I’ve been testing out the Nintendo Switch with my family ahead of its launch today.

First impressions have been positive.

Beyond the hardware I wanted to see how the system’s battery life compared to other gaming and handheld devices.

To do this I charged up every handheld I could lay my hands on and set them going in front of the camera for a Switch battery test .

Each was set to the home screen and with maximum brightness and power saving features turned off.

Wifi and Bluetooth was enabled where it was available.

Nintendo Switch battery test

As you can see it was quite a trip down memory lane to our big collection of Nintendo handhelds, all the way back to the original 90’s Game Boy I saved up for as a boy.

The results weren't what I expected though. I had thought that the Switch with its big bright screen and high powered visuals may suffer in comparison to the more expensive iPads and more diminutive 3DS’s and Vita.

However. it roundly beat out most challenges and lasted longer that iPads, Vita and most of the 3DS collection. Here are the full results:

DSi - 2.41hrs

3DS - 3.25hrs

iPod Touch 2 - 3.39hrs

2DS - 3.55hrs

GBA SP - 3.59hrs

iPad 2 - 4.00hrs

iPad Air - 4.04hrs

New 3DS - 4.04hrs

iPod Touch 3 - 4.13hrs

DS Lite - 4.51hrs

PSP - 4.56hrs

GBA Micro - 4.57hrs

Vita - 5.01hrs

Nintendo Switch - 5.12hrs

iPad Mini 2 - 5.39hrs

DS - 6.51hrs

New 3DS XL Mugen Battery - 15.02hrs

GBA - 29.32hrs

Gameboy - 31.12hrs

Gameboy Colour - 35.45hrs

One tip for families that need to ensure more battery life is to order the premium grip holster along with the console as this will enable you to charge the controllers while you are playing.

Another tip is that you can take a spare battery pack around with you to charge up the Switch if the battery gets low.

On the basis of this performance though, I don’t think we’ll need to worry about that.