I've had my laptop for just over a year now and it's still going strong. I used to get about 2 and a half to 3 hours out of it, now it's about 1 hour and 50 minutes on 100% high performance - yeah It's gone down pretty fast, so looking like I'll have to get a new battery at some point, my laptop is fully covered for 2 years though - so hopefully if it's gonna break, it will do so this year xD I actually have lots of different options on my laptop for battery saving which wasn't advertised when I bought it such as "saver" mode when the screen dulls down, "entertainment" and "high performance" mode is what I always use and it happens to be the most battery consuming. I can also change screen colouring which sometimes saves me some battery for some reason xD 2 hours or so is sufficient enough I say. If you're taking it out most places allow you to plug in these days, and the wires are long so if you're at home you can pretty much use it plugged in anywhere.
I own an Asus laptop which i've had since 2005, I think i beat you guys in worst battery life lol, it lasts 0 seconds off charge (Literally - it just dies). Do not use your laptop on charge all the time, it wrecks the battery! I think I'm due for a new one...