[Jeremy8000]

Just wanted to post my experience with the controller's battery life, hoping others might be able to share if theirs is similar, or notably better or worse.

It would be tough to give any real gauge on intermittent use, but I "drain tested" it from full until the phone warned that the battery on the controller was low on a continuous session of Hunter's Gate, which basically has perpetual communication between the phone and controller for movement, as well as occasional clicks, and found it was good for about 2 - 2½ hours.

Not bad by any stretch, though it would have been nice if it could last the 3½ - 4 hours towards which the phone's battery was trending (assuming my brain wouldn't have finished melting by that time). In any case, it looks more than fine for more 'normal' use.

[keilflex]

Seems about what I'm getting. Not very long. And I just charged it overnight and the led was still on in the morning. So i guess it doesn't tell you when it's full either.

[pkcable]

Yea I'm starting to be come a LITTLE concerned with controller battery life. As you said it's not horrendous, but it's far from good. I own an iMac which has a USB charged wireless keyboard and mouse and they last months! Now I don't expect my controller to last that long, but I wasn't expecting to have to charge it daily and that is almost proving to be the case!

[Jeremy8000]

Seems about what I'm getting. Not very long. And I just charged it overnight and the led was still on in the morning. So i guess it doesn't tell you when it's full either.

If the LED is on 'solid' when plugged in, it's fully charged. The different LED status patterns are detailed here

Yea I'm starting to be come a LITTLE concerned with controller battery life. As you said it's not horrendous, but it's far from good. I own an iMac which has a USB charged wireless keyboard and mouse and they last months! Now I don't expect my controller to last that long, but I wasn't expecting to have to charge it daily and that is almost proving to be the case!

In fairness, if you're just using it for videos, etc, it would probably last far longer as you're not continuously transmitting so it's on a lower power mode. Interestingly, if you have an extra phone with a gyroscope lying around running on KitKat or later, Google made an emulator by which you could configure it as a virtual controller that would of course have far better life - but with virtual buttons and not being able to see it, it wouldn't be as easy to use...

I'm wondering if Google will make the controller available for purchase separately, should the included one be lost/damaged/etc. If it's inexpensive (which it should be - the bulk of the cost of the $79 kit should be the headset itself), might be nice to pick up an extra.