Anyone else having trouble with the battery life of the 3DS? Pokémon has been hogging it, and I get just under 3 hours without the Internet connected (on the PSS) or the 3D on. I'm thinking of buying one of those large batteries later this month.

I get around 5 hours with no Internet. I always have my charger plugged in though, so I don't really run into low battery problems.

I get about 5 hours, then again I do this really wacky thing and shut the system when not playing a game.

I decided to do some testing with my 3DS XL and Pokémon Y.

At brightness 5, always 2D, power-saving off, Wi-Fi communications turned on and PSS connected to the Internet almost all the time, with some Wonder Trading thrown in for good measure, I squeezed out about 4 hours and 13 minutes before the battery hit critically low levels. At least the screen really pops with the colours like that.

Judging from the performance, it's actually pretty impressive. Cranking down the brightness to 3 (the halfway point) and disabling background communications should help the battery life by a long shot on a 3DS XL, potentially enabling close to seven hours.

This seems to go along with what I've gotten out with the 3DS XL and Gates to Infinity. For that game, it's about 5 hours on the exact same setup, and just slightly over 7 at brightness 3.

Is it possible to get double-digit play-times on a single charge when you play at brightness 1, 2D, power-saving mode turned on, and no background communications? That's what I intend to find out sometime soon.

By the way, Scott, what brightness level, and is the display's power saving mode turned on?

3, PSS not connected, and 3D off. I'm pretty sure my battery is just toast from too many recharge cycles and needs replacement.

Yeah, but even replacement with an official battery might confuse it alone. The red light only lasts 10~15 minutes at the most before it flashes critically.