A Japanese gaming website called Game Watch has put Nintendo’s new battery pack for the Wii U to the test. The new battery claims to last 5-8 hours due to its 2550 milliamps per hour as opposed to the original battery’s 1500. Game Watch tested the new battery with the gamepad on its brightest setting, without the power saving option on, running the opening movie from Monster Hunter 3 over and over for several hours. It turns out the battery lasted a full five hours and 12 minutes in this state – as advertised, a definitive 2-3 hours longer than the original battery would have survived.
Due to the battery’s larger size as seen in the above photo, it must be inserted horizontally into the gamepad, whereas the original battery sat vertically in the device. While third-party companies have attempted to create longer-lasting batteries for the Wii U, this is the first time Nintendo has produced its own in-house battery. Although it is currently only available in Japan, the battery’s success could result in a European and North American distribution as well.
Are you satisfied with the length of playing time you get out of your current battery for the Wii U gamepad? Give us your opinion in the comments below.
Will probably get one.
lelul
Don’t bother. Might was well get the Nyko Uboost. I have it and it lasts up to 10 hours. It’s a little big, but totally worth it.
The current battery life is pretty terrible…
Actually… No, I’m not satisfied with it.
Thankfully I have an outlet available nearby where I use so sit and play the Wii U.
But I wonder how difficult was to presume that the original Wii U game pad battery would struggle the use of it.
But…
It has improved battery life which High Command is providing…
*Looks suspiciously*
Hey, Commander!
I meant before the releasing…
Anyway, I hope this new battery price tag is affordable – if it is going to be released outside Japan.
Let’s hope it is…
Although it will probably be sold for 200€ here in Sweden as always…
Sometimes I hate this stupid nazi country…
The battery is probably universal, import it. :)
Jo jag får nog göra det när jag köper min Wii U…
Jävla Xbox älskare…*wink*
När köpte du din?…
I slutet av Juli detta år. På Webhallen. UK utgåva för drygt 2500. Det ingick eluttags adapters…
Eller var de Juni… Skit samma.
Det var ett bra pris faktiskt…
Jag får kolla runt en del senare för att köpa den till ett rimligt pris under 3000kr…
Min Wii köpte jag för ca 2500kr i GAME så en Wii U för ungefär det priset är rimligt tycker jag…
Ja, men inte mer. Tror jag köpte min Wii för 1700, den svarta modellen. Köpte den ganska sent. Typ 2008 eller 2009. :P
I’ll need Google Translator here, guys.
lelulz
Herp derp Swedish.
Well I don’t speak swedish, I’m american dam it!
Too me, this is all I seen and heard. ↓
ok, that was wrong of me…sorry.
Yes very…
Yes, I agree. My gamepad lasts 4-5 hours on full settings right now and I’m also near a plug as well. I suppose the added time is great, but at the moment with how I play my games and constantly use different controllers, I never have to worry about battery life.
I hope they release it in North America.
You must ask Lord Regginator…
Maybe if you sacrifice an Xbot will give you extra points with him…
dude shut up reggie fucking sucks…… you are in the noe areas right?? well shibata or whatever his name is, is the better president, stop quoting reggie he sucks. if you want noa can have the good guy and you guys can have reggie, you will regret it.
your body is not ready.
OUR SAVIOR IS NOT TO BE TOYED WITH
https://lh3.ggpht.com/_hHwU3iLBM1w/TN_81ySUYqI/AAAAAAAAARo/TFrSzpXnBY4/s1600/fils_aime_bg.jpg
Of course Lord Shibata is a lot better…
That’s why I’m a part of his forces stationed in one of our Empire’s most hostile regions…
hes actually good…… reggie sucks!!!!!
