And a Chromebook of all things. It isn't like this is a real operating system. For all the stuff you're giving up by having a Chromebook you'd think that it would at least be power competitive.

Users would probably compare it to tablets, the Kindle Fire gets 9 hours, ipad mini gets 10...

> It isn't like this is a real operating system

[citation needed]. How is Chrome OS not a "real operating system"?

It isn't "general purpose."

Sure it is. What makes it not general purpose? You can write and execute programs on it. How much more general purpose can you get?

You can? From all the reviews I've read it runs web-"apps" things. I've never read that it can run software developed for the platform specifically.

You can run Native Client code on it, just as you can in Chrome the Browser.

https://developers.google.com/native-client/

For a laptop that costs $199, yes.

I agree with the sentiment, but I've never used a laptop that had more than 2 hours advertised battery life (so, 1 hour in practice). My most recent purchase is a 2010 System76, so I'm quite out of touch, I know. I dream of having 3 hours+ of battery life on a laptop. That far, far more than I'm used to. Though, when tablets can do 10-20 hours, why is this stuck at 3? I agree, that does seem measly.

Have not tried a mac?

My old macbook have 3+ hours on it on battery... The new ones are more impressive:

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/features.html#battery http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/features-retina/#battery

Installing flash block is often times the #1 way to improve your battery life.

I don't have Flash installed, so Flash block isn't going to do much. Thanks though! :)

Even in 2010, 1 hour is not acceptable, but a reasonable number to expect from a high-end, lightweight 2012 laptop would be around 7 hours (using Linux).