Third party battery promises 15 hours of play -- at a cost
For some, PSP simply does not have a long enough battery life. Peripheral manufacturer Blue Raven is trying to offer PSP owners an alternative: the PSP 15-hour extended battery. The battery snaps on to the back of the system, and is supposed to offer "up to 7 times the battery life of the standard PSP battery."Like so many other battery solutions for PSP, there are a lot of catches with this newly released product. Firstly, it's ugly. Doubling the system size certainly makes the system much less portable. (At least it isn't as ugly as this monstrosity.) Also, we're doubting the true power of the product. Other third-party batteries have made systems explode, or have under-delivered in terms of performance. The standard PSP battery is 1800mAh; to offer 7 times the battery life, this battery would need to rate 12600mAH. Too bad it doesn't--it only offers 4500mAh.
It also doesn't come cheap: $100. We've recommended avoiding third-party batteries time and time again, and we're going to do it again. Honestly, it appears that Sony's official 2200mAh battery is still your best bet.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kingofwale @ Apr 30th 2007 6:51PM
question: if it's "7 times the battery", why is it only 15 hours? my PSP dishes out 4 hours + battery easily (I'd know, I commute 2 hours a day and I charge mine every other day)
shouldn't it be more like 30 hours?
and I don't trust third party battery.
oh, well-written article
Johnny Lasley @ Apr 30th 2007 7:20PM
...yeah. Like Sony batteries never caught fire or anything.
Fatass of Kickassness @ Apr 30th 2007 7:27PM
If it wasn't so damn expensive I'd probably pick one up just for the hell of it.
Jon @ Apr 30th 2007 7:47PM
Battery hour isn't only determined through its capacity (mAh) but also through the discharge rate and other factors. So despite this offering a only 4500 mAh it could offer 7 hours, although I highly doubt it.
kingofwale @ Apr 30th 2007 9:16PM
@2
at least Sony was man enough to recall all of them, unlike some company that just ignore it. or worse, kept on selling defected Models
TwistedBishop @ Apr 30th 2007 11:28PM
Is that Amazon.com battery really 2200mAh? I know the picture is of one, but I'm not so certain that's the product you actually receive. Everywhere else I've looked only carries the 1800 version. The ones on Ebay all look like they come from Japan.
So if anyone has ordered that battery from Amazon, can you post here and let us know?
kingofwale @ Apr 30th 2007 11:34PM
@twistedbishop
I think there's just a typo. I have a 2200 battery my friend got me and it works really well, I was on a trip from Toronto to Tokyo, and I was able to mix PSP (2 batteries) and sleep for my entire trip
here's a real link
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Computer-Entertainment-VASNY-711719854104/dp/B000C3T9X4/ref=sr_1_1/104-6982370-0851168?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1177990364&sr=8-1
Gemini782 @ May 1st 2007 12:05PM
I actually picked one of these units up off of eBay last fall. It does add quite a bit to the width of the unit but I found my PSP to be more comfortable to hold with it on (the exterior of this unit is "rubberized"). In terms of battery life - It probably depends on a lot of things (screen brightness, processor usage, etc) I've never let it run down all the way but have gone 10+ hrs playtime between charges.
Just my 2 cents...
-G