So, I charge it for 3 and 1/2 hours, and I can play for 3 hours. That hardly seems fair.

I hope that's a low balling estimate.
The camera's are crap, but I guess this is still a video game system that will be bought to keep (rich?) kids busy. This isn't trying to directly compete against smart phones. Shame that there isn't WiFi n support; feels like a lack of foresight.


I hope the DSi software moving won't be too restrictive. It would be sad if Shantae can't make the jump between systems.

I'm sure their just being conservative with the battery estimates, I can't remember the last time I've seen a device that kills the battery faster than it can charge it.

With Nintendo it usually is, that's probably on full screen brightness. If not then wait for the 3DS Lite. The DS got a massive improvement with the Lite (the original had 5 hours of battery life, the Lite can go up to 18 or so on lower brightnesses). Either way it's not as bad as the iPod Touch (2 hours).

Given the current battery numbers, it doesn't look like it would have been reasonable... I wouldn't be surprised if there's n support built into the chip though.

Those battery numbers seem horrible. PSP level horrible.

2 Hours?! What the heck are you doing with it? I get more than 10 on one charge.

He's playing some particularly taxing games.  Seriously some games bring the iPod down to Game Gear levels of battery life.

Anyway Nintendo's estimates are usually low because they run a taxing game with full screen brightness and all wireless radios on.  I'm not worried...yet.

Even if that's generally true..you could always keep it on the charger while playing, so that it's never an issue.

I wouldn't keep it on full brightness anyways. The 2nd lowest is usually plenty.

None of the launch games are must-haves for me so I'm okay waiting for a redesign. Even though I generally use handhelds at home, those battery estimates are awful.

Oi, oi, oi... that battery life.


I just read on kotaku that the battery life of 3 to 5 hours is for the lowest brightness setting... not cool.

Wow.  I really wasn't expecting that.  That is really just wrong.  Nintendo should know better than that (assuming it's true of course).  It just sounds a bit wrong.  Surely they would have more sense than to release a device that could possibly last about 60 to 90 mins with everything on max settings. 

After seeing the battery power specs I am now convinced that battery power will be the main selling point for the inevitable 3DS revision. I mean why the hell can't Nintendo release a better battery for the 3DS when the DS family battery life has been steadily increasing with each of its own revisions?

The biggest question I have for the 3DS is whether we will need that charging cradle or does it come with a cord that plugs directly into the 3DS? I prefer a cord because I like to put a plastic shield over my DSs to protect them from damage and I want to keep this tradition for the 3DS.

I wonder how much internal flash memory the 3DS will have at its disposal?

I think what we are looking at are the limitations of Li-Ion batteries until Carbon Nanotubes or something similar power/capacity boosting tech leave the lab and get commercialised, which I figure might be in time for the next revision. Not only that, for anybody who has done any gaming on an Iphone/pod, the damn thing gets very warm and the waste heat has to go somewhere.

No doubt they are worse case numbers, but having a cord to charge while you play is a life saver(and compact!). If I have to put the thing down every time it runs low, I am going to be a little pissed off.

Nintendo is also continuing it's weird half arse copy protection shenanigans with download software and I hope the 3DS will remain relatively region free at least with physical carts, otherwise I will have to break out the screw driver. The region system is less than worthless for a gamer anyway as it artifically inflates game prices which is esoecially retarded if you live in a english speaking country (American, British, sheep shagger, bad english are all english).

With a 3D screen, only half of the overall light leaving the screen is reaching each eye,  so the screen has to be twice as bright in the 3D setting as it is in the 2d Setting. So effectively, there are three screens being powered.

I kind of wonder if Nintendo is getting overzealous with the 3DS. A lot of people complained about the PSP battery life, and the system didn't sell very well originally because of its high price. Is Nintendo about to release their PSP?

Well it is long overdue for the to overdo it. It's been a long time now in the handheld department and they have done very well. High time they messed up. For comparison sake, did the N64 have this kind of hype before launch?

Nintendo has a few things Sony didn't have with the PSP: popular mascots. Knowing Nintendo, the 3DS can have its price cut with not much loss on Nintendo if the high price does become a real problem for sales.

