What kind of battery life would be acceptable for the Nintendo Switch?

I like my batteries big, the bigger the better

3 hours.

I think that maybe the battery will depend on the individual games power-draw. Also having a USB-charger with a Powerbank in your Switch-bag if you take it out isn't crazy.

Oh wow, crazy how many people are of a like mind with so many options available.

Six hours is just right because I want to be able to play 2-4 hours at home and then bring it along with me to my parent house during a visit, to play another 2-4 hours.

Six hours seem the right amount of battery life for something you can play on the go and not have to charge every time you come home. I also imagine six hour to be the average flight time and since they showed someone playing it on the plane they better take that into account.

Four to six hours seems like a good amount of time for everyday use. After all, if I'm planning on using it more than that it'll most likely be docked.

However long the 3ds battery is. I've never had any problems, so as long as it's comparable I'd be satisfied using it as a portable device.

They showed a guy on a plane. Yeah there are short flights but I feel like that is saying that its better than normal. The 3ds battery is pretty good though.

6 hours constantly being played on. This is pretty much my SOT on my Nexus 6P. I get that kind of usage out of the Switch and I'd be satisfied.

Six would be fantastic, but five feels much more realistic. Maybe I'm just spoiled by laptops that can do ten hours on a charge or phones that let me go a day without plugging them in, but I feel that four or less would take me back to the "shit shit gotta find an outlet" days whenever I'd find myself out and about with the thing, making me less likely to choose it as my one big gadget in the bag.

Has to be 6-8. If its not good enough to get me on a cross atlantic flight, then what's the point?

5-6 hours would be enough for what I need and I'd need some kind of portable charger

Again, the Switch seems to be essentially the same hardware as an Nvidia Shield. From what I've read, those things can manage 3-4 hours of gaming on a single charge, so assuming Nintendo does a bit more optimization and there's some upgraded hardware in there I'd say 5 hours is the maximum.

If it is comparable to the Vita, I would be fine with that. The Vita has been my main portable gaming platform, besides the original Gameboy and Gameboy Color I had when I was a kid, so the Vita is the closest thing I have in my mind. I would take my Vita when I travelled or played it at airports and on planes, but I was never away from a power source for that long. If it's in the 5-6 range, I'm good.

If it's using a very modern, efficient mobile CPU it'll probably be capable of at least 5 hours if using a battery similar to what is stuffed into an iPad Air. It looks quite chunky so hopefully that's a lot of battery.

I hope it has good standby battery life because the 3DS is terrible in that regard.

I'll say 3-5 hours. 5-6 being the real sweetspot

• Constant Gaming AAA games > 4 Hours
• Constant Gaming Smaller/Indie titles + Virtual Console games > 6 hours
• Videos/Music (if including Apps for Youtube or Netflix with Wifi) > 8 hours
• Standby/Sleep Mode (e.g. for streetpass functionality or games like Pokémon Go) > 16 Hours
• Charged but off (to allow for short gaming in breaks at a hotel before bed) > 36 hours including 1-2 hours gaming.

These are my hopes anyway. I would be happy if it was lower (and I'd also be fine if it didn't have any apps for Youtube or whatever), but I think remembering how good the 3DS was on release with keeping a charge in sleep mode, and how long my phone lasts with video and music/podcasts, I don't think these lofty expectations are out of the realm of possibility. Nevertheless, I'd probably be happy with 3 hours of constant use since I basically only play games from my bed anyway.

Went 8+, thinking that the battery will inevitably degrade over time which'll drag the life down to 5 or lower. Having had plenty of laptops do this on me I'm hoping that the Switch starts nice and high.

6 hours of use is my go to, but only if you can charge it without the "plug" (an USB charger would be ideal).

Otherwise, I think it is pointless.

6-12hrs

I voted 8 since it was the most on the list.

Boy there's some optimistic people here considering the original 3DS and Wii U gamepad both had mediocre to poor battery life. I'm guessing it'll be around 3-3.5 for running games, 4-5 for other stuff. Not great but "acceptable" for most adopters.

Hoping for 6 or more

I highly doubt you'd get 10 hours out of a tablet if you were playing 3D games the entire time on it.

3-4 hours should be good enough for the typical commuting.

Personally, I don't care if it only lasts 30 minutes.

Six would be great, I could do with three to five, considering that I don't even know if I can really use it on the go.

Looks like sources are saying ~3 hours max, which is a bit rough.

@yothatlimp: Which sources?

I'd like to see 5 or 6, but I'd happily take 4. I do want it to be able to plug in and charge anywhere though (not just while it's docked). It's rare these days to go that long without having somewhere to plug it in. I do hope it charges quickly, too - ever since I got my newest phone one of my favourite features is how rapidly it charges up.

