What are you saying? Does nothing exceptionally well?
It plays games amazingly for a £280 portable device of its size!!
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Each Online match in Splatoon 2 barely consumes ~3% of battery
- Thread starter mocolostrocolos
- Start date
What are you saying? Does nothing exceptionally well?
It plays games amazingly for a £280 portable device of its size!!
darkinstinct
...lacks reading comprehension.
Portables need longevity more than anything else. A portable device that needs a power plug after an hour or 90 minutes is not very portable. That's the main reason why I use my Switch 90 % of the time in the dock with detached Joycons. At the same time for a stationary device graphics should be better than they are. WLAN should be much better. The system is just a huge compromise and not build for strengths in one part or another. To me it looks like they were hoping for that increase in battery capacity that never came (since three years). And then struggled and cut here and there to make it work with todays batteries.
sleepnaught
Member
84% after 30 minutes of playing at 75-80% brightness, seems fine to me.
Is anyone seriously going to be playing more than 3 hours at a time in portable mode? Because that's what I'm getting and that's exactly what Nintendo has advertised.
Is anyone seriously going to be playing more than 3 hours at a time in portable mode? Because that's what I'm getting and that's exactly what Nintendo has advertised.
They aren't really marketing it as a portable though, and the battery life is comparable to similar devices. I'm not saying it's great (I'd much rather have a weaker system with bettery battery) but clearly the market is okay with it.
AkimbO_Arcana
Banned
The Switch doesn't need a power plug after an hour or 90 minutes. We've got one unconfirmed post on here from a guy playing a 60fps, graphically intense game with maximum brightness and constant wi-fi usage. Even if he's right, it's still not too horribly bad considering that's about the range even the bulkiest of gaming laptops provide.
Everyone knows that the Switch is a compromise between 3DS-style portability and being a home system, but that doesn't make it poorly designed. Design isn't just "make it better plz!" it's a delicate balance between ambition and the limitations put in place by costs, available technology and form factor. Good design is maximising ambition whilst minimizing those limitations, and you've yet to explain why the Switch fails to do that because, apart from maybe the Wifi chip (but I've got no knowledge about that), you've only proposed things that break those limitations or make the Switch something else entirely.
Just because your expectations were low, doesn't make this remarkable in any way.
forknknife
Banned
That to me is decent battery life. I've been pushing back me buying a power bank because, honestly, I haven't really ran out of juice on any trip.
3 hours of gaming in a day while traveling is plenty and if my flight gets delayed or whatever there's always the possibility of recharging it at a cafe or whatever which is what I'm doing right now actually!
The_Endgamer
Member
I assume you have your screen brightness up a fair bit tho OP.
Mario Kart 8 is graphically intensive and I still get a few hours out of it. Sticking it in Joycon mode, wifi, and max brightness will kill your battery though so I keep well away from unnecessary battery usage like that. Might be worth getting battery packs if you play it on the move for long periods of time too.
I'm sure there's plenty of resolutions to your problem posted here if you're actually looking for a solution that is.
Mario Kart 8 is graphically intensive and I still get a few hours out of it. Sticking it in Joycon mode, wifi, and max brightness will kill your battery though so I keep well away from unnecessary battery usage like that. Might be worth getting battery packs if you play it on the move for long periods of time too.
I'm sure there's plenty of resolutions to your problem posted here if you're actually looking for a solution that is.
Joelstinton14
Member
I had a similar time - after 40 minutes it was 78%. Which seems a bout normal.
That's exactly it. But some people don't get it.
Shit on Nintendo for their bullshit voice chat, shit on them for the lack of preload on eshop, and shit on Nintendo for anything else they seem to do in their own lane.
But battery life is one place that technology has not really improved. The funny thing is some of the people complaining about battery life have posted previously saying they wanted a more powerful switch and 1080p screen.
Can you imagine the battery life then?! Or do some people think NIntendo would just have used one of them "super batteries" lol.
Nitpicker_Red
Member
It's a bit risky to extrapolate total battery use based on the battery indicator after 3 minutes, the rate at which it depletes could be not constant, and there are reports of the calibration being off... And especially if your precision stops at the percent (rounded off, so there can be an error of 1~2 percent, and your measure is 3~4%). You haven't measured time with a stopwatch for how long it actually took either, so it's a rule of thumb applied over approximations.
Edit: to top it off, apparently the battery indication itself is "an educated guess" and not an actual "measure" of how much battery there is left.
Since you can't measure voltage direcly like an alkaline pile, the program guesses based on past consuption how much should be left (until you empty/charge it completely to re-calibrate it). Basically they have a model of how a battery should behave based on temperature/number of usage, and hopefully the data collected fits with the model.
Didn't do the math, didn't do the science (write down measurements). Not thread worthy. Difficult to have any intelligent conversation. I hope someone comes back with a better test to start anew.
Edit: to top it off, apparently the battery indication itself is "an educated guess" and not an actual "measure" of how much battery there is left.
Since you can't measure voltage direcly like an alkaline pile, the program guesses based on past consuption how much should be left (until you empty/charge it completely to re-calibrate it). Basically they have a model of how a battery should behave based on temperature/number of usage, and hopefully the data collected fits with the model.
Didn't do the math, didn't do the science (write down measurements). Not thread worthy. Difficult to have any intelligent conversation. I hope someone comes back with a better test to start anew.
There are also a lot of people waiting for the smaller Switch which will have improved battery. It always makes me stop and think a bit.