Also, Sony was a newcomer to handhelds with the PSP, whereas the 3DS is the successor to what will be the best selling game system ever. Of course, that didn't work out all that well for Sony with the PS3.

I'm not too worried about the battery life.  Because I know a secret. :D

They maybe be due if you believe they run everything based on chance, but fundamentally Nintendo is stronger than ever in handheld space. They are coming out stronger this generation than they did with the GBA-DS transition. They have proven time and again they understand the requirement that you must have in a portable device that their competition has constantly failed to grasp. Whether it be costs of games, the device or battery life, controls, heat dissipation, durability. Of course as per M.O, the first one out is going to have some nagging, non critical flaw.

Toss in the fact that Sony their chief and only potential rival has no idea what it want to release as the PSP2 (Is it a phone? A game player? No! it's an Ericsson!) means nintendo once again steps in the dedicated gaming arena effectively unopposed unless you count the multifunction devices that can play tic tac toe at a minimum as gaming.

The the gamer, the good times will continue to roll for handhelds.

PS. Unclebob: You got a couple of nuclear batteries extracted from pacemakers or something? or does nintendo have them?

Not really since the PSP2 is going to be even worse when it comes to battery and price, which will make the 3DS look like the better deal in the eyes of consumers.  If Nintendo can only get 3-5 hours off battery life out of a $250-300 portable Gamecube, then there's no way Sony is going to be able to release whats suppose to be a portable PS3 at the same price unless it has less then an hour of life, or it's over $500 in order to get 3-5 hours.

Either way Sony is screwed and Nintendo knows it which is why they're actually releasing an expensive portable with poor batterly life because they know no one can stop them.

I won't speculate on the battery life and I don't expect PSP2 to be any better than 3DS in that regard anyway. However, Sony is willing to sell at a loss and Nintendo already admitted to marking up the price due to demand. Sony will probably sell PSP2 competitively though Nintendo has the option of dropping the price whenever they want, even at the expense of early adopters, considering the cost for components and manufacturing is no where near $300. It might even be as low as $150.

I don't think 3DS is in any trouble of underperforming as it will sell millions, but I think there's a lot of people who would seriously considering buying one at or near launch if price and battery life weren't such hurdles. And I'm sure people have wised up to Nintendo's release habits. A resdesign is inevitable. DS Lite came out give or take a year and half after the original DS. 3DS Lite (3DSi or whatever Nintendo calls it) will do EVERYTHING better than the original, cost less and the library will be stronger.

That's the kind of arrogant thinking that got Nintendo in trouble when they launched N64.

Lies! You tell us right now or nobody will believe you!

The 3DS is using a 1300mAH battery, the PSPhone is using a 1500mAH battery, and that makes it likely that the PSP2 will be using an even bigger battery so it's unfair to say the PSP2 will have any worse battery life, in fact it will probably be about the same as the 3DS.
As someone else mentioned, Nintendo's estimate is likely of the 3DS being fully taxed. Like let's say you were playing a game, and also switching between taking pictures and surfing the internet and playing music, that would probably net you 3 hours, while gaming and interneting gets you 5 hours. Gaming alone would probably bring that up to 6 or 7 hours.

Hopefully Nintendo will release a breakdown (or perhaps NWR can do it if they don't) of how long the battery lasts with each individual task, and with multi-tasking.

Gaming.

I must admit, my secret isn't all that exciting.  It doesn't have anything to do with Nintendo specifically.  But it's something I'm excited for. :D

Can you shar it with us, Uncle Bob?

Nintendo should just package a car charger along with the system.  As I take my DSi with me almost everyday to class I figure a car charger to charge on the way to places will pretty much be required now.

Nintendo should just use standardized ports for charging like almost every cellphone out today uses mini-usb.
They couldn't possibly make that much money of proprietary power cables.

well expect that on 3DS second edition

Y have feeling that we will be dependant on the charging cradle, which is not what I want from the 3DS because I want to plug directly into the 3DS to recharge the system.

