PSP World

Sony: PSP-3000 Battery Life Will Be 4-6 Hours

Following the recent announcement of the PSP-3000, also dubbed the PSP-"Brite" for its more vibrant screen, there has been some speculation about the potential battery drain caused by that big, bodacious display. Typically, in a handheld game system, the display is one of the biggest drains on power. Concerns were further raised over news that Sony plans to pull the official first-party extended life battery pack from shelves, meaning that gamers would not be able to buy a bigger battery to compensate for the larger drain on power caused by a brighter screen.

According to the company, potential customers do not have to worry about the battery life of the new PSP model. In an official statement on the company blog today, spokesman John Koller said that Japanese engineers had worked hard to ensure that other parts of the PSP design were made more efficient in order to conserve power.

"Following an interview we recently did with Gamespot. I'd like to make a correction and clarify that the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about 4 to 6 hours for games and about 4 to 5 hours for UMD videos. While the enhanced screen of the new PSP draws a little more power, our engineers in Japan worked to reduce the power consumption of the overall system including its components, so you won't have to worry about losing any time when enjoying the more vibrant visuals displayed with the new PSP."

In the original Gamespot interview, Koller had said that the new PSP produced about 20-30 minutes less battery life than the previous model. Did he decide to change his statement due to negative fan reactions, or simply for a factual correction? More importantly, if the PSP-3000 does indeed live up to the promised 4-6 hours of play time, will this satisfy gamers on the go? Or, like Scotty on an old episode of Star Trek, do you often find yourself out and about with your PSP yelling, "I need more power!"?

[Via: Official Sony Blog]