a higher class would make it run faster, but even so i'm running off of a 8gb sdhc, with 2 ext2 partitions, which also makes it run faster
The battery life does suck, currently it's been 7 hours and my phone is at about 40%, on WM I could run 2-3 days(depending on usage) before it died...
I wouldn't mind carrying around a usb charger though since I have class and all...