I'm hoping the charging cradle works exactly the same as my media center for my phone.

It's a stand for the phone and the power cord plugs into it. It's not internally attached so I can detach it and plug it directly into my phone.

This is what I am hoping for with the 3DS. BnM, are you going to get the 3DS on launch?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=33053.msg649443#msg649443

probably not.
unless the price is right

I remember a time where we didn't really make excuses regarding the battery life of a Nintendo handheld.  We didn't have to.  Even the conservative number was pretty damn impressive.  If we're now at a point where we're saying "well three hours is with full brightness and all that..." and that really isn't acceptable.  So what is the real number then?  10 hours?  Wasn't that the sort of "worst-case-scenario" battery life Nintendo said about the DS?  So now the conservative estimate Nintendo gave us for the previous handheld is our best-case-scenario "hope and pray" number?

The price is going up and the battery life is going down.  Nintendo has a reputation for being cocky bastards, even when they aren't doing so hot.  I think they're gypping us because they think they're indestructible.  And maybe they'll get away with it.  But then with stuff like the iPod and smart phones now competing for the same dollar, they possibly won't.

Nintendo could get seriously burned if they are not careful. Apple is slowly gaining on their terrotory and so Nintendo is going to have to play it smart this time around or they might suffer the same fate as SEGA.

Nintendo could always make the price go higher and make the battery life go up and increase the size of the unit 3X.  Similarly sized electronics have more battery life, don't do 3D, and won't play your Pokemans.

I remember a time when gamers got everything they wanted.  Sony wanted $600 in exchange.

Go fit a cactus up your asses, guys.

It's not like the price is going up and the battery time going down arbitrarily.

For those stoked about the 3D aspect, (the single biggest selling point of this system) that is the reason for the rise and fall of the price and battery time, respectively.

Not to mention there are THREE cameras, a richer internet experience (that we need to hear more about), Wifi, another level of wireless communication for StreetPass and multiplayer (an always-on drain on the battery, and I'm just assuming that they're the same radio), lots more software (DS emulation, AR, possible VC), AND better hardware.

It is well documented that Nintendo has gotten by with inferior hardware on their portables, much to the chagrin of certain people "hem hem". So now when they come as close to cutting edge as they have EVER done, people are bitching about the battery! What did you expect?

3 hours of 3D gaming/interneting/photography is pretty damn good.
Unless of course you can tell me about some other dual screen, portable 3D gaming/interneting/photo-taking device that lasts longer on a 1300mAH battery.

Edit: The only real competition Nintendo will have is when Apple releases the 3DiPhone and it can be bought on contract for $300. In the 3D world $300 is a very competitive price, and as I alluded to, there really isn't much else out there in the 3DSs class. Nintendo has done well with release date and price; before most other glasses-free devices, and a one-time price that is in the non-3D, cutting edge, mobile device, price range.

I understand the fact that higher end equipment will eat up more battery life.  But didn't Nintendo more or less raise the price due to the positive reaction from E3?  Could they not potentially improve the battery, keep the price as is, and have a smaller profit margin?  Or maybe they could lower the price to make up for the lower battery life since they seemed to have an entirely different and lower price in mind prior to E3?

The problem is Nintendo having their cake and eating it too.  Either put in a better battery or lower the price.  Don't charge us a big mark up at the expense of a weaker battery.  The same bullshit pissed me off with the Wii, too.  They wanted a low price and a huge markup so they skimped huge on the hardware.

I would also argue that the cameras are a pretty lame feature and that if the choice is between those (which will be as useless as the DS microphone) and a longer lasting battery, the battery should be a high priority.  I would think a beefed up DS with an analog stick and 3D screen would have been a sufficient enough upgrade on its own.

Battery life used to be Nintendo's number one priority with their handhelds.  The whole reason the black and white Game Boy succeeded in the first place while facing competition from backlit colour screen competitors is because it had good battery life.  Making some super beefy mega-handheld that can potentially have a lower battery life than the amount of time it takes to charge seems like the exact opposite of what the Game Boy was all about in the first place.

