<p>I’ve taken laptops on business trips so the idea of using your laptop for the whole day is similar. My XPS 1330 will run over five hours on the standard battery. I would guess that it would do about 7 on the high-capacity battery. Some people carry an extra battery pack and swap it in. Between classes, you close the lid and it goes into sleep mode so you save power there.</p>
<p>Battery life is getting better and better with time and improved manufacturing processes.</p>
<p>Discrete graphics cards usually shorten battery life. If you want something light that will last long, then integrated graphics are the way to go. Dell is advertising notebooks that will run for up to 19 hours. My guess is that performance isn’t that good but some will trade performance for battery life.</p>
<p>At the moment, I think it best to avoid nVidia graphics cards until it is clear that their current failure problems are resolved. The company has not issued a clear statement on this issue yet. The PC makers haven’t either.</p>