Posted By: Shrygue
via Kotaku
GamePro tested all the latest wireless controllers to discover which had the best battery life, the Xbox 360 pad, the Wiimote or the SIXAXIS. After playing a variety of titles, they found that the Xbox 360 controller's battery life of 56 hours and 56 minutes bested the 36 hours and 43 minutes of the Wiimote and the 18 hours and 41 minutes of the SIXAXIS.
If the numbers appear tough to swallow, that's only because they are. Not to insult GamePro's testing methods, but our readers should know that one attempt at a control skewed these results in a major way.
In order to offer each console a fighting chance, testers installed nickel cadmium Duracell batteries...minus the SIXAXIS, which has Lithium Ion built right in.
The problem here is that NiCd batteries will get far superior runtime over their Li-on counterparts because NiCd has a higher energy to weight ratio. From Wikipedia:
Where energy density is important, Ni-Cds [sic] batteries are at a distinct disadvantage over Ni-MH and Li-ion batteries.
So Sony's controller never had a chance. But the numbers are still pretty interesting if you siphon away the contest aspect.