John Saddington: “I gave it a serious run through a typical work week. And then, I gave it one more week and it just didn’t perform like I wanted it to.”
This shouldn’t surprise anyone doing development work on a Mac. The MacBook wasn’t built for developers, that’s why we have the MacBook Pro lineup and the Mac Pro for the super power crazed. I use a 15in MacBook Pro and love the performance. It’s extremely portable and more than powerful for all the development tasks I perform.
John points out some good and bad points of the MacBook so make sure you read the entire post. One other point that didn’t surprise me was the battery not living up to the specified hours of use. Once again, John is a Mac App Developer, he’s using tools that require a lot of power. Run Xcode and check your power usage. It sucks battery, and why shouldn’t it? I want it to use as much of the computer as it can during compilation or debugging.
Anywho, I’m rambling. I’m sure the MacBook would be an excellent computer for most people and would most likely live up to its advertised battery specification.
Bottom line: not good for development, likely good for most uses.