought the first generation models will be completely screwed.[/quote]I'm not going to pick up either new handheld for a while anyway. But I thought about this and decided that it wasn't a big deal to early adopters. After all, I wouldn't play my GG without the lovely rechargeable battery pack. Even a relatively small battery pack should give the PSP a huge boost to battery life, for those who use it for more than a few hours of mobile gaming at a time. I don't generally even have that kind of spare time when I'm away from an AC outlet anyway.

I don't recommend anymore import it, I think that if you really want PSP you should atleast wait until the USA release (or UK release depending on where you are). Because Sony will make tweaks to the system to improve stuff that critics find bad with the Japanese release. Sony needs to dominate the USA market and no one is going to get a portable that lasts 4 hours.

Is it just me, or does the battery seem kind of weak? I'm sure a more powerful battery would increase the life dramatically, and this can be made to be compatible with all systems, if in an event that is is revised later on.

[quote author=alseides link=board=PSP;num=1099335477;start=0#7 date=11/06/04 at 18:18:40]Is it just me, or does the battery seem kind of weak? I'm sure a more powerful battery would increase the life dramatically, and this can be made to be compatible with all systems, if in an event that is is revised later on.[/quote]

It is weak, you have to remember that they want PSP to be small and that means they are limited to a small battery for it. The small battery works wonders for GBA SP because its 16 MHz. PSP uses a 1-333 MHz main CPU, a 1-166 MHz Video CPU and a 166 MHz Audio CPU.

I was reading a press article yesterday that quoted Sony would be losing $300 (£160) on each PSP sold at the current rrp.

Its quite a mess when you consider developers will need to invest the standard development time for a PS2 game at a handheld software retail price.

Unfortunately I find the line up so far very uninteresting.

the battery life is 4-6 hours for games, 2 hours for movies, 6 hours for mp3 and something like 14 in standby, which sucks

Those numbers aren't solid. :-/

The battery is small in physical size, yes. But that doesn't mean they couldn't have squeezed some more juice into it. How depressing. This seems like the only bad thing about this system, but its bad enough to make me reconsider purchasing it.