Laura Dale who seems to have quite a bit of reputableinfo (and has historically had pretty good info out there)

http://letsplayvideogames.com/2016/10/a-deep-dive-on-lpvgs-nintendo-switch-reports-and-info/

6 hours seems optimistic at best. I'd bet 2-4. It's a tablet-ish thing that will constantly be running 3D games with brightness up.

@yothatlimp: That was a neat read, but I definitely "ugh"ed at the 3 hour battery. It makes sense but it's a bummer - definitely mobile in the "mobile between plugging in" sense

If it's 3 hours... woof.

4 is the bare minimum, but 6 is where it should be. If this thing can't last me a cross-country flight, there's something very wrong

24+ hours, just pump that baby full o'lithium, that worked well for the Galaxy Note 7! (6 at least, better than a basic windows laptop, but not as good as your phone)

Realistically I think it will be 3 - 4 hours because of the size of the screen and the power required for full console level games. I would rather it is 8+ hours, but it isn't likely to happen.I hope it at least charges quickly.

@bbillade: Well it all depends on how much battery Nintendo put into it. Also it aint exactly cutting edge console level games.

As long as possible I'd say!

Five or six would be nice, but I suspect it will be closer to 3-4 hours. That's just the nature of modern devices the weight vs amount of power you can find in the wild has shifted. Most places you go have open outlets of charging stations, so people are willing to forego weight because they know they can find an outlet.

Well the difference between (and reality of) the various scenarios you listed is that they'd ALL be in the 2 hour range when using their full power, like when gaming. Smartphones, tablets, MacBooks... they all have only the battery life you listed when you barely use them, not when you use the screen, CPU/GPU, and Wireless at max for hours.

So the Switch will be the same deal as the rest, unless Nintendo has some secret new super-battery that they developed (yeah right). It'll be listed as 6, maybe even 10 hours... but that's when you're using it to read an ebook or something in reality. When using it's full power, it'll be a couple hours just like any device.

Very interesting read, thank you for pointing that out.

About the battery life... bummer, but if it can be charged by regular USB chargers and powerbanks, I could live with it, I guess.

@zombievac: Well, yes and no. While I agree that intensive workloads will cut the battery life of those devices from their 10 hour estimates to something more resembling the three or four that the Switch may get, tests have been run that show you can do far more than just barely use them and still get great battery life: CNET's streaming video playback test has the 13-inch Macbook Pro lasting ten hours and eight minutes, for example.

So, apples to apples, you may be right; that ten hours is probably more like three if you break out Civ 6, or whatever your game of choice is. But in the real world, if I have a six hour flight without an outlet (still can happen here in the US, sadly), and my choice boils down to three hours of Switch gaming versus six hours of movies, I'm going with the movies. Apples to apples goes out the window at that point, as I just want to be entertained for the duration of my travel, even if the game is more entertaining for however long it lasts.

Now, if the Switch gets five, that rebalances the equation. I might take an hour of boredom as a trade off to have "extra" fun over watching a movie. But three? Even if the other devices I have could only do three hours when faced with the same task, they can also do different, less intensive tasks and still keep me entertained, so three would probably be a deal-breaker for my use case.

I am pretty surprised people think this thing will have 6 hours. iPhones last about 2-3 when playing games. New 3DS is 6 and that thing has a low res screen. If it is actually going to be able to play modern quality video games it will get 2-3. 4 if we are lucky. With Nintendo not saying anything people are getting there hopes up for no reason. This could be a bad thing for them.

I would accept 3, but I'd like to get 5 out of it.

I'd be okay with 4, but people who have used the dev kits reported it being around 3, which is acceptable, as long as I can charge it without using the dock.

@cheetoman Bear in mind that the poll asked what we'd accept or like to see, not what we think it will be. Let us have our fantasies! :P

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I have high hopes this device can at least hit the 4 hour mark, but I guess that will depend quite a bit on the portable performance. What resolution are they going with? Will it be capable of 60fps, or will they stick with 30?

There's at least 3 batteries crammed into this thing: one in the console itself, and then one in each of the individual controllers. I really hope that the portable side is able to make good use of that, so long as they remain connected of course. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it shakes out.

5 would be fantastic. My phone dies in like 1 hour if it's running a game. Maybe even less than that. Remember this thing is likely way more powerful than any dedicated gaming handheld we have seen. I'm concerned that it will be more like 3 hours. But I'm hoping for 5.

I also hope that we will see improved battery packs for people who really value this stuff. (Or that it is easy to swap the battery for a spare one.) That is more important to me than the stock battery life.

Anything less then a solid 6 on max brightness is worthless.

At least four, maybe five hours minimum sounds realistic.

6. No less.

One thing is certain. There's gonna be a lot of disappointed folks.

(12 hours? Keep dreaming)