Obviously the life depends on what type of AA you have. Haven't done precise measurements, but I would estimate at least 6h on a couple of 2700 mAh. It's definitely less than a DS, but I don't feel it's a battery eater like the Game Gear used to be. Haven't used a PSP so can't compare with that.

The first evening I ran it with normal alkaline AAs and they were drained at about half after about 2 hrs of gameplay. The first charge of my 2700 mAh lasted about two evenings and a little of the third. So I'd say 6h at least. Another thing to bear in mind is that I'm running my emus at 250 Mhz, so I would expect "normal" operation at 200 Mhz to last a little bit longer. You can also run it as an MP3 player and turn off the screen, which would obviously make it last longer. Not like my PDA which dies after 3h of MP3 playing (big let down on that one).

The machine has a low battery warning on it... a little LED that turns on when you need to change batteries. The thing to bear in mind is that it's not like on the DS... whenever you see that red light you have about 30-60 seconds to replace the batteries. Should be enough time to save your state in an emu, but stop playing immediately. Otherwise the screen goes all funky (seems like a snow crash) and you have no choice but to turn off.

Based on the above I'm fairly comfortable bringing the console with a couple of freshly charged AAs for my daily commute. Though I would bring a spare set just in case. Some people don't like the choice of AAs as batteries, but it is convenient. If you don't have a charger you can throw in normal batteries from a store.

You can also get an AC adpator for home use. It has to be GP2x specific because the power plug is very tiny... I have an old trusty multiplug AC adaptor which I was hoping to use, but it won't do the trick. The store I bought the console from didn't have it in sotck, but I would have bought one if they had it.
One thing of note though is that, contrary to the DS, you can't recharge the batteries inside the unit. It's a bit annoying (used to leave the DS charging overnight) but nothing I can't live with.



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