We now know why the DualSense Edge’s battery life is so poor

If you’re wondering why your DualSense Edge battery isn’t lasting as long as you’d like, it turns out there’s a very clear reason for it.

A teardown of the DualSense Edge controller done by verified Twitter user Budd’s Controllers shows that the battery in Sony’s premium pad is significantly smaller than that of the standard DualSense.

But it’s not just the size that’s smaller here, as the battery capacity of the premium PS5 controller is also significantly less than that of the regular DualSense. The Edge has a battery capacity of only 1,050 mAh. That’s a significant downgrade compared to the 2020 DualSense’s 1,560mAh, Dexerto (opens in new tab) reports).

This evidence is consistent with Sony’s official wording, which says that the battery life of the DualSense Edge was “moderately shorter” than that of the base model. Additionally, during my own testing of the DualSense Edge for our review, I noticed that the controller’s battery life was running low after about seven hours of play.

Depending on what you play and how heavily the games use the DualSense’s features, such as the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, battery life will vary. However, it seems you can’t get much more than six to seven hours out of the Edge before needing to charge it again. The built-in DualSense certainly fares better, clocking in at an average of eight to ten hours before running out of juice.

Why is the DualSense Edge’s battery so bad?

The DualSense Edge is a small improvement over the basic pad in all areas except one: battery life. And we now know why that is. But what would lead Sony to deliberately lower battery life, if you thought it would want the Edge firing on all cylinders given its hefty price tag?

My direct guesses are space and cost efficient. You can see from the image above how cramped the inside of the DualSense Edge must be to hold all the components of the original DualSense, plus the addition of two function buttons, trigger locks, and four ports for rear paddles. It could be that Sony’s engineers decided the extra functionality was worth the loss of battery life.

In terms of cost savings, the DualSense Edge comes at a premium price, $199.99 / £209.99 / AU$339.95 to be exact. And that’s with the smaller battery. A DualSense battery pack or larger might have required an even bigger price tag, making it even less palatable. Especially compared to the standard DualSense.

Manufacturing a smaller and cheaper battery is certainly one way to reduce development costs. But whatever the reason, the Edge’s poor battery life doesn’t exactly match its ‘Pro’ controller status. Especially when competing pads like the Xbox Elite Controller Series 2 and the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller easily clock up dozens of hours of battery life by comparison.