Are you happy with the DualSense battery life?

[Doskoi Panda]

Playstation, awful battery life, and fans ready to explain to you how you are the problem. name a more iconic trio.

I love the Dualsense but it's got the worst battery life of any controller in my house that isn't a Dualshock 4, lol. Still, at least its a big improvement up from that. For now at least.

 

[TheChrisGlass]

Lord no.
I charged it up and went through a full charge in an entire sitting with No Man's Sky last night. Whatever finnicky bullshit Sony does, ALL OF THEIR CONTROLLERS HAVE ALWAYS SUCKED WITH BATTERIES.

No one else. And it's beginning to piss me off.

 

[gifyku]

This is why I got the charger dock. The battery life is atrocious. Series X controller runs on AA batteries which people hate but definitely would have gotten you back in the game faster

 

[gblues]

I kinda hate how Dualsense charging/USBs are setup. Since I also have their old Gold(Blue and black) PS4 headphones. So I need a USB slot for the dongle for the headphones. If I plug the dongle in the back of the PS5 like I had on PS4, the dongle overheats in game or doesn't get enough power or too much interference, so its constantly dropping the audio feed. Even if I get a USB extension/hub from the back USB slot, same thing iirc. So I plug the dongle in the front USB, problem solved.

Except! to now charge my Dualsense I need to plug the Dualsense USB cable into the back of the PS5, but that USB only charges or is active when the PS5 is awake, dont think it charges at all when resting. So my Dualsense is constantly out of battery. So now my Dualsense is always plugged in, and always at 1 bar, since the power isn't enough to actually charge it when the DS is being used, its constantly charging when playing, doesn't go positive or gain any positive battery charge.

There is probably some fix for this somewhere, but all the different setups and tests, and settings I have changed when I first got the PS5 haven't fixed this issue, its pretty annoying. Especially since the DS battery seems to be pretty poor. You'd think they would give a better charging options for the PS5. Maybe I just need to get a different USB C cable for the DS that has a USB C on both ends so I can plug that into the USB C slot in front, but don't really want long USB cables hanging off the very front, people will trip over it when not in use.



yes, this! Makes the point of rest mode kinda moot.

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Off-topic: you can probably get a USB hub to break out the front port to multiple ports in order to solve this dilemma.

On-topic: No, I absolutely am not.

My wife and kids play the PS5 during the day, so frequently by the time I'm off work the battery is dead or close to it. So I end up gravitating towards the gaming PC, for which I have the X1X controllers which have battery life measured in days instead of hours.

The sixaxis was the last Sony controller with battery life on par with other vendors. Both the DS4 and DualSense batteries are literally underpowered for the job they need to do, and at its core it comes down to Sony being cheap--there's certainly plenty of space for a larger battery inside the controllers (I know, I've looked!).

 

[Yuuber]

Absolutely fine when playing BC titles, pretty terrible when playing native titles that make extensive use of the haptics and especially the triggers.

Avengers can go through a full charge very fast, for instance, like 4 hours. It's not good.

All in all, I still prefer this to Xbox's approach to standard batteries. Apart from TV remotes, I have no other device that uses batteries, it's a bit baffling in 2021. I tell people it's using batteries and they don't believe it.

 

[Resident Guru]

The battery life is absolute trash. Worse than the DS4! Glad I have 3 controllers and a dock so I don't really have to worry about it too much.

 

[TheChrisGlass]

Also, the 8Bit Pro 2 controller I got? Comes with a rechargeable battery, but it accepts AAs, too! Imagine that!

 

[Deleted member 10044]

Playing one to two hours a day it takes me around 5 days or so before I see the popup telling me the battery runs low. At that point I could go on I guess, but I finish the session and charge it overnight.

Perfectly fine. Never annoyed me the slightest. DS was worse.

 

[Omnistalgic]

Damn am I an outlier? I could get at least a solid 5-7 hours of straight playing before I need to recharge.

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yeah, I'm not in general agreement with the 'it's terrible camp" but when you use something like Switch Pro which seems to hardly ever need a charge, DualSense can be quite annoying. But it's the best feeling controller I've ever used so the relatively short battery life doesn't bother me as much. I also leave 2 controller plugged in the PS5 and just rotate when any of them dies.

 

[Oghuz]

Meh.

