Disappointment as DualSense Edge PS5 Controller Sports Smaller Battery Lasting Six Hours

Wait what? Wasn't the official word that it's battery life was shorter due to all the additional things it does? Now it turns out its because they put a smaller battery in the thing??? 🤦

£200 for any controller is frankly absurd in my book, but I'm definitely not the target audience for this particular item, so I'm fine on that. But I'd imagine if I was the type to get this controller then I'd probably be playing games in very long and intense sessions. 6 hours before charging is pretty ridiculous. I know this is far more advanced than a Switch Pro Controller, but that can last up to 40 hours - nearly seven times the length of this for under half the price. I feel like more should've been done here

@Tharsman Well, probably a bit of both. The Edge is definitely doing more with the power it has because of all the bells and whistles. But yeah, the battery itself is also smaller.

Crazy that it's a smaller battery. However I have never had the standard dual sense last anywhere near 8 hrs (And that's with battery saving shutoff timer and low vibration intensity set on all 3 of them I have) . I get maybe six hours on those tops and best case.

So I suspect the battery life on these 200 dollar bits is going to end up being even less than 5 with games that actually use vibration and/or haptics. Seems like price should equal better battery life, however that hasn't been the case for some time, as the battery tech is aging and highly imperfect. Look at the high end laptop market as an example.

@ShogunRok Right now the only way I can see the "does more" justification work is because they wanted to keep the same size but needed the room for the back paddle hooks, so the battery had to be smaller, that's not exactly the story implied by the wording they used. I think everyone assumed it would simply need to consume more power (something I think made no sense to anyone then.)

@Tharsman Yeah, the Edge's innards definitely take up more space (as you can see in the picture). Seems as though Sony had little choice but to make the battery smaller.

you should be able to swap batteries like you can swap everything else.

I play with my PS5 sat right next to me, so as it stands I keep my dual sense wired into the power 100% of the time.

It's enough of a deal breaker for me, I'm a casual gamer who can't really justify the £200, but I'm ok financially so could easily buy one. But why would I if the battery is likely going to be about 60% of the original controller.
Sony dropped the ball here, too expensive and worse battery life? I'll pass I'm afraid.

@ShogunRok They could have made the back a bit thicker, put a thicker battery there, even if it ended up having a bit of a hump.

Hell a hump might had helped guide your fingers on the back towards the paddles.

Costs half as much as a PS5 digital version. Sports a smaller battery life than the default controller that ships with the console.

lmao

@Hundred_Hand_Slap
Yup, swap out the battery, provide a second one with it for free. Problem solved.

To me, this is THE deal breaker. I already get reduced play time from both my controllers. I don't want to pay more to start behind the already pitiful norm. I'd rather buy 3 standard controllers and swap between them than 1 of these lol.

What really sucks is they could have enhanced the experience by building in a swappable battery pack. They could market it as a means to swap out faulty components, such as with the sticks. But users could also choose to buy additional packs to slot in because the battery life isn't ideal.

Play it off like another nod to the ability to change and upgrade individual components.

Terrible, terrible decision Sony. For shame.

Instead of paying for exclusive levels on games they should buy up the company Duracell it would be a great investment for the future , controllers with Duracell life would be amazing

If the battery life is so low now what's it's going to be like after 6 months of use ?

Always Sony less for more cost.

Pros in the know are wired as is. The market for this rig scoff at wireless tech and already slap in their USB ports to eliminate and reduce input lag and latency as is. If I where Sony? Shave off $75 and remove the battery entirely to eliminate this discourse and force consumers to adopt or stick with there standard product.

I think the standard DuelSense 8-9 hours is good enough. 6 hours is definitely pushing it though. I wouldn't say it's a deal breaker but definitely a bit disappointing it can't at least match the standard DuelSense. I'm not getting one right away though.

talk about conflicting articles or what.

i really dont have time for six hour gameathons anymore so battery life doesnt concern me personally.
The price however...

Dualsense is the best controller I've ever used. The battery life is fine for something with that tech. Did anyone expect the Edge to have BETTER battery life? Come on people, we all have a cable. You play for a few hours and either swap pads or plug it in for half an hour. This is some serious first world moaning right here.

This controller is aimed at the pros and the pros all use wired for less latency. I personally always have my controller plugged in, I just bought a longer cable to reach me. I really want this.

How do you all have the opportunity to have 6+ hour gaming sessions lol? Just put it on the charger after use, really not that big of a deal

Not surprised about this, but also not happy. I know they expected pro players to mostly play wired, and expected pro players to mostly use trigger locks and thus not use the adaptive trigger motors making it net even. But if they're going to market it as wireless, why do this? They could have just sold it as a wired-only controller and the pro market would have been happy.

For a $200 controller they could have easily "done it all" if they just included a modular replaceable battery. If they're going to include modular replaceable sticks, why not battery?

@redd214 the one problem with that is batteries have only so many charge cycles. Using too small a battery you have to keep charging between uses wears it down much faster than a big battery you only have to charge every now and then like the XB/Nintendo controllers. So BECAUSE the battery is too small for some regular use and requires more frequent cycling, means it'll be that much faster until it's a 1-2 hour battery at which point you just use it as a wired controller anyway.

