How does Nintendo’s new GamePad battery measure up?

Nintendo released an enhanced GamePad battery in Japan a few weeks ago. How does it perform? Japanese publication Game Watch put the new battery to the test earlier this month

The original GamePad battery was sitting at 1500mAh, but the new large-capacity battery pack is about 1.7 times stronger at 2550mAh. And whereas the original had an operating time of about 3-5 hours, the new one is said to last between 5-8 hours.

Game Watch set the GamePad’s brightness to the highest point, all power-saving methods were turned off, vibration was turned on, and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate’s opening movie was played on full blast. In this state, Dengeki measured the amount of time until the controller powered down from a complete depletion of battery life.

The results were pretty encouraging, as the GamePad lasted 5 hours and 12 minutes. Previously, the original battery would last about 3 hours in this state.

We should mention that the size of the battery pack is about 1.5 times bigger than the original, so where the original sits vertically in the back of the GamePad, the newer and bigger battery fits perfectly sideways. It just barely fits into the back of the controller.