I think Lord Regginator would be much better as a Nintendo Assassin considering how much he likes to “harrass” the other 2…
he is a nintendo assassin……. he makes noa suck. reggie is actually working for sony as a terrorist some believe. hahahaah to help sony out. he knows nothing about games, hes horrible at them. look at xenoblade in america how much it sold, and even when gamestop is selling new copies pre owned for 90$ it was a best seller on there website again, the last story also sold the best in america.(incredible games that he didnt want to bring over and still noa wasnt the reason for the localization factors. so noe is actually really good and its thanks to shibata. to localizations, advertisements, bundles, they even sell the cppxl and charging cradles.reggie on the other hand…….. he needs to go back to where he came from. pizza hut.
Han kanske behöver en kram. Kom hit zeama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5LPWRAo7YE
Iaf befälhavare, hoppas jag fortfarande att slåss Ganondorf snart.
Hey, this is fun, I might get used to this.
The first sentence is good…
The other are just retarded…
Translated correctly it would be:
Atleast Commander, hopefully fight I still to Ganondorf soon…
Eh, ok…looks like I need work.
The current Gamepad battery definitely loses charge fast so this will be a good thing to own.
But personally I think the Wii U firmware should give you more control over the Power Saving settings. For instance, if you play a VC game there’s no reason why the image should be displayed on both the TV and the Gamepad at the same time all the time, and while you can turn off the screen yourself, you need to go through a few menu screens to do so. Adjusting things like this should help save power a little more.
Agreed.
You can turn off the gamepad screen and just play on the TV if that’s what you mean.
Like I said in my post, you can turn the display off but the Gamepad itself is still on and consuming battery. Shouldn’t be too hard to make it turn off completely like when you’re using the Wii partition.
I.NEED.IT.NOW.
I would 100% buy one.
I don’t really care since my charging cable is right where I sit to game anyways. But at the end of the day I’m pretty sick of getting the crap end of the stick for being an early adopter of Nintendo hardware, first the 3DS, now the WiiU. Don’t get me wrong I love both, but it’s pretty damn annoying.
Someone has said elsewhere that Nintendo is the first company to sell DLC hardware… This is not true, but I confess that that commentary has very sharp sense of humor.
Let’s pretend we were…
We were for super nes add on and n64 dd
3DS had a relaunch.
In the Fall we’ll be getting into the Wii U launch #2 shenanigans…
Yep they definitely punish you for being an early adopter. Again, I fell for it with the 3DS and then the Wii U, shame on me I suppose. Never again will I buy a Nintendo product inside the first year of release.
While the battery life is acceptable, it’s certainly noticeable.
This is the one thing that bothers me about the console. Thankfully I have a wall outlet right next to my sofa, but it’s not ideal – playing a device designed to be moved around while tethered to something is counter-intuitive.
It got the point I’m used to always playing the games that use the GamePad’s extra functions the most first, while the battery’s still charged. Say, if I intend to play ZombiU and Monster Hunter, I’ll always play ZombiU first since I may need to lift the GamePad around, and when the battery dies I can plug it in to charge and start playing Monster Hunter.
This is the first time I seriously thought of getting a third-party battery for any device.
I will most likely get one
Red light appear on my gamepad allways after 1h45 or 2 hours of gameplay… she almost dead already lol…
I have an outlet near by, and rarely spend more that a few hours a day gaming – so it is not a big issue for me. However, I would definitely get one of these if/once they hit North America.
While the battery life time is bad, it doesn’t affect me ehile playing alone. Playing a party game like Nintendo Land, though, where you’re sending the gamepad around, it’s really annoying!
I use the Pro controller, so i will not be buying this.
I shoudbe Free for ambesoders of the wii u
I always have the charger connected, anyways.
I can do with taking the plug into other rooms when I want to play from bed. There’s a power-bar and extension cord plugged into every wall in the house. When the battery eventually DIES-dies, though, they’ll probably replace it with the new one when I send it in as per repair protocols.
Please come out soon. I hate keeping my gamepad plugged in.
I actually think the battery life was just fine, but it’s always nice when they sell a longer-lasting battery for those that would like one.
I can’t really complain about it. Lasts about four hours depending on what I’m doing. If I need to charge it then that’s what I do. What would be nice though, would be an option to disable the gamepad when you’re doing something that doesn’t necessarily require it, i.e. Virtual Console games. Turning off the display doesn’t help the battery life at all since it’s still running.
