Earlier in the week we reported that the battery life of the new PSP 3000 would be shorter than the current PSP model. This report was based on comments made by John Koller, Sony’s director of hardware marketing, that the new screen would reduce battery life by “about 20 minutes.”

However, Sony has since informed us that the battery life of the PSP 3000 will actually be equivalent to the current PSP. Koller commented on SCEA’s PlayStation Blog, “I’d like to make a correction and clarify that the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about 4 to 6 hours for games and about 4 to 5 hours for UMD videos.”

“While the enhanced screen of the new PSP draws a little more power, our engineers in Japan worked to reduce the power consumption of the overall system including its components, so you won’t have to worry about losing any time when enjoying the more vibrant visuals displayed with the new PSP,” he continued.

Is that the sound of PSP owners breathing a collective sigh of relief?