I feel like it is only a bit better than the DS4. Which I don't understand because the DualSense doesn't have the giant light on the back. And no, even without the haptics the battery of the Dualsense still drains too quickly for my taste. I hope future versions will have bigger batteries or something.

 

[ExhaustedWalrus]

No but when you consider the technology in it, what can you do?

 

[MrFox]

As long as it does at least 8h for an entire evening I guess I can't complain. I never run out of battery but I always leave it on the dock on the coffee table. I've seen objective tests where it was 10h to 12h with normal games that don't over use the haptics. That's mostly my experience and I sometimes switch to "weak/weak" haptics settings when a game is abusing it all the time. I never really turn off haptics or adaptative triggers.

There's quite a few things that consume more power on the DS5 than on the series X controller (for those who care about these technicalities):
Adaptative trigger motors
Massive linear motors instead of a simple rotating mass
Power amplifiers that can drive the motors with audio channels
The little speaker amplifier
Gyro and Accel chipset
A bigger processor managing a lot more I/O and analog channels
Very fast refresh rate of 800Hz over bluetooth
LED power (most people turn it down to "Dim" though)

 

[Volkama]

It's not really good, but for me it's not a problem. First of all, I have an outlet near the place where I sit. Secondly, I can just use my power bank. I still prefer an internal battery than AA, sorry.

 

[JusDoIt]

I never play games more than four hours in a sitting. I barely play games more than two hours in a sitting. Even when I'm on a long Returnal run, I'm usually playing in two hour chunks.

So yeah, the DualSense is just fine. Better than the DS4. And when I'm done I put the pad on the charging cradle so it's always ready to go.

I actually got two pads on the cradle, so in theory I could always be charging one while playing the other and just rotate and play all day, but like I said I never WANT to play games that long. So I never even exhaust the battery life of one.

 

[starfoxxxy]

ever since i got teh charging dock i dont even notice it anymore. I've yet to even switch controllers since buying it

 

[BabyShams]

It's notably less than xbox or switch controllers, but a lot better than PS4 controller. I bought a second one so I can swap between them.

 

[Shatty McKracken]

Appreciate all the responses.

I got the answer I was looking for but should have created a poll.

I mostly wanted to make sure it wasn't me or that i had possibly damaged the batteries by letting them sit idle and not using them for a few months.

 

[Dezzy]

It's never died on me, but I leave it on the charger whenever it's not in use.
However I've had the PS5 UI show just 1 bar after only a few hours. I think it's sven worse than the DS4, unless it's really inaccurate and that final bar lasts another 4 hours.

 

[Cow]

They.......are....not....the......same....type....of......controllers. how hard is it to understand that?

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Why are you so invested in this? lol. Stop shilling for a controller.

 

[Papercuts]

If feels just as bad as the DS4 for me. I'm pretty much expecting to always need to be tethered to the console when I use it.

 

[Hasney]

No but when you consider the technology in it, what can you do?

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It's not the tech. I've got it mostly turned off and it still sucks.

 

[thelooseteeth]

I just got my ps5 and play pretty long sessions (4 hours or so) and have yet to run put of battery life, so I'm pretty satisfied.

 

[Majik13]

Off-topic: you can probably get a USB hub to break out the front port to multiple ports in order to solve this dilemma.

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thanks not a terrible idea. But not a huge fan of a longer cable coming off the front, but I have been surviving just having the DS plugged in all the time. Maybe I will try it.

 

[SeriousCrayon]

completely unacceptable but what can we do...I hate how often they need to be charged...would have preferred the same solution as microsoft where I can swap batteries..I have a feeling I'm going to need to buy new controllers within a year because they won't hold a charge anymore they die so quick.

 

[Super Mega Man]

Is it at least better than the Dualshock 4? Because those were very dissapoinitng in battery life for me. Tell me the Dualsense at least lasts more than a DS4!

 

[kolsonk]

I have never had any issues with battery life, so the replies in this thread were pretty surprising to me as I've never ran out of battery while playing. I have the charging station so I just pop it on whenever I'm done, so I guess that definitely helps in that I know its always fully charged. Do you all not charge your controller when not playing?

 

[Doskoi Panda]

They.......are....not....the......same....type....of......controllers. how hard is it to understand that?

