June 6th, 2012

The battery life of the Wii U GamePad is 3-5 hours

25 Comments

Nintendo has confirmed that the battery life of the GamePad is between three and five hours. This of course changes depending on the brightness of the screen. This means the estimates are probably conservative. It takes about two and a half hours to fully charge the GamePad, but you can still use it while it’s charging via the included AC Adapter.

  • suportedcofe

    Well since this is a controller and not a portable the battery life doesn’t matter that much.

    • http://youtube.com/the8guys Dylan

      plus you have the pro controller and the Wiimotes

  • http://youtube.com/the8guys Dylan

    ill charge it while playing :D

  • Sothe

    meh. maybe nyko will come out with a better battery like the powerpack + on the 3ds.

    • Co-Wink-Key-Dink inc

      The battory lasts 3 BETWEEN 5 HOURS
      how can make you wanna buy you a battory pack?

    • Omarsonic9

      You wanna play more than 5 hours in a row?!
      Dude, just when you finish playing charge the Wii U Gamepad!

  • Lene

    I’m just afraid the wire will be an inconvenience when playing games that need you to turn in different directions. It seems you have to plug it on the top. But it’s not that bad.

    What disturbs me is that Nintendo made a lot of (good) changes to the controller, but it seems the console itself didn’t change at all.
    I was still hoping for it to come in two versions: the original, and another with a HDD. Not that I really want an integrated HD, but I think a lot of people would find it better. And it’s anyway cheaper than a big SD card.

    • jobro

      maybe this will come later…But for now I´m very pleased with Wii U and I personally don´t really need an in-build HDD

  • jdub

    if you watch the gamepad video, the ac por look alot like the one for the 3ds. hopefully they will continue using that as their standard port, so i can stop collecting chargers for each system.

  • Elspeth

    Uh oh now I am bit worry sometime I like to traveling and what if battery dies if I am in plane…oh crap or long drive in car…sheeesh.

    • MattDeL

      You can’t use it while your away from the console. :l

    • Rune

      The Wii U was never been a portable, so you could not have done that, even if there was 20 hours of battery life. the tablet needs the console in range to be played.

    • Basil

      Seems like someone’s a bit slow…

    • dubYA

      What is this? 2011? Did I get kidnapped by Doc Brown?

      It isn’t a portable device. The system streams content to the controller within a specific range.

      The more you know!

  • RicardoSForever

    Don’t see any problem with that. It’s a controller, not a console. I’ll mostly never even use the controller’s screen as output to play, so no worries there.

  • Matt

    The cord better be long…

    • adrian12369

      ikr-i can’t play my ps3 while charging the controller because the cord is so short

    • Tails the Foxhound

      @Matt
      This. As long as the cord is long, I’m good. Actually, I have a USB extender, so even if it’s short, I’m still good. I guess I’ll be able to play it from across the room even tethered then, lol.

  • Bewoulf2000

    More than enough for a gameing session. Especially since you just charge it over night or when your done playing, like a 3ds.

  • http://nintendoworlds.com TurboPikachu

    I’ll be one of those who keeps the Wii U controller corded at all times.

  • ma5nake

    that really suck, like the e3 nintendo conference LOL

    • Co-Wink-Key-Dink inc

      I hate it when people just put lol when thier trolling or whatnot, like, WHAT WAS EVEN FUNNY??!??!!

    • omg

      Sad news. If they’re going to make a wireless controller they should improve the battery life, how could they make the same mistake they did on the 3DS again? Why they can’t learn from what they’ve done before?

      Sure is a good thing that you can plug the controller and play while recharging, but that’s not ideal. 3~5 hours of battery life is not enough for hardcore gamers (and by harcore I mean passionate gamers, doesn’t matter what genre)..and I’m not planning to buy the wii U controller pro, I just loved the Wii U pad and it is exactly what defines the console!

      I’m not angry, and I’m still planning to buy the system at day one (probably) with Pikmin 3, ZombiU and Aliens:Colonial Marines (when it launches) but yeah, Nintendo should learn sometimes.

  • james braselton

    hi there yeah same battery life as the nintendo 3ds also has 3-5 hours too but i dont care i want too have my game in any room in the house

  • Super Nintendo Boy

    the Wii u game pad is horrible the batteries die faster then a 4G LTE phone with wifi on
    I fully charged it started to game and omg the batteries was dead in 2hrs or less they need ah expandable battery ASAP