this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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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.
rechargable AA's before Eneloops were all absolute dogshit
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.
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.
the real reason it was such a bitch for power is that it had a compact flourescent tube for the backlight.
when you remove that and replace it with a LED backlight suddenly the battery life explodes.
I figured the backlight was a big part of it. crazy that people actually modded a game gear
You would not believe the amount of mods the GameGear has, my dude.
and they are expensive as fuck, lol
I'm generally of the same opinion about the Switch, but it's amazing to be able to play it on flights
You dont have to replace your switches batteries every time they run out tho
If you tried to run the switch on AAs, you'd need a separate suitcase to house them.