PlayStation's new £210 PS5 controller has a worse battery life than the original

Earlier this year, Sony announced the new DualSense Edge controller. Retailing at £210, it’s certainly not a cheap purchase so you’d expect it to be a heck of a lot better than the regular DualSense. Shockingly, that’s not the case in one major area. The DualSense Edge has a worse battery life than the original.

The DualSense Edge is Sony’s first ‘pro’ controller and like most pro controllers, it features plenty of customisable components. Button inputs can be remapped, stick sensitivity can be adjusted to fine-tune aiming, dead zones can be introduced, plus travel distance can also be adjusted for triggers. Multiple profiles can be set up, and stick caps are easily changeable. One thing you’re not going to get though is an improved battery life.

In a hands-on preview, The Verge pointed out that the DualSense Edge’s battery life was significantly worse than that of the regular DualSense. The publication reached out to Sony who confirmed this fact. They wrote, “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.”

“We wanted to strike a good balance between wireless operating time and delivering robust, high-performance features,” they added. “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.” It’s somewhat awkward that Sony omitted this fact from their reveal of the controller.

There’s no set figure regarding how long the battery actually lasts. After conflabbing with the GAMINGbible crew, we’d estimate that the regular DualSense battery lasts between five and nine hours, depending on how old/used your controller is. It can then be assumed that the DualSense Edge’s battery life is less than this. It’s certainly not what you’d expect for a £210 bit of kit.