The 3DS Slide Pad might not be out for a few more days, but that hasn't stopped additional details from spilling out onto the internet in advance of its December 10 release. One early adopter has unboxed the expansion and revealed some bad news and some good. The bad news is that the Slide Pad's battery compartment is held shut with a screw, but the good news is that there's a good chance you won't have to unscrew it that frequently.
Andriasang is reporting that the Slider Pad will squeeze 480 hours out of one AAA battery, which is nearly 100x the life of the actual 3DS itself. Considering the fact that it's not even supported by every game, that likely means the battery will only need to be swapped out every few months. Heck, you might only need to replace it once or twice before Nintendo releases a new iteration of the 3DS, thus making the purchase only barely worth it!
We sort of wish Nintendo took this as an excuse to build an enhanced battery into the actual expansion itself. If this is going to make it bulkier already, why not slap in a thin lithium-ion battery that will give us an extra hour or two of juice? Sure, it's essentially dooming the device to be called the next Game Gear, but at least people would stop calling it the next Virtual Boy, right?
