[beley]

I have two MacBook Pros (a 2.0 Ghz and 2.16 Ghz - both Core Duos) and one of them the battery is LOUSY (and oddly, it's the one that has been attached to a power adapter sitting at a desk most of it's life).

The other one still has 85-90% of it's original battery life. I'm convinced the one with the bad battery has just always had a problem -- it just wasn't discovered due to it's always being on a desk plugged in. Now that I lug it around everywhere I notice it's 45 minute battery life (yeah, you read right!)

It's under Applecare so I'm going to try to get it replaced, but it's really hard to argue a case on a battery -- they're rarely covered.

I've had a lot of Mac portables though and usually if treated well the battery lasts a good long while. I think 4-8% loss a year is probably normal wear on a battery, with the high end of that being more rare. After 3 years (the typical length of time I keep a laptop) I usually have about 85% of the original battery life.