What about Apple's hardware quality really makes that much of a difference? Is it really that important for a tool which is meant to be replaced in 3 years to be made from machined aluminum and beautifully designed (sometimes even at expense of usability)? Up until 5 years ago we were perfectly happy and productive using laptops with 3-4 hours battery life. Did our habits and requirements changed that much that anything below, what, 12 hours of battery life is scandalous and unacceptable?
That's 12 hours of battery life in optimal settings. Being connected to wifi/downloading, watching videos, playing games, or doing anything computationally expensive will significantly reduce that battery life to a couple of hours.
