The battery lives of controllers continue to get progressively shorter and shorter, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to be remedied anytime soon. Sony is launching a new, premium controller for the PS5 on January 26 with the “ultra-customizable” DualSense Edge, and though it’s going to be an upgrade over the base controller in several areas, battery life isn’t going to be one of them.
In a statement to The Verge, Sony confirmed that due the DualSense Edge having “many more features within the same form factor and ergonomic design as the original DualSense controller”, it will have a “moderately shorter” battery life than the latter.
“The DualSense Edge wireless controller’s operating time is moderately shorter than the original DualSense wireless controller because we’ve included many more features within the same form factor and ergonomic design as the original DualSense controller,” the company said. “We wanted to strike a good balance between wireless operating time and delivering robust, high-performance features. Additionally, the longer USB braided cable is also great for competitive players who prefer playing with a wired connection to avoid wireless interference – this option preserves battery life.”
Of course, “moderately shorter” is a pretty vague term, so questions will still be asked about what one can expect from the DualSense Edge’s battery exactly. The base DualSense’s battery life isn’t exactly the best, lasting on average about 7-8 eight hours per charge (though it can occasionally last up to 12 hours), so expect a pretty short battery life for the Edge.
Given the fact that the controller will be priced at $199.99, that might not be to everyone’s liking.
