Laptop Battery Life and Speaker Question

Hi!

I bought an ASUS X42JY-VX124 Laptop last month (April 25) and I seem to be having some problems.

Specs sheet:
Processor & Cache Memory Intel® Core™ i3-380M 2.53 GHz Processor
Operating System Free DOS
Chipset Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipset
Main Memory DDR3 1066 MHz SDRAM, 2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 4GB SDRAM

Display 14" 16:9 HD (1366x768) LED backlit
Video Graphics & Memory ATI Mobility™ Radeon® HD 6470, 1G DDR3 VRAM
Hard Drive 500GB,5400rpm
Optical Drive DVD Super Multi Double Layer
Card Reader SD ,MMC card reader
Video Camera 0.3 Mega Pixel web camera
Fax/Modem/LAN/***N Integrated 802.11 b/g/n or 802.11b/g
Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.1+EDR (optional)
10/100/1000 Base T
LED Status Indicator Power-on/Suspend
Battery Charging/full/low
Storage device access
Capital Lock
Wireless on status indicator
Interface 1 x Headphone-out jack
1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor
3 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
1 x HDMI
Audio Built-in speaker and microphone
Altec Lansing® speakers
SRS Premium Sound
AC Adapter Output: 19 V DC, 4.74 A, 90W
Input: 100-240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal

1) Battery Life: I get 2 hrs of battery life reading when unplugged. Is this normal? This is on Power Saving mode (2 hrs Max). If in high performance or other mode, it would be definitely less. Can anybody help me with this? I'm not sure if I have a bad battery or not. Is it normal that it will only last that long because of the specs?

2) Speakers: The sound doesn't seem to be loud enough. the speakers are located near the touchpad and not near the LED Screen. I know it's altec lansing but I'm not sure if it the one im getting now is normal or there's something wrong with it. I tried playing the same mp3 from my laptop and another laptop (older and standard speakers laptop) and it seems to be louder than mine.

I really need clarifications and help here guys. Please.