Testing The Nintendo Switch’s Battery Life

Being able to play the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild anywhere sounds like an awesome idea, but how long will the battery on the Nintendo Switch last? Earlier this week Siliconera received a system from Nintendo and that was the first thing we tested out.

We charged the Nintendo Switch’s battery to full power and starting playing the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. After 2 hours and 39 minutes of exploring Hyrule a message appears in the top left of the screen saying the battery was running out and the system would go to sleep mode soon. The battery was at 1% when the warning popped up. We were able to play the Zelda for 9 more minutes before the system went into sleep mode. That’s a total of 2 hours and 48 minutes using the default brightness setting. Update: We also ran a test using the system with the lowest brightness level and got 3 hours and 5 minutes of play time. All of our tests were done with the system in “Airplane Mode” which disables wifi.

Next, we tested how long it would take to charge the Nintendo Switch to full power. The Switch needed four minutes of charging time before we could turn the system on again. After one hour of charging, the system’s battery power was at 45%. It took 2 hours and 11 minutes to charge the battery to 90% and 3 hours and 4 minutes until the battery was at 100%.

Food for thought

• The Nintendo Switch weighs 402g. As a comparison, the Wii U controller is 492g, a New Nintendo 3DS XL is 335g and a PlayStation Vita (first generation) is 284g.
• The system has 25.9GB of storage space when you unbox it.
• There will be a launch day update for the system that adds online features like the Nintendo eShop, image sharing, and online play. Right now it isn’t possible to link a Nintendo account to the Switch console or connect online.
• When the system wakes up from sleep mode there is a newsfeed tab on the left side of the screen.
• The capture button is excellent and makes it easy to take screenshots.
• Holding down the home button opens a quick menu where you can put the system in sleep mode, turn airplane mode on and change the screen’s brightness.
• You can store up to 8 user profiles on the Nintendo Switch. Each one has its own save data and friend list.