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 nVidia graphics card fully active and screen brightness up high.
We managed to wrestle 4 hours and 38 minutes from the machine before it would shut down. When watching media, the time reduced to 3 hours and 14 minutes and gaming reduced the life further to 2 hours and 42 minutes. Sadly due to the internal battery design, the replacement of the battery on the move isn't practical.
Nice little machine, my friend bought one. agree on the screen though. Apple have the edge there by a long shot. the 13 inch macbook air screen is GORGEOUS quality.
The two tone design is lovely, they put a lot of effort into the machine and I like the centralised track pad. shame about the screen, but I dont mind TN screens, i use one on my own machine for work and its fine.