PSP Battery Life

Compared to other portable gaming systems, the PSP is not only more powerful, it’s also more power hungry. Indeed, with a 333 MHz processor, ultra-bright widescreen color display, wireless networking, and an optical UMD drive to run, the battery is working overtime to make sure you stay entertained for hours on end. Thankfully, Sony has included a rechargeable 1800 mAh Lithium Ion battery to help out—normal alkaline batteries wouldn’t survive the load for long and would be darn expensive to replace all the time. On a full charge, you will get (and independent organizations have confirmed this) up to six hours of battery life when playing video games, and up to four hours for movies. This is assuming you’re running the screen at half intensity and half volume with wireless off. I tend to run with the brightness and volume all the way up, so take about 10 percent off that figure if you play the same way.

• Game Boy Advance, 15 hours
• Game Boy Color, 10 hours
• Game Boy DS, 6–10 hours
• PSP, 6 hours