I've still got my launch PS4 controller, but could use another and they're pretty cheap today. I told myself I wouldn't buy one until they make the battery last a more reasonable amount of time - the thing needs to be plugged in way too much for my liking. Have they made any improvements to it yet?

Believe it's 3-5 hours depending on the game you're playing.

@fredchuckdave: Geez, bummer. It's pitiful compared to the Xbox One - had the thing since mid-October and still have only changed the batteries once.

Dimming the light helps some, but it's never really been an issue. I don't get many marathon sessions anymore.

This. Definitely varies how much vibration the game uses and how often the speaker is used. The LED Bar does not drain as much power as people would like to think; those other two are the more damning factors.

GTA 5 with everything on full blast wrecked the battery in one of my controllers in about 3 hours when I first got it. I thought it was crazy (And it is; these rechargeable controllers should last way longer like the 360's rechargeable battery pack) but I turned off the controller speaker and that made a pretty noticeable difference alone.

It's my understanding that even the new controllers still use the same original batteries they've been shipping with, so I doubt anything has actually changed.

Never been an issue for me. Actually it's the XBOX ONE I have battery issues with. Probably because using the headphones and mic seem to really kill it fast.

When I'd first gotten a PS4 my first thought was "boy, the battery life on these things isn't very good," but now that I've had it for a while it doesn't even seem like an issue to me. Just plug in the controller when you have it in rest mode and it's barely ever going to be a problem unless you're doing some crazy gaming marathon, in which case, take a dang break!

I bought me a 10 foot microUSB cable (packed in cable is absurdly short) and I just keep the controller plugged in at all times. Sucks that the battery is such crap, but at least it's like the good ol' days?

Buy a second controller, plug first controller in and swap to second controller when the first runs out of juice! But seriously the bundle I got my PS4 with back near launch came with a second controller for basically free and having 1 charging while I use the other one lets me play indefinately which is nice (although not neccesarily a cheap solution.)

I hate dealing with dying batteries, so I just leave my controller plugged in almost all of the time. I also tend to sit only a few feet away from my screen, so it's not really an issue.

My bigger issue is remote playing on the PSTV. The USB port on it doesn't seem to deliver enough juice to charge the controller properly, so my dedicated DS4 in my bedroom is almost always dead when not plugged in.

3-5 hours? I know for certain I've been going for near 7 hours on mine...I know for super long gaming sessions I have a USB extension cable that is primarily for fighting sticks. I also have a charging dock for when I'm not playing my games...because if you don't charge you stuff when you don't play and it dies then its only your fault.

Yeah, no kidding. I miss the days when I had more than a spare hour or so for gaming. Even then, I'm always getting interrupted by things.

Depends on how much rumble the game uses. For most games the battery life is acceptable. For some it is what I would consider to be too short.

I don't see any difference in my PS 20th controller and the original in battery life.