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Im not sure I understand...do you believe that DualSense belongs to a new class of input device all its own thanks to its haptics, and thus can't be compared to any other controller? That line of argument isn't gonna hold up to scrutiny

 

[Ada]

It sucks, lost 2 thirds playing a PS4(no trigger vibration) game in one session.

 

[Deleted member 46804]

They need dragged through the mud for this shit. Im getting 30+ hours on my Elite V2 and I'm lucky if I get 4 on my DualSense. Sony really must cheap out on their batteries as my DS4 was the same shit.

 

[fourfourfun]

Coming from Switch, the XSX battery life shocked me. Can't think what this would be like to live with!

 

[Deleted member 46804]

Do you all not charge your controller when not playing?

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You shouldn't have to do this and I don't want a cable constantly attached to my console. On top of that you are probably shorting the already crappy battery life by constantly charging even when you don't need to.

 

[Duane]

Yeah, it sucks. I just have a long USB-C cord plugged into the wall nearby and plug it in after a while. I finally just got a second controller the other day.

 

[iswasdoes]

Been maining deathloop with headphones and it's a pretty short lifespan. but the controller is working hard with the haptics and adaptive triggers.

Controller batteries that can be swappable/rechargeable and use aa's in a pinch would be ideal, but both consoles have a poor implementation of this I feel

 

[MZZ]

Funny story, I have the red and black one and was playing tales of arise the other weekend. That was the first weekend with the new update for the controllers.

Battery was draining in about 2 hours. I thought it was weird that they felt warm when playing. I thought its just the body heat from me holding it but its unusual that you notice how warm it is. Realized something must have fucked up in the new update. Weirdly enough my OG controller didnt have that problem.

Had no issues this weekend though. Still playing the same game and was able to squeeze about probably 12 hours for each controller.

If you play with games that would use haptics and stick a headset on there. The battery life is less than ideal. I dont mind it though. Gives me a chance to rotate the controller I use. So not ideal but not really a problem for me.

I am amazed how long the pro controller lasts though. Probably lasts several months for me cause I dont have any games to play on there lol. I am kidding but its actually kinda amazing.

My xbox battery pack doesnt have the lifespan it had when I first bought it 4 years ago but its not too bothersome to grab a wire when it does go low on power. The wire I have for it is pretty long too.

 

[Ewaan]

I must have bought some pretty special DuelSense controllers. I get to play for maybe 3-5 hours each night in weeknights and I can use the same controller for 2-3 of those days.

It's worth noting that when the DuelSense says the battery is low and that you should recharge it, it's only half way through its play time. I'd recommend to everyone that you let them run until they die.

I have haptics and trigger effects set to the standard as well.

 

[Afrikan]

Im not sure I understand...do you believe that DualSense belongs to a new class of input device all its own thanks to its haptics, and thus can't be compared to any other controller? That line of argument isn't gonna hold up to scrutiny

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DS has internal battery, has advanced haptics, a speaker, and a microphone, advanced adaptive triggers...and has a touchpad.

Now I mention touchpad, because again it's different than the others.... they put alot of features in it. It costs a certain price. All those features (besides touchpad) are there to go with the sound, to add a immersion. That's what they chose to go with.

To simply say add a bigger battery to solve their perceived problem, isn't gonna happen... especially having it match another controller that uses double AA batteries..that lasts for 30hrs. It won't reach those hrs and it would cost more.

Now you say scrutiny, but is all of it in good faith? Especially if those who scrutinize don't take a realistic view of the situation, and offer a solution?

I tried to offer some solutions, besides just you know.. charging it after play sessions... be it turning off features that they feel are not worth it, to prolong battery life.....to also adding a 3rd party battery clip on (>$20).

But for that, I got called a shill.

 

[Transistor]

They.......are....not....the......same....type....of......controllers. how hard is it to understand that?

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Why are you so invested in this? lol. Stop shilling for a controller.

Click to shrink...

C'mon, knock it out. This isn't that serious

 

[Apath]

.

 

[Gjallarsean]

I've been reminded over the last few weeks how poor the battery life is on the DualSense. It hasn't been a huge deal, as I got in the habit of plugging it in after most play sessions, but I've had a few Deathloop play sessions since release prematurely end because I forgot to plug it in once, and it cannot handle more than 2 3-hour sessions before getting low.

