The Nintendo Switch has been a blockbuster product since its launch. It is providing stiff competition to established consoles like the PlayStation and Xbox on all fronts, including games, the gaming experience and more. One area in which this portable device is lacks is the battery life. Although the Japanese company has updated the console with more battery life for the next generation, some may still feel it is not enough. However, you can extend the new Nintendo Switch’s battery life using a few tricks.
Why you need to extend the new Nintendo Switch’s battery life
In handheld mode, the battery life of the original Switch model is about 2.5 to 6.5 hours of playtime. The updated version has an average battery life of between 4.5 and nine hours, while the Switch Lite released a few months ago provides a battery life of three to seven hours.
If you don’t want to be worried about the battery life, the only option you have is to play in dock mode. However, using the Switch to play only on the TV will not do justice to the very objective for which the Switch was launched.
Thus, what you can do is extend the new Nintendo Switch‘s battery life, so you don’t miss out on games while playing in handheld mode. You can do so with the help of a few settings tweaks. It must be noted that the same tweaks could be used to extend the Nintendo Switch Lite’s battery life as well.
How to extend the Switch Lite and Switch battery life
Here are the tweaks that could help you extend the new Nintendo Switch’s battery life (and that of the Switch Lite):
Lower brightness setting – If you have the brightness level set at the maximum, it will eat away at the battery life of your console quickly. Thus, to save battery life, set the brightness as low as possible, but high enough so that you can play games easily without straining your eyes. You can access the brightness settings by long-pressing the Home button on the right Joy-Con.
Enable airplane mode – Turning on airplane mode will also help boost the battery life. You can enable the mode if you are not playing multiplayer or downloading any software. Enabling airplane mode will turn off the wireless communication and internet features, resulting in improved battery life.
Use Headphones or no audio – If you use headphones, it will put less strain on the battery, and thus, lead to more battery life. If possible, don’t use any sound; this provides a big boost to the battery life.
Run less power-intensive games – Some games put more strain on the battery life. For example, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild needs more processing power to run. On the other hand, games like Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VIII Remastered are good for battery life.
Tweaking sleep mode – The Switch’s sleep mode makes it easy to pause the game and then resume it later from the same place. Although this feature is already battery-friendly, you can make it even more power-friendly by tweaking the default settings. To do so, first press the Home button to get to the main menu screen, and then select the settings icon.
Now go to System settings > Sleep Mode and adjust the Auto-sleep. This feature helps to set the time it takes for the console to go to sleep automatically in handheld mode. You can set it anywhere from a minute to 30 minutes or even turn it off. The trick is that the lower the amount of time you set for auto sleep, the better it is for the battery life.
You can also adjust when the AC Adapter is disconnected to boost the battery life. If you turn this “off,” you will have to press the power button to wake the console up when you take it off the charger. However, this will prevent unwanted wake-ups, and thus, save some battery life.
Turn it off when not needed – Usually when people are done playing, they don’t turn the console off, but rather, they put it to sleep. If the gap between play sessions is relatively long, it will drain the battery. Thus, if you believe you won’t need the console for a long time, then make sure to turn it off.
Apart from these tips, there are a few more settings tweaks that can help you extend the Switch’s and Switch Lite‘s battery life. For instance, you can use the Switch’s dark theme interface, turn on Console battery (%) and turn off the controller vibrations.