@ShogunRok @Tharsman Technically they didn't lie, they misdirected. They said that it was due to fitting all the additional features while retaining the same form factor as DS5, which does imply it was a physical space issue, which should have suggested physically less battery space.

If you look at it, the real problem is the over-engineered huge stick modules take up a ton of space inside, thus restricting battery space. That's really the ONLY reason. And it's one they could have avoided by using Hall sensors in the sticks like Sega did in 19-freaking-98 instead of over-engineering USB-mounted CPU socket mounts for modular sticks to sell replacements via the razor and blades model.

“Pro gamers will be wired anyway so that’s cool 🤪”

@NEStalgia By the time it would theoretically deteriorate that much I'm sure a revision or even the PS6 will be here. Once again mountain out of mole hill imo.

@redd214 One of the main USPs for the product is that it's $200 but swappable repair parts for the consumables to keep it running longer. "throw it out and buy a new $200 controller in a few years because our battery sucks even more than the "free" controller with the console while our competitor's version runs literally days without recharging" isn't really a good pitch.

I mean I bought it, knew this, haven't used it yet but like the hand-feel in the moments I got to check it out this morning. But that doesn't excuse a very obvious bad design decision. For a $200 pro controller, I would assume MOST of it's target market is playing 6-hour sessions, frequently charging, and therefore grinding it to dust in short order due to this poor design choice.

I think I'm going to like the controller, but the battery decision is a very clear and very large weak link. They were banking on "pros always play wired anyway" but MS already gave them years head start on how to do the battery right on a pro wireless controller.

This controller is definitely a neat upgrade for PS, but the battery choice still means Edge < Elite 2.

@Tanto_Mane @Valgore Technically that's an old myth that persists. The modern wireless protocols have a measurable latency that's imperceptible vs wired. Even Scuf started adding wireless again. The real reason for "pro" use that wired still remains dominant is because at live competition events with so many radio signals and controllers active, including phones present, there's too much interference making wireless potentially unreliable and/or interference could be intentionally used to mess with competitors. So for live, in person competitions wireless just doesn't work for practical reasons, but it's not really a latency issue anymore.

But, that also means it's a poor excuse for a full featured pro controller to have a poor battery. The wired play is really for the live events, and the lock is a great addition for that, but it's not necessary for every day use and pro practice time at home, just comps where it's mandatory.

The normal PS5 controller lasts about 6 hours too.

Time to buy 2 then which isn't a problem for me

@NEStalgia the stick placement means Edge > Elite

I kid, I kid. Hope you enjoy it as well!

@redd214 LOL oohhh, fightin' words!

I didn't notice the "proper" stick placement because of the 40 degree angle I held it at due to the cable and brick-shaped lock hanging out the back to deliver 1.21 jigawatts of required power, so it seemed like it was in the same place

I'm looking forward to giving it a real try tonight though! My Yakuza binge has to go back to a Horizon binge, I've been saving it for this. Not a good battery test though since I'm still finishing with HzD1 before going onto HFW which uses the adaptive trigger motors.

@NEStalgia HFW is the first game I plan on playing with it as well. Still the best showcase for the dualsense features thus far in my opinion. Then maybe some GT7 to get it dialed in before VR2 next month!

@Jammsbro Yeah a lot of people are whining over nothing, get two controllers, get a charging station, or a cable and leave one in while you play with the other. Why is that so hard for people these days lol

DualSense Edge V2 will have a bigger battery....... surprise surprise and people wished they would have waited and explain how much they paid for the original no doubt. CraZy decision with and smaller battery, clearly I am not there target audience as I have more common sense.

@Mikey856 Astro certainly uses it impressively as well. Like I said, just an opinion, not an award 👍🏾

That pic reminds me of Number Johnny 5.

This is the biggest gripe I’ve had with Sony hardware for years. The DS4 battery was shocking also.

Love my switch pro controller last dozens of hours! Wavebird was the same… Sony sort it out ffs!

@ShogunRok i would give Dual sense a bit of a pass if not for the fact Six Axis, Dual Shock 4 and now Dual sense and Edge all have had the worse battery life of the big 3. Remember the Game cube Wavebird, even that had 30 some hours of battery life. I know people poke fun of Microsoft for using rechargeable and not internal, but it has netted them near 35-40 hours. Switch Pro and so on and so on. Sony has 3 generation’s of bottom battery life in their controllers and seems to just not care enough to design around it. I am not here to complain about it per say, nor say it’s a deal breaker, but it is a trend at this point.

