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If there’s one thing Nintendo has always done well with its handheld devices, it’s battery life. I say this as someone who owned a Sega Game Gear, a notorious battery drain compared to my sister’s Game Boy (I swear this thing would go months without needing new AA batteries).
I remember it being a concern with the original Nintendo Switch: this was easily the most powerful handheld device to date, so battery life concerns were valid. While the “official” range for battery life between Switch devices was between 2.5 and 9 hours, a lot of Switch owners confirmed that they’d get at least 3 hours of play time in games like Breath of the Wild.
Those same concerns, naturally, popped up for the Switch 2, a more powerful system that’s running more powerful games. At launch, there were plenty of reports saying that battery life would run between 3 and 6 hours in handheld mode, and I can confirm that from personal experience.
However, some fans are finding that there may be another issue popping up with the Switch 2’s battery.
The Nintendo Switch 2’s Sleep Mode Is Reportedly Draining The Battery More Than Anticipated
On the Switch 2 subreddit, some are noticing that the battery drain that takes place while the system is in Sleep mode is “trash and shatters the whole handheld experience.”
This is not normal and I can only hope that Nintendo is looking into it and it’s fixable with a firmware update, because if it’s not they are going to come up with a V2 in 2 years, even before they release an OLED model, if ever.
The original poster is not the only one experiencing these issues. “I [was] wondering if it was just me,” said someone else. “I charge it up before bed and the next day it’s lost something like 20% of the battery life. My OLED Switch wasn’t awesome but it didn’t go dead after 4 days of sitting on standby.”
“I charged mine last week but didn’t use it after. Got it out of my draw last night to pack for my flight tomorrow and it was completely dead. Ridiculous! I almost felt like it was faulty or something, surely it shouldn’t drain like that?” mentioned another frustrated user.
It turns out, however, that there may be a reason for the battery drain, and it has to do with how the system constantly searches for updates, according to u/dvenator.
There is a setting in the options. I think its “turn off auto updates”. Not sure if it’s under network or general settings right now.
It makes all the difference. The switch is constantly checking for updates even during sleep mode and that’s why it drains so much.
That’s not to say this is a guaranteed fix, however. “I have the same issue. Auto updates are off, I leave it on airplane mode, no games running, and I have found it dead after 3 days,” chimed in a Switch 2 owner. “Or sometimes it has 50% battery, it’s like if it sometimes does something that just kills the battery even if you’re not using the console. I just had a long trip and took my OLED instead, way more reliable in terms of battery-related stuff.”
Personally, I’ve only seen the issue crop up after an extended period of time for the console to be in sleep mode. Overnight, it’s not an issue, but after four or so days, the battery is getting pretty low. We’ll see if Nintendo can put out a fix or comment, but for now, the best bet is to leave it in the dock or charging when it’s not in use, if possible.
