How long should the battery last?

That's pretty normal, yes, and nothing to be concerned about.

You can check the "health" of your battery in System Profiler - look at the numbers for Full Charge Capacity and Cycle Count. Health is the percent of the original (new battery) capacity, which is 5500 mAh for a 15" MBP, and 6300 mAh for a 17" MBP, i.e. (current Full charge capacity / 5500 or 6300 * 100). Apple spec is 80% health for 300 cycles. Li-based batteries like the one in your MBP have a useful life of 400-500 charge cycles or 3-4 years, whichever comes first.

Hope this helps...

Are you already turning off Bluetooth and turning down the backlight a little? If not, do those things to make the battery last longer, they definitely impact run time. Having AirPort wireless on also consumes power, but most of us need to keep that on for networking.

the models with the led screen last alot longer, obviously becasue there more economical on power

i have a 2008 model and im getting at least 3-4 hours when using for internet browsing via wireless, bluetooth off

Ian-K wrote:
the models with the led screen last alot longer, obviously becasue there more economical on power
i have a 2008 model and im getting at least 3-4 hours when using for internet browsing via wireless, bluetooth off

That is very true, I have a 2008 MacBook Pro and am also getting 3-4 hours. But since the original poster has an older MacBook Pro, I didn't bring up the LED screen or my own battery runtime since it doesn't apply here.

All of a sudden my battery won't hold a charge past 12 minutes? Do I need a new battery? This is the replacement battery I was sent after the recall..help...