Having the Gateway inserted hurts the battery life of sleep mode right? Is it possible to suspend the game and take the card out to negate such draining? Or is there a risk of damage to take the cart out while it's suspended the game and asleep?

Or is the sleep mode crap regardless of the Gateway?

 

if you get out the cart while a game is running, the console will show "the game card was removed" black screen even if you put it again, so if you want to take the cart you need to turn of the game...

 

The sleep mode is awful for me. I'm comparing it to a Vita which has a sleep mode like a smartphone.

 

I searched on google and there are people who have never turned their 3ds's from launch and to this day they are perfectly fine..

 

So then buy a replacement battery? lol

I turn my unit off whenever I'm not using it for an extended period of time though, and for the same reason: I want to get as much out of this battery as I can. But I need to keep in mind that if I ever need a replacement battery, I can order one.

 

The sleep mode only lasts maybe 3 days with the 3DS, having the Gateway inserted hasn't affected it as far as I know. Turning wireless off will probably make it last quite a bit longer, but then you don't get streetpasses of course.