Surprisingly short battery life on new laptop

I recently purchased an Asus N56V Series laptop. The laptop has impressive specs, including an i7 Core and a Nvidia GT 635M graphics adaptor, so I can understand it having a below average battery life. However, I am only getting 1 to 2 hours of battery life on it, even when I am not running processor and graphic intensive programs. Product review indicate that will battery life for this laptop is below average, the battery should still last 4 hours under normal conditions.

Is there any reason why my battery life is so limited? Has anyone else had similar problems with this model of laptop?

Thanks for the help.

Are WiFi enabled or Bluetooth? Unless absolutely required, disable.

Also look thru the Control Panel for Power Options and be sure to reduce usage for the Battery Choices.

You might also adjust the screen brightness -- the brighter settings draw more power to maintain. As mentioned above, disable hardware you are not using. Since you will probably be using wifi, disable the wired network interface and check the power manager for a lower perfomance setting. . .which might automatically adjust all of the above.

I implemented your suggestions but that hasn't extended the battery life by nearly enough. Do you think I need to manual disable my graphics card when I am not using it?

Thanks.