Wow, updates for that many hours? Mine (when I have over 1GB of updates) takes no more than 10-15 minutes, but then again I have a 150mb line and the SP2 that I own is very fast. It's actually a lot faster to use my SP2 than my full desktop which is no slouch either!
I believe you have other problems if your updates are taking 7 and a half hours. I've had over 30 updates sometimes as I hardly ever shut down my device and just sleep or hibernate, and as I mentioned, they never take longer than 10-15 minutes.
If your computer is running fine in general, as mentioned above, uncheck the setting to update automatically and do it manually when you feel like you have those 7 hours .... Then again, 7 hours is too long. Even on my moms pentium computer with many updates it doesn't take more than 30 - 45 minutes. Something is wrong with your software in my opinion. You can alternatively set it to DOWNLOAD but NOT INSTALL, that way any updates will be done much faster.
I would personally refresh the device and run update to get all the updates, and you should see an immediate increase in speed as there is no other software. I have the full office suite and a few other things, so not a lot. But 90% of my updates are either Firmware or Software from Microsoft. So they're BIG updates, but once again, they don't take more than 10-15 minutes. If you discount the time to download, no more than 5. This little tablet is so handy with full windows, and so portable with its weight, and so powerful considering everything it has inside... I'm surprised about the poll... I don't see any other device that can match it....
I have an Android tablet that I use to browse the web and some simple gaming... But it is in NO way a replacement for my SP2... I won't even start about the iPad... But considering the other laptops out there, I'd much rather have my SP2 than a laptop for my work and personal life...