To test the battery today we put the machine through three sets of real world situations.
One as a media movie lover on the move, a person wanting to watch HD media on a train journey or bus with two thirds screen brightness (any less and quality suffers).
Secondly as a business man, using the machine for productivity with wireless enabled and balanced power settings with a mid way (around half) brightness setting.
Thirdly as a gamer on the move, with the AMD graphics card fully active and screen brightness up high.
Under light office use the system lasted 2 hours and 21 minutes, which is respectable for a performance based system. When loaded with more serious duties however the battery life was sucked dry in around 1 hour and 35 minutes. Gaming is best handled when plugged into the wall socket. AMD's HD7970m demands a lot from the battery.