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Is there anything more annoying than your PS4 battery running out in the middle of a game?
With an average battery life of around 3-4 hours, this is a scenario which occurs all too often for PS4 players. While the Xbox One controller features user replaceable AA batteries, the Dualshock 4 battery is a usually inaccessible Li-Ion.
A pair of rechargeable AA batteries can provide up to around 5000mAh of charge capacity, compared to just 1000mAh for the DualShock battery. While 5000mAh is impossible in the standard controller shell, there is a battery available that fits snugly inside the shell, and provides double the capacity of the original battery.
The Battery
The PKCELL LP803860 is a fairly flat rectangular battery, that is thin enough to fit inside the controller. It comes fitted with a JST-PH connector, the same connector used in the original batch of DualShock 4 controllers.
In the UK, you can pick up one of these batteries here.
As mentioned in my article on the new Dualshock 4 design, newer controllers use a JST-ZH battery connector.
Dualshock 4 v2 Teardown
Check out or article taking a look inside the latest version of the Dualshock 4 controller.
It’s still possible to perform the upgrade, but will require a connector change. Probably the easiest method is to desolder the wires from the battery board, and purchase pre-wired connectors to replace it.
In addition, the connector polarity used in the Dualshock 4 is reversed when compared to the standard setup. You will need to lift the tabs on the connector, remove the two wires, and slot them back in the other way around to them. If in doubt, check the orientation of the two wires compared to the original battery.
The original battery tray can be retained. To keep the battery in place during reassembly, it is useful to add tape or a sticky pad to stick it to the battery tray.
With the new battery, you can expect to get up to double the play time of the original, possibly more if the original battery had begun to degrade.
The Drawbacks
The most obvious drawback is the extra charging time required to fully charge this battery. This is to be expected, given the greater capacity.
The biggest downside to this upgrade is the difference in the discharge profile of the battery compared to the original. The battery monitoring in the PS4 OS is designed with the original battery in mind, and will give a slightly inaccurate picture of the current charge level of the battery. In my experience, the low battery warning shows up just before the battery runs out of charge, which is something to keep in mind.
