Laptop battery life

[basics]

I'm new to the boards. Apologies if this is a tired topic, but I would appreciate feedback. I'm about to buy my first laptop, and am finding out that the one I'm trying out, a low-priced model (Toshiba Satelite M30X/M35X Series), lasts only about an hour and a half before needing to be recharged (if playing a dvd, it lasts only about an hour). Somehow I had guessed that batteries lasted longer in laptops. Am I nuts?
Two questions:

1. What is the normal life for a laptop battery?

2. And if I want to stay in the relatively low-price arena, what are the best laptops to consider in terms of battery life?

Thanks.

 

[IronDuke]

1. I'd say between 45 minutes and 3+ hours. My Thinkpad lasts on average 2 1/2 - 3 hours doing office work.

2. Depends if you think Thinkpad is in the relatively low-price arena.

 

[Tedster]

laptop battery life varies considerably.
Factors include, # of components inside laptop, load on computer, brightness of screen, size and output of battery, age of battery, and condition of battery.

 

[YellowC4S]

I get about an Hour and 15 minutes or so on a Sager 9860 notebook with:
P4 3.6
2gb DDR2 ram
Nvidia 6800 GO PCi-E graphics w/256mb DDR3 ram
2x80gb hdds SATA RAID striped
DVD/CDRW Drive
DL DVD/R Drive
Built in TV tuner
Built in Wireless
Bluetooth
Creative Labs Audigy 2ZS PCMCIA soundcard
Sasem USB2.0 HDTV Tuner

 

[Tedster]

that's not great, but it's not terrible either considering all the components you have.

I've seen worse.

 

[YellowC4S]

Yes, I guess one can surmise I didn't buy this puppy for its battery lifelll :haha:

 

[Tedster]

some laptop manufactuers sell jumbo battery packs for extended usage. I know Gateway is one of them.