This machine is marketed as a ‘media based' machine, but its more than capable of being used as a business oriented workhorse. Therefore battery life is an important aspect for a possible purchase.
To test the battery today we put the machine through two 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.
Battery life is fantastic, we managed to almost squeeze 5 hours out of the system under general/light use. Watching HD movies lowered battery life considerably, but it still managed to last for almost 2 and a half hours. The nVidia Optimus technology really does help increase system life.