I keep wanting to get one but the battery life always keeps me from doing that. Mobile for me means a lot of battery life; you do not need that or is it actually ok?
I get ~5 hours which is beyond more than enough for my needs. I also keep power adapters. Honestly, I've never understood the obsession with long battery life on a laptop. It's significantly lighter to carry the adapter (super light on a surface) than have an extended battery, and either way you have a knapsack/laptop bag.
Also - other than this one coffee shop I'm not a fan of, there's always power nearby.
Yeah that really depends on where/what you are doing. I spend a large amount of time in airplanes, a lot of which (as I don't fly business) have no charging sockets. Then in places where I go, for instance in HK, it is actually really rare to find sockets in coffee shops or bars.
If you are so concerned with battery life couldn't you just get an external power backup if the machine has all the functionality you want? It seems more modular that way instead always having to lug around such extra stuff you don't need.
That totally makes sense to me. It's the same reason I hard relied on the air years ago - the 9 hours just about covered the majority of the exact same need. Tradeoffs.