This would be cool. Hopefully this comes to the United States!
I can’t decide if I should pick this up or not. I do run out of power the odd time. For me, I’m going to need it when X comes out. I just wish there was an easier way to replace and charge the batteries or maybe have 2 wii u pads for switching between the charged ones…. for X.
this means less charging time and less relying on the charger and hope it comes to n america. 2-4 hrs vs 5-8 is a huge difference but my settings is on the lowest brightness, and power saving, speaking of there should be an extended battery for 3ds xl that is 8-10 hrs since i do play the most outta it and lots of people do too
Would get this for around $25 if it was available.
I’ll pay $5 and they can have my original battery.
isnt this the thing that makes it so the gamepad doesnt collect a mountain of dust on it??
like insert it and the dust doesnt collect anymore?? IM SICK OF THE DUST!!!!!
C’mon guy, you must be able to do something productive in real life. I mean, you spew the same pile of lame shit over and over and over again. It’s like you wake up, put your helmet on and turn on the computer and head over to mynintendonews to spend your day posting nonsense. Give it up.
no…. ive been up for hours now and just now going to a post to try to figure out why the wii u is more dust than an atari.
Maybe ask your mom to put in a new furnace and then have the ducts cleaned. The furnace is probably as old as the Atari and the ducts have never been cleaned.
After last night, your mom’s ducts should be plenty clean.
…Am I doing this internet insult thing right?
Well, you leave little to think about. You lack technique and discipline. I can help with that.
Lets take a look at an example of craftsmanship.
We will use the comment you replied to, as an example. It offers a “variety” of material.
It provides…
– A possible answer to the question.
and
– A shot at his living conditions and financial state of his family.
It also suggests he’s living in his mothers basement…
…
I will leave it at that for now and if you want to learn more, please leave a comment below as I offer an advanced course.
$69.99 for a 1 hr lesson on basics or save $ and take the full 5 hr course for $299.99.
mothers basement…… hahahaahah dont quote yourself on me.
do whatever you want.
so what is the space that the new bigger battery takes up used for now ?
Good question, I was wondering that myself. Maybe Nintendo had this planned all along.
I never pay attention to battery power. I always play PS3/WiiU with the controllers plugged in unless I have a bunch of people over.
So how long would the battery last if its on the lowest brightness and with power saving on?
watch there being a another gamepad in a year or two. like wiimote became wiimote+.
What about having the speakers on full blast? Wouldn’t that significantly reduce the time?
I really don’t care. If the battery is low, I play as it is charging. People go spoiled last gen with wireless controllers. Remember when all controllers were corded? That wasn’t such a bad thing.
I seem to have found the battery for sale. It’s listed for 44 bucks. Dunno if it’s Japan only yet. http://www.yesasia.com/global/wii-u-gamepad-battery-pack-japan-version/1033491481-0-0-0-en/info.html
I am fine with the current battery life for right now. I can plug it in to the wall and play.
“due to its 2550 milliamps per hour”
it’s not milliamps PER hour it’s milliamp hours i.e. they’re capable of delivering a current of 2550 mA for 1 hour technically speaking (mAh)
it makes zero sense the other way round
I’m happy with longer battery life. I’ll look to import one should no retail outlet in Europe take these on board. Hey, I like official stuff.
After all, while we can leave out Game Pads attached to the mains, it doesn’t exactly help with ‘portability’ or ‘freedom’.
It’s twice as big, that’s why it lasts longer.
:) I’m buying this!
I just hope it’s no more than $10. They should just give it away to current Wii U owners and say “Sorry for such a bad battery life”. But this fits in the gamepad without any problem? Curious, it’s almost like they may have planned this….
I hope that at least the new battery will be in GamePads sold at retailers when we see a game supporting two.
I’ll buy this, or any other battery enhancers when the new Smash Bros. comes out.
I am fully satisfied with this new battery life.