The DS microphone useless??? We're obviously not playing the same games. But even if Nintendo doesn't allow people to email the pictures/video(?), or otherwise remove them from the 3DS (which actually, the PCMagazine impressions say that is the case) they are still used to provide 3D AR.


Why are you surprised that Nintendo wants to make money? They are a business, and as a business there are a number of factors to consider when pricing a product, and public reception/anticipation is one of them. Just like with the Wii, Nintendo is hoping word of mouth will drive system sales.

You may recall that the Wii at E3 received skeptically positive reviews, and flew off the shelves once in people's hands. The 3DS is loved by everyone who has touched it, and so Nintendo is rightly thinking they can sell it for profit and still actually sell it.

And you may also recall that the 3DS was meant to be of a different philosophy than the GameBoy line. Times have changed since the original GB (as you sort of alluded earlier by saying Apple is also competing for Nintendo's dollar) and Nintendo has made a system in response to that change; the 3DS. Like all things Nintendo, it is  a break from the ordinary, like its counterparts it is a powerful little machine whose battery may struggle to keep up with it.

Obviously not.  I have never EVER played a DS game that used the mic that did not use it just for some lame ass blowing.  Ugh.

I am not surprised, I am just upset with their recent approach to making money.  I feel they compromised the Wii significantly by making it as cheap as possible while having the highest profit margin.  The third party support sucks because they more or less refurbished a last gen console.  That affects me as a Wii owner.  I feel like they swindled me.  They gypped me out of the third party that any market leading console should have so that they could skimp on the production costs.  And they got away with it which just gives them further incentive to continue such practices.

And now we're seeing the same thing here.  Battery life is really important for a handheld.  And yet they are cranking up the price, based entirely on positive feedback, and the price raise is all profit.  The product is compromised.  The goal seems less to provide a good product and more to provide the cheapest product at the highest profit margin and that any corners that can be cut on the way should be cut.  The goal is to do whatever you can get away with.

I feel that Nintendo's focus on casuals has corrupted them.  They prey on an audience too igornant, stupid or indifferent to notice.  Back when Nintendo just made games for gamers, and this blue ocean market wasn't being targetted, they cared about battery life and hardware that had some increased processing power that justified the creation of a new console and responsive controls and games with real meat to them.  I first observed Nintendo jerking their customers around with Pokemon.  They knew the kids who ate that stuff up were stupid so they released all sorts of junk spin-offs and third versions that any fool should now see coming a mile away.  That was a bad sign and, sure enough, once they found another audience that is equally oblivious they started jerking them around too.

If back before Iwata took over and started talking about non-gamers or blue oceans, when the GBA was current, if Sony had released a handheld with 3 hours of battery life with a 3.5 battery charge time we all would have ripped them to shreds.  We would laugh at how incredibly stupid such a design would be.  But Nintendo does it and that's all cool?

The whole reason I became a Nintendo fan is because I associated them with high quality products.  Handhelds with shit battery life are not high quality products.  They are the sort of shit product that Nintendo fans used to be happy that Nintendo did not make.

WHAT :moonface: :moonface: :moonface:

Wow, Ian. At first I thought you had a point, but you went off the deep end, pimpin.

I don't know where you get your facts from, but I would love to see the one about "Nintendo inflating the 3DS price due to positive feedback." That sounds like blatant paranoia.

Secondly, you are trying to lump in the Wii, the third party bane - the console which we know you hate but still own for some reason, with a handheld that has seen plenty of third party support already. I don't know what your point is.

Is it that Nintendo is making something of poor quality? Is it that Nintendo is taking advantage of its consumer base? Is it that third parties aren't supporting Nintendo?

Seriously, what is your point?

I agree with most of your post, but Satoru Iwata himself said that part of the reason for the high 3DS price in Japan was because of the enthusiastic response to the system at E3: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24211

I'm sure there will be some 3rd party battery solution. Then some individuals can move on to whining about something else.

If we can find a compatible 2300mAh battery, everyone will be happy..... until they see how much it cost.

Ok, this just proves my point though. This is Ian's post:

"Including" to "Entirely"

Paranoia.

