AlphaWolf said:
I wouldn't say that. If they took 3d hardware thats even half as powerful as a geforce 4 (which would be more than plenty for a portable), they could get tons of battery life on it (recent innovations in the laptop gaming market have realy improved the hell out of this over the last 6 months). The biggest power drain would be powering the moving parts and the laser for the disc reader.
Wrong.
GBA draws about 0.6 Watts total, and lasts ~12-14 hours on a pair of AA's.
Now, if you look at Laptop gaming... PLEASE CONSIDER THE SIZE AND WEIGHT of a Laptop battery. Totally unacceptable for a handheld console, and a whole laptop generally lasts ~3-4 hours running the full thing, even with power saving on the CPU, vid chip, etc.
Beyond3D's forum has an in-depth discussion (7 pages) on PSP, I recommend you all read it. (it's in Console Talk)
Added: Oh and please note, that power != victory, not in home consoles, and definitely not in handhelds. The Game Boy line has slaughtered many handhelds much more powerful than it (NEC TurboExpress, Atari Lynx, and Sega's GameGear and Nomad).