Let’s face it: the Nintendo 3DS has piss poor battery life out of the box. It’s possible to get as few as three hours if you do not follow some basic steps to preserve battery. All is not lost, though, as there are things that you can do to extend the life of your trusty handheld. You could easily come close to doubling the Nintendo 3DS’s battery life by following these quick and easy steps:
Adjust the Screen Brightness: This one is a no-brainer. Screen brightness contributes more towards battery depletion than any other single function of the system. Push the Home button, tap the sun on the upper left of the touch-screen, and then adjust the screen brightness. Believe me, it helps a lot.
Turn off Wi-Fi: Since Nintendo has notoriously poor support of online gaming, it is probably a pretty wise thing to just turn off the Wi-Fi on your 3DS when you are not using it. Few games support online multi-player at the moment. Simply push up the button on the bottom right side of the system and turn off that battery-sucking Wi-Fi.
Play in 2D instead of 3D: The slider on the bottom right of the top screen allows you to adjust between different levels of 3D. Sliding it all the way down will turn 3D off completely. Unless the game utilizes the 3D in a meaningful way, turn it off. In many games it is more of a distraction anyway.
Adjust the Sound : You may not think it, but turning down the sound (or off completely) will conserve power. No one needs the sound turned up at full blast and if you find the in-game music annoying, why bother draining your battery?
Turn off the System : Instead of putting the system into sleep mode, consider turning it off instead. It may be extremely convenient to close your handheld, putting it in sleep mode, but it will still use battery even when you are not playing. Most Nintendo 3DS games have auto-save features anyway, so it is not like you will lose game data (check the game manual to be sure). It is especially advisable to turn your system off before you go to bed or do not plan to use it for an extended period of time.
