It’s no secret that the 3DS has serious battery life issues, and no surprise that third-party manufacturers have tried to solve it in various ways. The Hyperkin Power Plus is one of the more interesting, as it takes the form of a battery that clips on to your existing 3DS (thus no tools are needed to install or use it). Its most prominent part hooks into the charging port on the upper right corner of your system, replacing the normal port with a mini USB one (a cable is provided for this). From there, a switch turns the Hyperkin battery on or off and it essentially works in tandem with the 3DS’ normal battery.
Installing the Power Plus is pretty easy, you just have to line up its openings with the relevant parts of the 3DS and slide it in place. You’ll need to spend a few seconds wriggling it into proper fit, but it’s extremely easy to do and won’t cause any real issues. From there, a button on the back lets you check its charge level while a switch near the charging port turns the battery on or off. When it’s off, it’s pretty much exactly like using your normal 3DS; the only difference is the system is now slightly thicker thanks to having the power pack wrapped around it. It’s very light, and the extra width is very small aside from the charging port area; you otherwise will hardly even notice it’s there.
Once switched on, the device shows its clever approach to making a 3DS ’battery’ that doesn’t require any tools or modification to your system. As far as the 3DS is concerned, an activated Power Plus is a charger! Admittedly a charger with a finite amount of energy to provide the 3DS’ stock battery, but the 3DS believes it is attached to one all the same. This leads to a usage cycle where you play on the normal battery until you get a power warning, then switch the Power Plus on and continue play. This is brilliant on paper and works decently in practice more often than not, though a few quirks came up in my time with the battery.
This battery/quasi-charger has three significant issues. From a play perspective, the expanded charging port is slightly in the way of the R button; it’s nothing serious, but it does throw off the ’feel’ of the system around there and you’ll have to get used to this. Second, that same corner of the battery tends to get warm or hot when in use. Though being thin is normally an advantage in electronics, in this case the device is so thin that your right hand will feel the heat around this part of the Power Plus. Sometimes it’s mild enough that you won’t mind it at all, but this can get serious enough to make putting the 3DS down and just letting it recharge a better idea. Finally, I’ve had inconsistent results with getting it to hold a charge. When it works right, it adds a few extra hours of play time... but I have also had cases where it spent several hours charging and then only provided perhaps fifteen minutes of power to the 3DS.
Nonetheless, the Hyperkin Power Plus worked more often than it didn’t and it offers some unique perks over its competitors. Being so small and installing by just clipping on is a significant advantage over other products that require you to remove the rear panel and install a whole new battery. Being able to accept mini USB cables is also very nice, letting you use this device with a variety of sources to recharge it. While I personally prefer the installed battery method, I can’t deny that Hyperkin is offering something that may be interesting and useful enough to overcome its drawbacks. Anyone looking for an extremely easy way to extend the play-time of their 3DS might want to look into this, and see if what it offers is right for your needs.