If we think about it rationally, Iwata probably set the bar for the price at "We need to make a profit". The engineers probably came back and said, in order to include all our plans, the system will breach our normal price for handhelds. At which point Iwata said "Since the system was so enthusiastically received at E3, we may be able to get away with something higher."

I personally think the system will be much cheaper here, maybe even $250. That would still be the most expensive Nintendo handheld, but about the same price as the PSP was.

300 for a handheld in japan isn't that expensive. It's insane here, but shit is that expensive in japan. Seriously, you wouldn't stand for the cost of everyday goods there.

The battery issue concerns me, but only a bit, it seems to be roughly the same as the DSi. If it is too bad I wouldn't be surprised if there are 3rd party solutions, if that is the case, then some people will have to move onto something else to complain about. Really though it is all speculation, we don't know if the numbers are conservative estimates or not. To me if the system can be playable for 5-7 hours with medium settings, I will have no complaint. Even at the 3-5 it is still better then the first iteration of PSP was (I remember there being fear you couldn't finish a 2 hour UMD movie when it came out).

Battery life is a legitimate thing to complain about though when you're talking about portable anything. That was the one thing Nintendo understood about portable gaming that, for some reason, no other company besides Bandai (and even then Gameboy creator Gunpei Yokoi designed the thing) seemed to figure out. Price too. 3DS is the most anti-Nintendo Nintendo handheld which in some ways is good and some ways is bad. Maybe we're just spoiled because we're used to the batteries in Nintendo handhelds lasting over 10 hours.

@Ian
I didn't read your entire post (I've read enough books already) but I did catch the part about if Sony had released a handheld that had 3 hours of playtime and 3.5 hours charging we would rip them apart, and you are right. However, quite a few years have passed since the GBAs release (btw Engadget is reporting that the GBA SP was slated to have an autostereoscopic screen but they couldn't get LCD resolution high enough) and batteries have gotten pretty close to their power ceiling and size matters. You can only put giant batteries in giant devices (if only to dissapate the heat) but the 3DS is rather small, and there other aspects to battery choice that I don't understand.

The fact remains that multitasking and gaming are heavy drains on a battery when using a modern device. This is not some Nintendo conspiracy to screw people over, but a fact of the way our technology has progressed, and batteries failing to keep up.

It's not that batteries have failed to keep up, it's that the demand placed upon the battery always exceeds it's ability to deliver. Even if you slapped a nuclear battery in it, you still have to dissipate the waste heat not only from the battery itself, but the components which have their own thermal tolerances.

However region locking is a Nintendo conspiracy in order to place artificial restrictions on trade in order to increase control, decrease price competition with no benefit to the end user.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=30917.msg648758#msg648758

@ohboy
The fact that batteries can't meet the requirements of their devices (for whatever reason) means that they have failed to keep up. New technology is a constant but we're stilling using the same batteries from 25 years ago with only marginal improvements. People have finally realised that and a lot of battery research is going on (batteries might be the first nanotube consumer device) but it is very late and slow in coming.

@BnM
Links don't show up as links for me on the forums, but I certainly don't read every post and thread, though I did read about 3D in the GC. My point was Ian referencing the GBA line for what the 3DS should be, and while I contradicted him, I wanted to show Nintendo's thinking for 3D on a portable.

Engadget also has link to a 3DS being opened up and having its internals inspected, but apparently no new info was gleamed about CPU and GPU yet.

Will the 3DS and its games be patchable?

Probably going to be completely up to Nintendo, no doubt the technology allows for it but knowing Nintendo, well, you just don't know!

Would it be helpful against piracy?

That was 5 IIRC. At least that's what mine was getting and I think I recall that being what Nintendo listed. I don't think the estimates will be wrong, Nintendo is only known for lowballing compared to other companies who tend to give unrealistic figures (wasn't PSP announced as 4 but lasted like 2 with heavy drive use?).

Back in 1989 you could have said that a backlit colour screen is a heavy drain on a battery and that technology has progrossed while batteries have failed to keep up.  But Sega's and Atari's excuses didn't hold up.  Nintendo made battery life the number one priority.

