Hello there peeps, I'm going to University soon, thought of getting a Windows Laptop Tablet hybrid because the Windows Tablet I gotten last year only last me 2 hours of use in Max brightness...
Eventually I'm quite fed up with it. Despite bold claims by these laptop manufacturers of "8 hours of battery life", it won't last me through 5-8 hours of classes.

So I'm considering working now to earn myself a new Macbook or Macbook Air.
Waiting for a Macbook Air refresh if they have one.
To strain less of myself later in Uni to find a bloody plug point.

Also, basically I'm a hardcore Windows user, and transitioning from Windows to Mac might be a big headache, will running Windows on a Mac damage the laptop?
As I heard some issues with the latest Macbooks, somehow and the damage is not sure permanent or not.
Any frequent Macbook Users who runs Windows, does their Battery life sucks? From the 10-12 hours battery claim dropped until 5-6 hours?
Or does it perform battery around 7-8 hours?

Also is it worth to buy the Apple Care warranty and how long before I need to purchase it

I doubt there will be a refresh for the MacBook Air. The 13" MBP is already a great replacement.

You need to understand there are 2 ways to run Win on Macs: boot camp and virtual machines.

Boot Camp simply boots your mac to run windows. It'll behave just like any other windows laptop. Battery life is slightly less compared to running macOS simply because windows is not optimized for it. But this way you get maximum performance.

Virtual machines (by using software such as Parallels desktop, VM fusion, etc) is running windows on top of macOS. Obviously running 2 OS at the same time greatly decreases battery life and performance. For sure won't make it for 8 hrs. The advantage here is that it's a lot more convenient, and you can easily share/transfer files between both OS.

but a good point for you, the 2016 macbook/pros all can be powered using USB-C. So you can make use of a good powerbank and proper cable to power your macbook without worrying about power outlets (bear in mind, not all USB-C cables and powerbanks can deliver enough power)

no damage about running windows.

I dont know what software you need, but chances are you can find good macOS versions or alternatives for it.

AppleCare: you can buy anytime within the 1st year warranty period. Worth or not, hard to say...

Some people install Windows in Bootcamp purposely for gaming, and gaming does wear out components especially the keyboard (if you are not plugging in an external keyboard or using a wireless keyboard) and the logic board due to super high heat build up. Bear in mind always that the MacBook Pro is not meant to primarily be a gaming laptop so it does lack proper cooling systems and ventilations like those you see on Alienware laptops.

On battery life, take note that the battery capacity has been greatly reduced in the new 2016 MacBook Pro units, compared to the 2015 models. For light-to-average use, you can expect good battery life, but once you put heavy load onto it, the battery life may dwindle down significantly. Furthermore since you like to run at high brightness settings, don't expect the battery to last close to what Apple claims it will.

I think there is no power bank in the market that can actually charge the 2016 MacBook Pro while it is being used. Once it is on standby (with the lid closed), then yes perhaps it can be charged albeit at a slow rate. In this regard, it would probably be better to bring along your Apple power brick as it charges multiple times faster than any power bank out there. Only problem is you need to tether to a power outlet for a period of time, something a bit difficult to do if say you are always on the move.

On Apple Care, I read that they are more forgiving on user-based damage and would still repair for you if compared to the standard 1-year warranty. But this is just based on what people say on other forums. Haha.

I surf the internet mostly, I'm going to be an Engineering student, soooo Windows is the most likely software they will run pirated software in university mostly for AutoCAD and stuff, and Apple does support Thunderbolt 3.0 in their regular 'new Macbook', not mistaken so I really want to game just need to fork out money buy a Razer core and a Graphics card

i was an engineering student too. definitely boot camp is required, especially for autocad. some engrg softwares have macOS versions but normally they're not as good as the windows version.

very true. I was thinking OP could charge while walking to classes, lunch breaks etc. but yeah definitely bring along the charger (and extension!)