Hacking Hows the DSi's battery life?

[samred]

For realistic use, I find the DSi's level 3 setting equivalent to the DSL's level 2 setting. And the drop in battery life is kinda stark, which is unfortunate. For whatever reason, the DSi's battery is about 4/5 the strength of the DSL's, as well. Look it up.

 

[Uruha]

so the DSi is worst than the phat!? @_@ crazy. they shouldve made the battery atleast the same as the phat's. Kinda sad how the dimmest lighting is still not as good as lite's level 2.

 

[Rayder]

so the DSi is worst than the phat!? @_@ crazy. they shouldve made the battery atleast the same as the phat's. Kinda sad how the dimmest lighting is still not as good as lite's level 2.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the DS phat's battery life was 6-10 hours, wasn't it? That would put the DSi about on par with the phat at medium brightness. Higher brightness, less life, lower brightness, more life.

Still, they should have went with at least a 1000mah battery. That way it would have been one more thing to make people buy it since that would have probably made the battery life BETTER than the DSlite. Meh....you know it won't be too long before DealExtreme starts selling higher capacity batteries for the DSi.

I bought a 2000mah for my DSlite.....at least that's what it's rated on the label. I don't imagine the situation being any different for the DSi.

 

[wchill]

The DSi has an 840mAh battery and the Lite has a 1000mAh battery, so...

 

[Uruha]

it wont last as long as the lite if it had a 1000mAh as well, but it would be nice!

 

[apofaz]

dsi isn't more bright than the dsl, but it's lowest setting is darker.

 

[Szyslak]

One nice feature of the DSi is that you can go into the system settings and turn off wireless communication. I'm sure this saves some battery life during normal gameplay. Would be interesting to see that tested properly. If I ever have the time, I'll give it a shot.

Something like:

DSi, highest brightness setting, regular game, WC on
DSi, highest brightness setting, regular game, WC off
DSi, highest brightness setting, flashcart, WC on
DSi, highest brightness setting, flashcart, WC off

DSi, sleep mode, regular game
DSi, sleep mode, flashcart

Using same game & rom at intro screen, same volume levels.

Certainly wouldn't tell us anything about DSi vs DSL, but it might answer a few other questions.

Would probably take me a few days, but I might get started on it.

 

[tops2]

Sorry for bring up such an old thread, but I hope its better than creating a new thread asking about the DSi's battery life.

I'm still debating whether to do the Gamestop DSlite to DSi trade in. I'm wondering what are the actual battery life people are getting with the DSi now that the DSi has been out for a few months? (I see the official Nintendo table, but am just wondering what people are actually getting.) And is the battery life sharply lower than you expect?

With the DSlite, I usually use the lev 2 brightness (second dimmest, which is plenty bright for me), and I get probably 7-10 hours at most with my DSlite (from DSlite launch date). Obviously longer is nicer, but this is long enough for me. I generally have to recharge between 3-4 days depending on how much I play (avg ~2-3 hours a day at most).

I'm wondering if I the 2nd level brightness on the DSi will be about the same brightness and still give me about 7-10 hours realistic battery life. If it gets only 5-6 hours, it wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me, but would just be disappointing to me.

 

[Rayder]

Something else for people to consider.....if you are using a flashcart, expect to knock off anywhere from 10 to 25% from Ninty's battery life-expectancy tables, depending on the cart and type of SD you are using.