3DS Has Power Saving Mode for Dark Pixels

[heartgold]

In the latest edition of Iwata Asks, our omnipresent Nintendo President tells about the power-saving mode for the Nintendo 3DS. It uses less power for the backlight when the pixels themselves are darker shades.

Internal testing with the mode off gave the three-hour battery life figure we have all come to know, but when this power-save mode was enabled, the team got 10 to 20 percent more battery life when the backlight was on the brightest setting. With the lowest brightness, the battery lasted five hours, and turning this power-save mode on or off did not make much of a difference.

Another test, with the brightness turned all the way up, showed that turning off 3D could make the battery last 25 percent longer. This would increase the battery life to 3.75 hours on the brightest setting.

Ryuji Umezu from the Research and Engineering Department, one of Iwata's interviewees, also told us that WiFi communications do not have a big impact since they are intermittent, but local multiplayer can decrease playtime by around 10% when the system is on full brightness.

Technical specifications on Nintendo's website previously revealed the 3DS battery life to be between three to five hours.

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Wow that's interesting and helpful since 3DS battery isn't all that good.

 

[Lube_Skyballer]

I think the 3DS' battery isn't all that bad. I always play my DS lite on the lowest brightness setting en sound turned off. The battery lasts insanely long (like 15-18 hours) that way. I'd think if you use the 3DS with the same energy-saving setting the battery will last at least 8 hours. Which is acceptable.

imho people are just complaining to much.

 

[shadowmanwkp]

Very interesting feature, I think you can save a lot of battery life by doing this, nice one nintendo. However, I think they could come up with this waaaay earlier, I mean come on, those pixels are black when they aren't backlit, so you don't need to turn them on for black anyways. Also, this could be implemented way earlier, because you can easily turn off pixels....

 

[Deleted member 67270]

I don't mind the battery life too much since the only times I ever play my DS and PSP is at home and sometimes at a relative's place. I do understand though if people were playing it out there where there's no public outlet or something.

 

[Devin]

I don't mind the battery life too much since the only times I ever play my DS and PSP is at home and sometimes at a relative's place. I do understand though if people were playing it out there where there's no public outlet or something.

Yeah, my 3DS is going to spend 80% of it's life on the charger. I usually don't play any devices outside, because the glare from the sun is horrible. Even if it does make it outside, I'll have my wall charger as well as my car charger.

 

[Veho]

Does that mean that each pixel has an individual backlight?

 

[TheTwoR's]

Yay for 3rd party mega awesome non-official batteries

 

[Canonbeat234]

Down two years, they will invite a solar panel charger.

 

[testatura]

Down two years, they will invite a solar panel charger.

probably already in stock on dealxtreme

with 3 leds, beer opener, iphone plug, sd card slot, and buttshaking anime girl while charging...

 

[shadowmanwkp]

Does that mean that each pixel has an individual backlight?

No, backlight usually works with one or more big light scources to light up the whole screen, there are exceptions, but these use a lot more energy to power. It is much easier and a lot more convenient that they just turn the pixels off, because a screen already needs to mix colours to create an image, so turning some off should be quite simple.

 

[muckers]

That's an incredibly interesting way of power saving. I'd be surprised if Nintendo haven't implemented some kind of auto-brightness setting, where it judges how bright a setting you're in (ie. if you're in bright sunlight or in a dark room) and adjusts the brightness accordingly. It's pretty standard tech these days for TVs, and Apple have managed to implement it very well with the iPhone/iPod Touch.

The low battery life (in comparison to other Nintendo handhelds) will hopefully lead to some higher capacity 3rd party batteries. Or at least some kind of backup battery pack - not that the battery life will be a problem for me. I don't play for over five hours at a time on a handheld, so it's not a big deal to me.

 

[Bladexdsl]

i don't really care if the battery life sux i usually can't play on little screens for more than 2 hours anyway b4 my head hurts...

 

[Hop2089]

Down two years, they will invite a solar panel charger.

Obama would be pleased to see that gadget.

 

[Costello]

it's just an excuse for releasing a 3DS Lite a few months later, that will have a twice longer battery life

 

[DryYoshi]

Yay for power saving mode!
Although it doesn't really that much, because I always take my charger with me and I have a car charger for DS/DSi which you can use with the 3DS

 

[Fishaman P]

Isn't the backlight for the whole screen? Or does it just not display anything for the pixel? And does it affect the graphics at all?

 

[cwstjdenobs]

Isn't the backlight for the whole screen? Or does it just not display anything for the pixel? And does it affect the graphics at all?

Reading over it, I think that when most of the picture is dark the backlight gets dimmed and the lcd gets "brighter" to compensate.

 

[KingVamp]

How 'bout a solar panel 3DS version?!

 

[shadow1w2]

How 'bout a solar panel 3DS version?!

I second that!

They could say its the "green" edition.
Also XL version stat!