Sony: PSP Go Battery Life 3 to 6 Hours

Kris Erickson • Jun 13, 2009 • Comments (7)

Adam Grant, PSP product manager for Sony Europe, has responded to some burning questions about the upcoming PSP Go. Specifically, we wanted to know about cross compatibility with existing UMD games, whether the device harbored any secret hardware improvements, and what would come included in the retail box. The Sony spokesman was good enough to provide answers to all of those questions, although his responses will leave some potential customers disappointed. Grant confirmed that other than the lack of a UMD drive and on-board flash memory, there are no other significant improvements to the PSP hardware, meaning that it has the same amount of RAM and processor power as the current model. The retail box will include a USB cable to facilitate data transfers from PC, as well as some media management software to organize all of your digital files. He also said that Sony is working on a "Goodwill programme" for owners of older UMD games that want to transfer them to the PSP Go, but that nothing concrete had been decided yet.

One of the biggest surprises to emerge from his answers is the revelation that the PSP will have a relatively short battery life, similar to the existing model.

"We have adopted an embedded battery to realise a smaller and lighter PSP system. The battery life is equivalent with the current models meaning approximately 3 to 6 hours for gameplay and approximately 3 to 5 hours for playing back videos. " he wrote.

We are somewhat disappointed by the short battery life of the PSP Go, which is most likely a concession to form-factor. Nevertheless, we had hoped that improvements in battery technology and the removal of spinning UMD parts would have increased autonomous life to more than 6 hours of play time. We eventually got used to the shorter battery life in our old PSP, mainly because we played it home plugged into the outlet. However, for a product designated "Go", this device might come up short for some heavy-playing road warriors.

PSP Go will sport around 4 hours of battery life

[Source: Official Sony Blog]

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Comments

Omzipop

- June 13, 2009 9:36 AM

If its embedded does that mean you cant remove it? If you can remove it then buying a larger capacity battery and swapping between them would solve that problem, annoying when the battery ends half way through a game tho.

LDuB

- June 13, 2009 4:41 PM

I'm not buying this. I'm buying a memory stick Pro Duo and a PSN prepaid card. They have 8gb for as low as $29.99 I think. I'll save me about $100.00 if I don't upgrade to the PSP Go. Plus I get to keep my larger screen.

name

- June 14, 2009 2:20 AM

are sony stupid? im realy starting to think they are why the bloody hell would you buy a PSP go when you can buy a normal 3000 for cheaper? the only advantage of the go is its lighter and smaller. 1 so friggin what? and 2 thats not exactly a advantage because now the screens smaller. so they are thinking were going to pay extra for a psp go? seriously why bother there going to loose alot of money on the go people are just going to buy a normal 3000 like me once it gets some bloody games.

Ers

- June 22, 2009 10:26 PM

I know I'll be sticking with my 2000 series. I had high hopes for this new PSP, but it's nothing but bad news. High price, smaller screen, shorter battery life (I use the extended battery, it absolutely rocks.) no UMD support, and memory sticks really aren't expensive these days. I just cannot justify it, there is nothing the PSP Go currently offers that makes me want to leave my 2000.

Black magic

- August 13, 2009 8:05 PM

The only people who r hate'n on the PSP go r the people who can't afford it. If u like the old ass PSP's with the loud ass UMD, porely placed anolog stick,slow wifi, and with the small start button than get 1 of those!!

Raurik

- August 16, 2009 1:30 AM

As a potential buyer I have gone from "definitely getting one" to "Maybe, if I can convince myself that the battery won't drive me insane." The old PSP's UMDs and size were the big turn offs for me. Now the size and UMD is fixed and they manage to have less battery life??? It's like they're trying to shoot themselves in the face.

Baraka

- September 8, 2009 5:58 PM

I have mixed feeling, I don't own any psp and this is only a maybe I want it. the price is the most intimitating part. A battery extension would be nice. I want to know how well they plan on keeping both of them on the market and what games are unique. bundels would be nice but we have to wait til christmas or later for that. and 1 main concern is how long before a psp go 2 exsist or psp2 exsist.

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