I'm in the camp that think the Switch is a good compromise. I'm personally totally fine with the battery life, the few times I've had the battery run out I was on the edge of taking a break anyway.
Yeah I've no real issues with the battery life but I don't actually take the Switch out.
It's not scientific but playing on about 50% brightness on a full charge to battery low first flashing, which I'm not sure what percentage that is (have percentage icon disabled), I get just over 2 hours.
As you say again having a smaller switch isn't going to improve the battery lol. The only way we'll get improved battery life realistically is if they use a more power efficient processor, which is likely in a revision at some point, or perhaps even an oled screen, although have their been tests to show how much, if any gains there are versus lcd in a mobile device?
MK8 has a higher tickrate than Splatoon 2? Oh God if that's true.
Diablohead
Member
I remember an hour of splatfest in portable mode left me with 60~ % after I was done
And this is why I feel we don't need digital foundry to tell us what we can figure out for ourselves. We rely to much on the internet to do our research for us. It's ok to use as a point of reference, but so many people take the opinion of what the "professionals" find online as absolute gospel. Just like the op and others in this thread, you will find your own average battery life based on the way you enjoy gaming on your switch. There isn't a right number.
Just because it's the best it can be doesn't mean it's good. You can still be critical of something even if there's no clear way to deal with it because it's still bad.
Nonconstructive criticism might still be criticism but that doesn't make it any less obnoxious.
Yeah I got my 20% warning right around 2.5 hours, so certainly a bit longer.
Professionals (no quotation marks here) who do extensive tests in various use cases (different brightness, various kinds of gameplay scenarios) are definitely needed because now people are using OP as a point of reference instead of a professional.
Doing your own tests is of course always the best for you, but for the people it truly matters for (people who don't have Switch and/or the game) that's not possible. So you have to rely on others, in which case you want someone reliable.
PhilipDoesMatter
Member
I don't think that's bad actually. 60 fps power plus wifi.
NoKisum
Member
ITT People expecting 12 hour play sessions on a single charge, and are dooming Nintendo for not delivering.
Because if the hate stays at a detail that can't be fixed overnight, then Nintendo can stay a shitty company in the eyes of many.
It is actually oddly surprising how slow increases to battery tech have become, to the point where other components are being developed to compensate for terrible battery life by draining less.
It'll always be ifs and buts, at the end of the day Nintendo is still selling Switch's like crazy and Spla2oon is doing amazing. Battery be damned and all.
It'll always be ifs and buts, at the end of the day Nintendo is still selling Switch's like crazy and Spla2oon is doing amazing. Battery be damned and all.
op started a thread praising the battery life.. why should we discuss other issues then?
And for the love of god stop equating criticism with hate. Why in the world would I hate a piece of plastic.
goldenpp72
Member
I got about 3 hours during the splat fest.
tenderbrew
Member
Yah I'm getting over 3 hours.
Same as my n3ds and ds4 approx.
Same as my n3ds and ds4 approx.
DonF
Member
That's...also terrible. Matches of rocket league with voice comms use close to 7 mb.
Splatoon and Rocket League are not the same thing at all.
DonF
Member
Oh I know, but really, 20 mb for a 3 minute match without voice comms is a lot of data. I was just using it as a comparison.
Not really. Watching Netflix is a lot of data, downloading games is a lot of data; downloading the equivalent of a single moderately-sized GIF is not. Even the comparison between the two is heavily flawed. Splatoon has to take track of so much more that to directly compare between the two is just silly. Rocket League doesn't have sub and special abilities, changeable weapons, a complicated TPS control scheme and it definitely doesn't have a map that's constantly having to change in reaction to what the players are doing. They're fundamentally different things, it'd be much better to compare a game of CoD or even Mario Kart instead.
Poor GRIMES
Banned
I can't stop laughing? What a strange thread.
I do find it funny op is being called out both for defending a poor battery length, but also for spreading a very incorrect battery lengh.
My switch consumed about 30% of the battery while playing ARMS Lobby for exactly 1 hour. So 3 hours WIFI play in portable mode is to be expected.
When people talk about 3% per Splatoon match they forget that there is a waiting time in the lobby too, you should also measure battery life after an hour of play or more, not after three or five minutes. I would be surprised if Splatoon 2 consumed more power than ARMS and Mario Kart 8 DX(which also used up about 30% of my Switches battery after an hour of online play)
When people talk about 3% per Splatoon match they forget that there is a waiting time in the lobby too, you should also measure battery life after an hour of play or more, not after three or five minutes. I would be surprised if Splatoon 2 consumed more power than ARMS and Mario Kart 8 DX(which also used up about 30% of my Switches battery after an hour of online play)
I'm sorry to tell you this OP, but you may be suffering from a serious condition known as "Switchitis". Symptoms include feeling compelled to tell everyone around you that some perceived shortcoming/flaw in the Nintendo Switch is actually a positive feature that should be praised and welcomed. There is no known cure presently, but please be comforted by the fact that you are not alone as this epidemic rages across gaming journalism and internet discussions boards in these trying times.
op cant math, im talking about the reality that it holds the same up as like mario kart
Guess I've got Switchitis because this was a terrible post.
lol, this is such a bad post I don't even understand what compelled you to make it.
Well, the compulsion to make it was in the hopes that it might make one or more people laugh, so if you actually laughed out loud then I'll consider it a successful venture.
Youre right, im glad they decided we dont need voice chat for us, can you imagine having the option? Yuck !