So definitely annoying, but not the end of the world or anything. I've admittedly been spoiled by by Elite Series 2, as I consistently get between 30-40 hours on a charge. But that's also over double the price of a DualSense.

 

[canderous]

It's really bad. Bought a 10 ft USB-C to deal with it.

The Elite 2 is the gold standard for battery life, it's a legit 40 hours. Next to that probably regular xbox controller with eneloop pros.

 

[toadfrawg]

I don't really have an issue with the battery life. It'd be great if it lasted longer but just go buy one of those 10ft USB C cables off Amazon and you can charge comfortably while still sitting in your chair. Buy a charging dock to charge in-between sessions. Dualsense seems to charge pretty quickly so that helps too.

 

[danhz]

Charging station is a godsend, I finish playing and leave the controller in the thing, while yes, its pretty bad, I am comfortable having a small battery but having the dualsense features.
Also, mine does not last 3-4h, it last like 8?

 

[Host Samurai]

I must be going crazy, because I could have sworn the battery life was much better a few months ago. Over the past few weeks I've been noticing it dying much faster. Not sure if I'm going crazy, the firmware updates killing the battery, or if it was always like this.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

I find the battery to be fine. I normally get 3-4 days out of the battery but I don't do long gaming sessions these days, normally just an hour or two, so it lasts plenty for me between charges.

 

[StrappingYoungLance]

It's fine, I charge it between play sessions and never run out.

 

[lone_stranger]

My bigger issue is that my PS5 refuses to charge the DualSense. From any USB port. I have to literally plug it in to a different device when I'm not playing it to charge it.

I can plug it in to the PS5 while playing to keep it alive but it won't add any charge to it.

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Same thing happened to me, and I couldn't tell if my setup was just weird or something. I bought the official charging dock to fix that problem. The dock is great, but it feels like a mandatory purchase since I can't charge the controller otherwise while the console is off.

Battery life on a full charge is reasonable, but I'd recommend the dock to make sure you get that full charge consistently. Without the full charge, I'd be somewhat disappointed in the battery life.

 

[Edward850]

The battery life ain't great on either the DS4 or the DualSense, they seem about the same and having to charge them often causes a lot of clutter on my desk. I miss having the option (yes, option, you don't need to use AA's in an Xbox controller and I don't know why this misinformation keeps cropping up) of using Eneloops that the Xbox controllers give me, given I can just slam in new batteries like its an action reload without having to have cables all over the place. And at least with the Eneloops they can sit in the controllers for weeks without me having to worry about them. The Nintendo Switch pro controller is much the same, so much so that I keep forgetting to charge it sometimes entirely, that thing has some crazy life on it for a li-po battery.

Additionally the PS4 & 5 turn off their USB ports when you power off the console, so you can't even charge the controllers when you aren't using them. I guess I can understand why in terms of a power efficiency standpoint, but when it's the most direct way to charge to controllers it does kind of stick out.

Note that the battery life isn't so bad it's unusable or anything, I can get a few days use out of it and I wouldn't mark it as a negative of the console, but the limitations do stand out when asked to compare.

what? doesn't the xbox controller require AA batteries?

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No. Never has. The battery compartment can house two different kinds, three if you count 3rd parties, either AA's or li-po battery packs that charge through the controller. This has been a very useful design since the Xbox360 as you can still get aftermarket battery packs now when the lithium batteries die (and they will die), or just use some rechargeable AA's in a pinch, the options are yours. No muss no fuss.

 

[lazerface]

No. Never has. The battery compartment can house two different kinds, three if you count 3rd parties, either AA's or li-po battery packs that charge through the controller. This has been a very useful design since the Xbox360 as you can still get aftermarket battery packs now when the lithium batteries die (and they will die), or just use some rechargeable AA's in a pinch, the options are yours. No muss no fuss.

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i know this, i use enelopes in my xbox controllers. the point i was making is that you still need additional accessories for xbox controllers, which the person i was quoting was claiming no other controllers require.

 

[Hoggle]

Not at all. My Xbox Elite controller can last a week without charging. My PS5 needs charging after about 6 hours of gameplay.

Edward850

In the console settings you can change the USB power options so they stay on permanently, for 3 hours, or are off when the console is.

 

[Devilgunman]

I've plated 2-3 hrs a night. Never seen low battery warning even once. It works fine for me.