Really I don't know what people complain and moan about. The battery life is descent. I have the normal battery and then there is a 2nd one that is shaped like the DVD ROM drive. It slots into the DVD rom modular bay. I can work continuously for 5-6 hours.
I only need it on battery for 3 hours when I travel.

Noise? What noise!!! The only time I notice noise (faint noise) is when I am in a silent room. Does not effect me in any way. I think people make to much of small things. In short there is no real world noise :-)

danny mark my words get it. I wish I had got it earlier instead of listening to some people who were saying negative things based on no 1st hand experience.
You will not regret.
Make sure of the following things-
This is what I did when I ordered I phoned a dell sales lady. Arranged to speak with here again after ordering the lappy via internet. Then gave her the choice to give me 1x512Mb RAM or uprade to DVD burner free. She gave me 1x512Mb free. Then I got another 512Mb from Crucial.com (spelling)
It's exactly same RAM as on my Dell. On there site you can choose the model of your PC and they automatically tell you which memory module is right for your machine.
Iy you are in states you can get more freebies from them. Ask for a bag....be shameless and ask for as much as you can :-)
The lady was going to upgrade my DVD-CDRW drive to DVD burner drive but her stupid boss refused :-O
I preffer an external DVD burner anyway to use with other machines (Notice-Sour grapes :-()

Get the 7200rpm HD that way you are on the same level as desktop machines with regards to HD speed.

Any more help just drop me a line.