<p>8hrs is typical for a laptop with two batteries.</p>
<p>I havn't seen many laptops actually run for 8 hours. (I'm not using the estimate next to the time after you charge).</p>
<p>8 hours of battery life is pretty overkill. I mean, how often are you away from an outlet for 8 hours? Anyway, point being, build quality is important, and I would rather pay extra for build quality than pay extra for more performance. There are only so many problems you can fix. I bought a nice Vaio 5 years ago (freshman year of high school) and now it's almost worthless. The LCD hinge broke on the right side and the battery can't hold a charge anymore. That's just shotty build quality.</p>
<p>I agree to some extent, built quality is worth something. Batteries, however, do not last forever, I'm not sure how many charge cycles its been through but a few years is a lot for a Li-Ion. I was happy to save a lot of money, even if it isnt built from teflon. </p>
<p>About the battery life, I guess it depends on the person, but a flight from the east to the west coast takes like 6.5 hours, add a little bit of waiting to take off, land, and some time in the airport a</p>
<p>nd 8 hours of battery life can make a day a lot less boring.</p>
<p>Typical li-ion battery lasts 500 charges or 3 years according to my reseller.</p>