Now that isn't Nintendo's priority and they're really overloading this sucker in a way that seems quite different than their previous approaches and I don't think it's a change for the better.  A lot of the 3DS's extra features I consider to be the sizzle.  They're good marketing bulletpoints that probably won't contribute much to games.  Nintendo used to be really good about delivering the steak.  Battery life is not an exciting bulletpoint but it is very important from a practical point of view.  I think Nintendo has changed where they focus more on the sizzle than the steak.  Their priority is having a marketing gimmick and practical and essential elements are a lesser priority.

If it comes down to 3D screen or battery life, battery life is more important for providing a good portable videogame system.  But maybe they could have both if they were a little more flexible about their profit margin.  But they assume this will sell like hotcakes anyway so they feel there is no need.  That sort of attitude is not going to do us any favours.  It isn't good for a company to feel like they can get away with anything and I fear Nintendo is at that point.

So basically, 3DS is Wii and is da phail with gimmicks?

I think you're looking at this incorrectly Ian.

Nintendo's problem is that they needed a device that separates them from Sony and gives iPhone gamers a reason to buy the next DS. If they had simply released a slightly more powerful system with an analog stick, what would be that reason? Sony tried the "serious" games marketing for the PSP vs iPhone, and it got them nowhere. Games on the iPhone are getting better, and will get even better when the iPhone4G, etc. comes out. They may not be of the quality of a Nintendo game, but iPhone games are simple, entertaining, and on a device(cell phone) nearly everyone "needs".
For most people, the entertaining part coupled with the "one device to rule them all" aspect, is more than enough reason to not buy a DS or PSP.

With 3D gaming, and 3D AR, Nintendo is offering things that cannot be found elsewhere, and if battery power has to suffer because of that, then so be it. It's much better to sell a product that has bad battery life, than to not sell a product at all.

Anything less than complete domination is a failure for Nintendo and no one is going to buy/not buy the 3DS because of battery life.

I get that the 3D feature is very eye-catching and makes the 3DS stand out in comparison to the iPhone more than just a really great portable gaming system would.  The thing is gamers know that iPhone games are shit.  They will buy a seperate handheld specific to videogames.

But Nintendo's new found focus on the mainstream requires some big shiny marketing gimmick to attract attention away from the iPhone.  And I was fine with this feature (hey, it's pretty neat sounding) until something IMPORTANT was compromised.  I feel Nintendo's focus on the mainstream compromises their product for people who actually give a shit about videogames.  It was and is VERY obvious on the Wii and now we might be seeing it here.

And I would argue that competing with the iPhone is a losing battle anyway.  iPhone games cost only a fraction of what "real" games cost.  The mainstream doesn't care about the quality of said games so you've lost them already.  If you don't care about the quality of the videogames you are playing you are going to go with one-in-all device.  Maybe Nintendo can keep those people interested with 3D but then what next time?  So every time they release a new system they have to this awe-inspiring new gimmick to keep the rubes interested?  How long will this strategy last?  Hell, we're wondering what they are going to do with the Wii 2 to make it stand out.

To me Nintendo's whole blue ocean strategy comes across as a pathetic kid trying to get the cool kids to like him by throwing big parties.  But the cool kids don't really like him and once he either can't keep up or someone else comes along and tops him, they'll all bail on him.  Meanwhile he has a group of friends that DO (or did) legitimately like him that he is neglecting at the expense of trying to attract a different crowd.

The mainstream is fickle and will bail at a moment's notice.  The battle against the iPhone is already lost, we just don't know when that will happen.  The core game market, that actually gives a shit about videogames, can be profitable (provided the developer isn't an idiot).  The problem is that market is dying in Japan and even though it is fine in North America which is a BIGGER MARKET Nintendo bases their worldwide decisions entirely on Japan.

