Trouble deciding between a T520 or an E520

Hi everyone! I've lurked around the forums for a few weeks, but am finally posting now that I need some advice. Hopefully eventually I can give back some help too.
I want to get a new laptop and have narrowed my choices down to the E520, which I can get for around 700, or the T520, which I can configure to similar specs and get for around 900 (including the 9-cell, but not the slice),
My main criteria are battery life and processing power
To get the T520 around 900, I would chose the lower i5 option, which is close enough to the E520's i5 that there would be little to no speed difference.
However, I am unsure about the battery comparison. I believe the E520 can last around 9-10 with the extended battery (51J0500) but what is the maximum I could get the T520 to last? Does the slice cell go below the body of the laptop allowing it to be used with a 9-cell battery at the same time, or does it take the place of it? What configuration would give me the most time and what would that time be?
Another question: the E520 has an MSATA slot that would allow me to use an SSD with it, but does the T520 have one of these slots?
Finally, user experience. Does anyone have personal recommendations to give? Would it be worth it to pay $200 for a slightly faster processor, a 1600x900 screen vs 1366x768, and more durability?
[edit]: I forgot that the T520 would also be configured with the discrete NVIDIA card, whereas the E520 would have integrated graphics. However, I don't do gaming on my laptop or run graphic intensive programs, so I don't think this would make a difference to me.

I had the same dilemma when I was choosing my new laptop. I wanted a ThinkPad and I was looking through all the models and decided to buy a T520. The T series are the actual successors to the ThinkPad brand that IBM introduced. They are slightly more expensive due to the construction and the security features integrated in the computer. One of the concerns I had was the keyboard. In my opinion the classic ThinkPad keyboard which is featured on the T series is the best. The Edge have a different one which will be also introduced in the T430/T530 models. So The T420/T430 are the last of this era. Not sure if I can help you with the battery. I got mine with the standard 6 cell and don't have experience with others. As for the GPU - I got mine with the NVIDIA NVS 4200M. It actually is pretty average and some may even compare it to the integrated one on the Sandy Bridge. You'll not be able to do serious gaming, although I managed to run Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 on medium to low settings.
Hope that helps
T520 / i5-2450M / 8GB RAM / NVIDIA NVS 4200M / 1600x900 HD+ / Hitachi 500GB @ 7200 RPM / Intel N 6205 WiFi / Win 7 Pro

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