The GG could only go about five, if you were lucky, on six AA
Which, while of course requiring exponentially more power, the Switch 2 only goes for about 6 hours on less demanding games, funny how battery life hasn’t really changed much for advanced handhelds.
Rechargeable batteries were common, but in my experience they tended to not hold up as long as normal batteries and took 6-8 hours to recharge. At that time they also degraded quickly, were expensive, and overall just a massive hassle to try and manage.
The IBM thinkpad that runs on windows 95 that I have still has a vaguely functional battery. The battery can last a whole 5 minutes still, damned battery was probably more expensive to produce than the entire rest of the laptop.
Ha, I still have my IBM ThinkPad but it has never had a working battery in its life with me. The hinge on one side is also still cracked and I could never properly close it.
Was my first laptop in the mid-2000’s running Windows 95. I got a USB 1.0 Ethernet adapter so I could surf the web on the DSL line we had at home before we finally upgraded to a wireless router.
Good times. On MySpace, ripping music to the 4GB IDE HDD I had into MusicMatch (before I learned about iTunes), checking news for Halo 3, trying to play games…
The biggest problem with rechargeable dry cells is that each one supports 1.2 volts, while alkaline are 1.5. Some devices wouldn’t even run, most run more poorly and run out of battery even faster.
Fwiw, should you need it, there are AA lithium batteries with a usbc slot for charging and they deliver 1.5v. I bought a pack out of curiosity and was very pleasantly surprised.
This is also why I have never considered the Switch a portable system. It was a hybrid that was never quite a “real” console or a handheld, and thus made compromises on both ends. I personally never used the Switch undocked, I’d have rather they sold a fixed model with no screen or joycons that just plugged in.
The real reason that Game Gear was so power hungry is that it was just a Sega Master System crammed into a handheld. This is why it felt wildly better and more advanced then the Game Boy. Sega did the same thing years later with the Sega Nomad aka a Genesis crammed into a handheld.
Which, while of course requiring exponentially more power, the Switch 2 only goes for about 6 hours on less demanding games, funny how battery life hasn’t really changed much for advanced handhelds.
Sure but the switch 2 has a rechargeable battery unlike the game gear which had to be supplied with new batteries every time which cost money.
I’m not sure if rechargeable AA were common in those days.
Rechargeable batteries were common, but in my experience they tended to not hold up as long as normal batteries and took 6-8 hours to recharge. At that time they also degraded quickly, were expensive, and overall just a massive hassle to try and manage.
The IBM thinkpad that runs on windows 95 that I have still has a vaguely functional battery. The battery can last a whole 5 minutes still, damned battery was probably more expensive to produce than the entire rest of the laptop.
Ha, I still have my IBM ThinkPad but it has never had a working battery in its life with me. The hinge on one side is also still cracked and I could never properly close it.
Was my first laptop in the mid-2000’s running Windows 95. I got a USB 1.0 Ethernet adapter so I could surf the web on the DSL line we had at home before we finally upgraded to a wireless router.
Good times. On MySpace, ripping music to the 4GB IDE HDD I had into MusicMatch (before I learned about iTunes), checking news for Halo 3, trying to play games…
The biggest problem with rechargeable dry cells is that each one supports 1.2 volts, while alkaline are 1.5. Some devices wouldn’t even run, most run more poorly and run out of battery even faster.
Fwiw, should you need it, there are AA lithium batteries with a usbc slot for charging and they deliver 1.5v. I bought a pack out of curiosity and was very pleasantly surprised.
This is also why I have never considered the Switch a portable system. It was a hybrid that was never quite a “real” console or a handheld, and thus made compromises on both ends. I personally never used the Switch undocked, I’d have rather they sold a fixed model with no screen or joycons that just plugged in.
The real reason that Game Gear was so power hungry is that it was just a Sega Master System crammed into a handheld. This is why it felt wildly better and more advanced then the Game Boy. Sega did the same thing years later with the Sega Nomad aka a Genesis crammed into a handheld.
I’m generally of the same opinion about the Switch, but it’s amazing to be able to play it on flights
The biggest culprit is probably the CCFL tube backlight.
You dont have to replace your switches batteries every time they run out tho