[glideslope]

Any significant shortening of battery life in a new MBP with a 7200 rpm HD over the stock 5400? Do the 7200's run hotter?

Thank you.

[Simon]

No and no.

In general 7200 rpm drives don't use more power or run hotter than 5400 rpm drives. It depends on the specific drive. Apple often sources from different manufacturers so there's pretty much no way to say in advance what's going to be the best power-saving option.

If you need fast i/o and good performance with small read/writes get an SSD.
If you need high sustained performance for large block read/writes get a 7200 rpm HDD.
Else, get a 5400 rpm HDD.

[glideslope]

Thanks

[analogue SPRINKLES]

7200 makes a big difference in opening/saving large files and photoshop.

For general surfing don't bother. Battery life doesn't seem different either way.