You may also be interested in the Fujifilm Finepix F20 which is (was) available in Tesco stores for £67. This has a much better sensor than the Samsung to give nicer colour tone and lower noise in low-light shots.
Some details here:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...hread=25417102
To find out the battery life of a camera you'll have to do quite a bit of digging. Check out the information available on some of these site:
http://www.dpreview.com/
http://www.steves-digicams.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/
http://www.dcresource.com/
and, in particular:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html
May I suggest you first ask yourself what sort of camera you want: compact, bridge, SLR or any shade in between. Then think about other considerations like: does it need to be weatherproof; will you be spending a long time (days) away from the mains; do you have any existing flash cards that you want to use; do you want full manual control; might you want to use an external flash; might you want to use a cable release? If you think you're going to want to take any photos indoors then have a good read of this article:
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/compactcamerahighiso/
You'll see that Fuji makes some excellent sensors. But beware, not all of their cameras use their own sensors!
You can get a Fuji S6500fd (known as S6000fd in USA) from around £140 (PC World). This has the same sensor as the F31fd mentioned in the article but with a manual zoon lens on the front. Why on earth the manufacturers thought we needed motorised zooms I shall never understand! I'd avoid the S5700 as this has a poor, non-Fuji, sensor.
And don't forget to factor in the cost of spare batteries, flash cards and, if appropriate, skylight filter and tripod.
IMHO, it's a good idea to get a camera that uses standard AA cells rather than some proprietary (expensive) battery. If you choose a camera with AAs then definately get some Sanyo Eneloop cells and a NiMh charger. These are the Mutt's Nuts.
Note that I've have a Fujifilm S9500 so I get to hear more info about their cameras so I'm biased!