Wii U GamePad High-Capacity Battery Coming to US

[roseofbattle]

Wii U GamePad High-Capacity Battery Coming to US

The new Wii U GamePad battery can hold a charge for eight hours of playtime compared to the regular GamePad's battery life of three to five hours.

For people who like to play games for the full day, long battery life is a must. The Nintendo Wii U's GamePad battery only has three to five hours of battery life, meaning players have to plug the GamePad into a wall socket often. A high-capacity battery for the Wii U GamePad will add extra life, clocking in at about 8 hours of life.

The high-capacity battery first debuted in Japan this past summer and moved to Europe [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128574-Official-High-Capacity-Wii-U-Gamepad-Battery-Available-in-UK-Germany] months later. It will now come to North America, as the new battery is available for purchase in Nintendo's online store. Without factoring in the cost of shipping, the extended battery life costs $32 and can be installed to the Wii U GamePad with just a screwdriver and the included instructions.

Hopefully Nintendo will put this battery in all future GamePads, but it is unknown whether this will be the case. The short battery life of the Wii U GamePad is annoying for anyone doing marathon play sessions.

The battery life will change depending on use of the Wii U GamePad, wireless communications use, ambient temperature, and the screen's brightness setting. For Wii U players who use the GamePad frequently and prefer to have the brightness turned up, investing in the high-capacity battery would be a good investment.

Wireless has been the wave of the future since the previous console generation, and that means battery life is important for anyone who isn't playing for one or two hours at most at a time. Here's hoping the new battery becomes a standard in future GamePads.

Source: Engadget [https://store.nintendo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=211708&catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&categoryId=69716&krypto=GrjJmjV7%2Fh%2BLquzlLeEgC0pM7E9p4HRUPrBBk5noDOUhysvG4h%2BRIMfOJ2hjwRRRKRVvdQqs1rg%3D&ddkey=https:SetCurrencyPreference]


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[Pink Gregory]

So you can extend the battery life by a few hours for roundabout the price of another gamepad. Think I'll just stick to plugging it in, thanks.

And this is coming from someone who genuinely likes the WiiU gamepad.

 

[Guffe]

So, pay 30? for a new battery?
Sorry to break this to anyone who didn't think about it earlier.
I was sick when Pikmin 3 was released, I mean went through surgery sick, so I had to lay on my stomach for 7 days straight. There comes a cable in the WiiU set, which LOADS the battery life. You can actually have this connected to the Gamepad WHILE playing. This means the battery won't run out, at least for 9 hours, which was my longest gamerun whilst in "not-allowed-to-move-mode".
And the cable in decently long, so I am not getting any new battery, I never sit for 3 hurs on the toilet anyways, so I don't need that long battery life.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the first Wii U peripheral shows up, and naturally its something that could have just been a feature of the tech in the first place.

 

[InvaderTim]

any word on the availability for this in New Zealand?

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Depending on the size $32 is not that bad for a lithium battery running a tablet for 8 hours. But having to deal with four or more screws that weigh 3 milligrams means you probably will now have a useless 3 hour battery sitting around instead of just being able to swap it out and reconnect the Wii pad in a few seconds. This should become the standard battery for new systems since the short life is one of the many things hurting the Wii U right now. It's not major but taking off one of the negative tics helps.

I don't use my PS3 enough to keep the batt at full juice and always have the stock usb cable with an extra 3 foot extension cable plugged. It doesn't bother me since I hate this "get rid of evil wires and use super polluting, expensive batteries" deal everyone has in their heads now, and I had 3 generations of consoles with cables holding me to the tv and use my pc on the tv with a usb extension and hub going to KB and Mm, so I'd just want the bigger Wii pad batt for when I forget to keep it fully charged and need to spend some time in the office with plumbing.