Kinsey recently did a rundown of the Nintendo Switch battery life, and here's a followup of sorts. If you want an exhaustive battery test for any handheld, Family Gamer TV has you covered. They've torture-tested the battery life of several portables in the past, and now they're pitting them all against the Nintendo Switch.
In the video below they've assembled a collection of handheld devices that would make any ardent Nintendo collector Luigi-green with envy. The parameters are simple: each device has its brightness cranked to full blast with the wifi turned on, and then left to sit idle at its home menu screen. For older handhelds without home menus, they were set running a game at its title screen.
The results were impressive. The Switch lasted 5 hours and 12 minutes, beating out the DSi, 2DS, 3DS and even the PS Vita. Naturally if you're running a resource intensive game like Zelda Breath of the Wild the battery will get eaten much faster, but it's still surprising to see that the Switch has so much staying power compared to older handhelds. Here's the full list, followed by the rather extensive video. The clear winner was the Game Boy Color, at an astonishing 35 and a half hours!
DSi - 2.41hrs
3DS - 3.25hrs
iPod Touch 2 - 3.39hrs
2DS - 3.55hrs
GBA SP - 3.59hrs
iPad 2 - 4.00hrs
iPad Air - 4.04hrs
New 3DS - 4.04hrs
iPod Touch 3 - 4.13hrs
DS Lite - 4.51hrs
PSP - 4.56hrs
GBA Micro - 4.57hrs
Vita - 5.01hrs
Switch - 5.12hrs
iPad Mini 2 - 5.39hrs
DS - 6.51hrs
New 3DS XL Mugen Battery - 15.02hrs
GBA - 29.32hrs
Gameboy - 31.12hrs
Gameboy Colour - 35.45hrs