If Nintendo can make a bundle off of the mainstream for the time being, they should do it.  But I think that is a short term strategy as those customers have no real loyalty, especially in the handheld market where the competition is smart phones.  Therefore Nintendo should not neglect the customers that do have loyalty.  Battery life probably isn't make or break on its own but the idea of compromising stuff that is important is a bad one to have and can lead to stuff that will truly bite them in the ass.

Goodness, could you be more concise with your thoughts please? I didn't read your entire book, but I did read the first 3 or 4 paragraphs.

"Gamers" aren't being renewed like they used to be. In the old days of Nintendo, you could pretty much gauruntee that every kid at least wanted to play the (S)NES. Nowadays, kids have so much being thrown at them, Nintendo is glad to have them know the name of their company. A lot of adults feel like gaming is for kids, and those who don't think Nintendo is for kids. Every faithful Nintendo gamer bought the GC and it was listed as a failure, how stupid would Nintendo be to only cater to those people with the 2nd gen DS?

I'm thinking that something like 33% of the people who buy a 3DS are going to do so solely based upon the fact that they can watch/game in 3D without glasses. Nintendo seems to realize this, and will be going hard on delivering TV shows and movies in 3D. Nintendo tried the "stay true to gamers" route, and gamers turned on them for the PS because it could play CDs, and then the PS2 for DVDs.

Then there is the fact that 3rd parties made exclusive games for a system they thoroughly trounced in sales.

Maybe it can be seen as arrogance, but Nintendo knows that their core gamers are satisfied with their software, almost regardless of hardware. The powerful graphics (drain number one on the battery) are mostly for developers, and the 3D (drain number two) is mostly for the non-gamers who bought a DS and let it collect dust in favors of iPhone games and apps for cooking and such.

If battery life is that important to you, turn off the 3D, turn off the sound, put it on lowest brightness, and never do anything on it but game.

What I wonder is how many times the battery can be recharged. Usually, for batteries of this type, it's only approximately 500 times. With that estimate for the charge life, that means between 1,500-2,500 hours of play before the battery becomes practically unusable. That might seem like a lot, but it actually isn't all that much in the big scheme of things, and replacing a battery in a device such as this can be a troublesome and relatively expensive process.

If it's anything like the current DS, replacing the battery will be incredibly easy.

How much does a new DS battery cost, and can it be found in a retail store or does it have to be ordered from Nintendo.com?

Nintendo does sell DS, DS Lite, and DSi batteries on their website. Each are $15 (but are not inter-usable, so the DSi battery will only work for the DSi). Amazon has third battery batteries as cheap as $6.

But what are those replacement battery power ratings?

do they sell more powerful batteries than what comes in the system already?

I am not sure, the product descriptions make it sound like they are the same as the ones already in the systems.

Ah, the price isn't as bad as I thought then, as if I remember rightly, the battery for the GBA SP was $40. Still, it's a bit of a pain since it isn't sold in stores, and replacing it isn't as easy as with a TV remote and such.

I haven't done it with my DSi, but I have swapped out the battery on a couple of my DS Lites. It's fairly simple. You have to remove one screw, but it's a standard phillips head, nothing proprietary, and once the door's off you just pop out the old one and pop in the new one.

What will most likely happen is that Nintendo will make the 3DS battery where no one but their technical crew will be able to get to in order to prevent piracy. If you need help with the battery, Nintendo will ask for you ship it into their facility and they will repair it themselves. Also, there is a good chance that the screw holes will be covered up. 

I don't think even Nintendo is capable of as stupid a design flaw as a security hole allowing piracy that goes through the battery.

They did that with the Iphone, right?

The lack of a user-removable battery on the iPhone has nothing to do with piracy. That's all about aesthetics: Apple doesn't want seams or screws on the hardware, and doesn't want the slight increase in size that would come with it. Nintendo has taken a lot of design cues from Apple in recent years, but they have yet to copy that particular detail, and I don't see why they'd start now.

Not to mention it is a terrible decision on Apple's part, it requires to you to have Apple replace the iPhone/iPod Touch battery and they charge $79 on their site (not to mention you will lose all the data on them).

The battery isn't that hard to remove in the iPhone 4, at least comparable to previous models.  It really isn't a big deal at all now.