The Nintendo 3DS is truly a marvel and step forward in gaming, it’s a great little portable gaming console but it’s battery life is just horrible. Carrying the power cord with you isn’t always an option and sometime you might not have anywhere to plug it in at. Today for review I’ve got the PowerSkin Gaming Case for Nintendo 3DS which is an external battery and case that promises to offer more than double the battery life for your 3DS. Does it work? Yes. Is it perfect? Not really.
I’m sure you’ll notice there’s no box in the following picture. The unit I got for review was before the retail packaging was ready. That happens sometimes when reviewing products, not a big deal.
I got the PowerSkin gaming case, a clear cover and a brief user manual. No power supply as it uses the one that comes with the 3DS for charging the internal battery. The clear cover is just a plastic cover, not much to be said really.
I should note that I’m not sure about the clear cover. I got one with it for review, but in the specs below and on the PowerSkin website where it lists what comes with it, the clear cover is not listed. So I’m not sure if it comes in the retail package or not, but we’ll just assume it does for this review.
The bottom section is where the battery is and this just clips right onto the bottom of the 3DS. it has a small connector coming out of it that aligns with the power connection on the 3DS, this is for charging of course. The entire case is plastic and feels as though it’s covered with a silicone, non-slip coating.
The bottom of the case has what looks like a squid and you can again see the small power cable and connector.
On the right side of the case is the actual power connector to charge the internal battery, it’s just like the one on the 3DS.
On the bottom front edge is a button and four LEDs that light up blue.
The LEDs light up to indicate power levels in 25% increments. Push the button and it can show you status, this button is also to turn the PowerSKin battery on and off.
Specifications:
Then here’s the bottom, yes the power cord isn’t connected. The case has an indent in it so you can easily access the card slot and the stylus.
The back also has cutouts for the infrared port and of course the power jack, here it is plugged into my 3DS.
The front has holes for the audio jack and the microphones.
The right and left sides have cutouts as well for the switches and ports.
When plugged in the power connector does stick out quite a bit sadly.
Here’s the inside view of the top and bottom with the case and cover on:
So the big question is does it work? I can answer that with a very enthusiastic YES! It does work and it works very well, it easily doubled the battery life or run time of my 3DS.
One of the great things about the PowerSkin is that it doesn’t just charge the battery, it’s like having it plugged in as it provides power and you can still use your 3DS even though the battery in the 3DS is dead. it acts just like a power cable, charging and letting you still use your 3DS.
The case can just pops on and off if you don’t want to take it with you and it really doesn’t add much bulk or thickness at all. It does make the 3DS heavier though.
The battery connector sticks out quite a bit, so much so that I couldn’t use my official Nintendo 3DS Pull N Go case to carry my 3DS with me. I like having my gadgets in cases for protection, especially with my kids handling them often, and not being able to use the case isn’t something I like at all. Even when the connector isn’t plugged into the 3DS I still couldn’t get it in the case. If the cord was longer I might have been able to manage it, but a long cord wouldn’t be so good I think really.
The Nintendo 3DS is selling for $150 now and the PowerSkin Gaming Case is selling for $79.99, which is basically more than half the price of the 3DS. Is it worth it? Yes, it is if you’re a hardcore gamer as the battery life on the 3DS is abysmal
really. If you’re just a casual gamer then I can’t say this is exactly worth it, especially for the price. I guess it all depends on your own needs as to whether it’s worth it to you.
The clear cover had a sticker on it that was very hard to get off. I had to be careful as it’s clear and I didn’t want it scratched up. I used my fingernail and then I had to get our the Goo Gone to finish the job and it just wasn’t coming off easily.
I also found that the clear cover just slides off fairly easy, it doesn’t really secure in place, it just slides right on and can easily slide off.
Conclusion:
The PowerSkin Gaming Case for Nintendo 3DS works and works very well, it will easily double your play time. The case itself seems well made and will offer protection for your 3DS when in use.
Yes it works, but it’s not quite the perfect product. It does have some issues like not being able to use a case anymore and its price, it’s more than half the cost of the 3DS.
So all in all it’s not a bad product, it does exactly what it’s supposed to, but you’ll have to give some serious thought as to whether you need something like this I think.
Pros:
+Works well, pretty much doubles battery life of 3DS
+Protects the 3DS
+Case doesn’t interfere with ports
Cons:
-Sticker on clear cover was very hard to get off
-Top cover slides off easily
-Might be considered expensive
-Battery connection gets in the way of cases
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