Just trying to get some thoughts on this...
I have a MacBook Air that is about 4 years old. The battery life has gradually faded over the years, and right now I probably get 2 hours from a fully charged battery (this is watching movies and doing other offline things while on a flight without power).
A friend of mine has gotten his battery replaced (via a Genius bar appointment) and said the cost was about $300.
With the new battery, his machine has returned to normal battery life. When mine was new, I'd get to use it for an entire PHX-PHL flight (using WiFi along with movies)
There's rumors that there are new Mac's coming out in a month.
Based on the current MacBook Pro on Apple's site, the fully-loaded machine is about $1800. I'd expect a new one would be similar, I'd hope under $2000.
I'd expect a new machine to last at least 4 years, of course would love longer.
What say the experts here? New battery or new machine?
I have a trip to China in mid-November, and would like to do either prior to then (there will be power on that flight, so that isn't a huge issue, I'm just setting that as a target time).