The battery life was never stellar, compared to previous and of course current Airs, but my daughter can use it a full school day without plugging in. >Anyway,

The battery life was never stellar, compared to previous and of course current Airs, but my daughter can use it a full school day without plugging in. >Anyway, I think the idea that a $1300-$6500+ laptop ships with a glued-in, non-replaceable component that Apple themselves admits is "consumable" is just absurd, regardless of how long it may last. This is where my view differs, since I can just hand it in for replacement, I don't have any issues with that. To me it doesn't matter at all if I can do it myself or not. Well except if you have to leave it at the Apple store for several days, then that's very inconvenient. In general I just see it as a practical and financial question, and since I use my laptop 10 hours a day, and earn a very good salary from it, 200 dollars more or less every three years is really insignificant.