Add that to the fact all batteries get worse over time, harrrrd pass

Easy to fix. Buy 2. I have 2 of every wireless controller. Or run it wired

@NEStalgia IDK bud, I definitely "perceive" a difference and response between both wireless vs wired. I digress. My main contention is that I opt out of wireless and am bittered at this price point for having to appease the MAJORITY of gamers whom do indeed take advantage of this functionality. Have Sony put out their price point for replaceable analog sticks? Is it an admission in the inevitably of drift? Curious as to your experience breaking in your device

@Tanto_Mane There's lots of measurements out there, regarding wireless vs wired latency. Back in the ps360 era that definitely was an issue but not this or last gen. Phone blue tooth controllers sure, but not consoles. Actually DS4 had a defect that it was actually slower wired than wireless! So indeed you may perceive a difference on a ds4, not sure if they ever fixed that via firmware or if it was a hardware flaw, but wired was actually worse at least at one point in time!

But yeah I do understand if you just want wired you don't want to pay for wireless.

Replacement sticks are $20 (us). I hadn't actually got drift on my ds5 yet but the rubber is coming off the stick. I have drift on joycon, wiiu game pad, wiiu pro, an elite v1 and tons of 360 sticks though...

@Yaycandy lol considering everyone rejecting this at $200 I'm pretty sure $400 for 2 isn't going to be a popular opinion!

@Green-Bandit The depressing thing is Xbox controllers last days on a pair of supermarket off brand alkalines and Sony can't get their premium lithium battery packs to last hours. I know they have some more functionally but.... Then use a bigger battery?

The wiiu gamepad lasted about the same, had a battery physically around the same size, and ran a 6" LCD and a Miracast receiver.... What is in ps controllers that are using that much power? And it's not the gyro because wiiu had a better gyro. And it's not the haptics/rumble because sixaxis didn't even have that. It's just weird.

Those new Sony cars will last long enough to get to the convenience store, but only half way back 😆

Lol Sony trolling with their controllers as usual.

That’s a deal breaker for me. The normal dual sense barely has battery life as is.

@NEStalgia My included DualSense began drifting at about the year anniversary of me being graced with getting a PS5 at retail. Ofcourse..."DeepRockGalactic" and some potent thumb pressure are probably to blame. My Galactic Blue DS has touchpad drift oddly enough. Can't tell you how many DualShocks I went through on the PS4 with regards to its battery. Oddly enough...that's when I started focusing on plugging in!

@Hundred_Hand_swap batteries like with dual shock 3 and dual shock 4 mobile phones tablets laptops

they preach save the planet then make in hard and expensive to repair even just a battery

@Bionic-Spencer quickest way to ruin the battery play while charging

@NEStalgia Hahaha the Sony car will ask you if you want heated seats and power windows but ding you on miles for sure. I just don’t get it, 3 gens in a row and all have been bottom of the barrel in battery performance, and i don’t mean bottom as in 30 hours compared to 24, i mean more like 30 hours compared to 8-10, or in my dual senses case 6-7, but i digress. Yet my main point about this is, somehow MS takes a ding for using rechargeable AA’s that net closer to 40 but i will be nice and say 32-35 hours. But Sony is looked at as better using an internal that is 6-12. Can’t for the life of me make sense of that. This may or may not surprise you as you and i know and demand more from our controllers than others. But i would take 4-5 hours of battery life on a PS controller if it meant making them a touch smaller and getting rid of that USELESS touch pad. It is a massive surface area for 5% usage. It is the single most useless controller design in the history of gaming up there with the VMU for Dreamcast. Ok i need to need this rant, but battery life isn’t the thing that would turn me off from edge, cause it’s been bad since PS3 for battery on sony wireless controllers, but the Trackpad and slippery stick grips that have plagued the DS4 and now Dual sense Edge is some of my complaints and i just can not see myself gaming on non off set sticks as my main console. If edge goes on Sale for the holidays i am sure i would snag one, but i can’t main that controller buddy.

@Green-Bandit the Dreamcast vmu at least had useful info on it, and the controller had a drift proof Hall sensor. The touch pad gets "swipe to break the wind" if you're LUCKY! . At least on edge they made the track pad not make your finger drag, which you'd think is basic for making a track pad.

@Tanto_Mane those launch ds4s we're horrendous. I got like 3 hours tops from them, the rubber cracked off all the sticks, and the trigger hinges all creaked and eventually one broke. They changed a lot with a quiet revision that fixed the triggers, the rubber and the batteries ran more like 6 hours, but the launch controllers were horrible! And I barely even used my PS4 for the first several years since 3ds and vita were kind of my primaries then, and all that still happened!

I wouldn't ever buy a pro controller and I'd never play competitively for up to 6 hours in a single sitting so nothing about this matters to me...

this is so bad i laughed for 6 hours

another thing , why does the battery pack look like its from the 90's

I always play with the wire plugged in, and whats more I recently
bought a wired Nacon controller. So I do not care about battery. And tbh I do not trust any Sony controllers anymore because of some general issues like drifing and few more. I would buy this for 200 if they give lets just pick a number: 10 years warranty but who knows how long they will work smooth and flawless?
(I can't afford to spend 200 just for a year ot two. If they last long then I do not mind at all.)

I wonder, how many people play games longer than 6 hours in a row? I mean, I love to play games every now and then, but I have more to do than hang behind my Playstation.

@Nepp67 Thats exactly what I do