Heat: I'm in class doing internet and Office and other random things, running at 113F/45C.
Noise: When the HDD is spinning up to retrieve data, I can stick my ear RIGHT on the left handrest and hear a little noise coming from it. That's it
Battery: I'm getting anywhere from 3.5 - 5.5 hours of battery life, depending on what I'm doing.
Speed: I love it. I haven't done any serious data retrieval, but it works great with everything it's gone through so far!
I've always preferred 7200rpm drives. Just seems to make more sense to me!