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When the 3DS was officially unveiled there was an extra piece of kit that Nintendo made a big deal about shipping with the handheld. It was a charging dock for your 3DS to sit in and recharge when not in use.
How nice, we thought at the time, but there was a reason Nintendo decided to make charging your device as easy as possible: the battery doesn’t last anywhere near as long as a DS. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata even admitted as much back in October during a Q&A session where he stated:
As for the battery, it is inevitable that Nintendo 3DS will be a device which requires more frequent recharging than Nintendo DS. This is why we are going to include the cradle, which is a dedicated battery charger. Perhaps we may need to dispatch to our consumers a message, something like, “Please place your Nintendo 3DS on the cradle as soon as you return home with it.”
Nintendo has now updated its Japanese 3DS website to include a hardware page describing the different components of the system. Here’s the important bits about the battery:
- 3DS charging time: 3 hours 30 minutes
- Battery life playing 3DS games: 3-5 hours
- Battery life playing DS games: 5-8 hours
We expected the battery life to be shorter for 3DS games due to the 3D viewing experience requiring it to dual render, and the always-connected wireless of the device for StreetPass. But for DS games with no 3D we expected a little more play time between charges.
For anyone wondering what comes in the box with their 3DS, here’s the contents list also taken from the hardware page:
- Nintendo 3DS
- Nintendo 3DS charger stand
- AC adapter for Nintendo 3DS
- Nintendo 3DS dedicated stylus
- SD Memory Card (2 GB)
- AR cards (6), reflecting the play outside the camera using the compatible software
- Quick Start Guide
- Instruction Manual
- Guarantee
