Laptop/Convertible/Tablet Brainstorming

So I'm not in the position to buy just yet but as an obsessive purchaser I have to do an insane amount of research before I make a choice

Basically I have a Dell XPS 15 it's 2 years old and I'm annoyed with it. Ignoring all the crap that's broken on it over the last year (poured about 24 hours and 100 bucks to keep it running that I don't want to keep doing) it's jsut really big and the battery life is under an hour and if I have to drop 100 bucks on a battery, I might as well consider buying a new laptop and selling mine to partially cover the cost.

Anyway I'm looking at a bunch of them and I was wondering if anyone has any experience and can weigh in on the pros and cons?

First up I'm considering going cheap and just getting a Chromebook. It's sub 350. It goes on the internet, but I know it wouldn't be as productive on the go as my laptop, for starters, can't use Beersmith!

Second is an Ultrabook, was looking at either the Samsungs or an Envy ultrabooks. Like them because they're so light, just concerned about breaking chargers again but I guess if the battery is good enough, it won't be as big of an issue. Anyone who knows if any of those laptops have a crappy charger please let me know

Third is getting rid of my Tablet as well and combining the 2 of them. Which I have 2 ideas. Only 2 Convertibles have caught my eye, both Lenovos, one the Yoga which wouldn't really replace the Xoom but I like it. The other is the Helix which isn't out but it intrigues me. Last sub for that is going with the Surface pro which I kind of feel is a solid option except for the cost. It's got the tablet markup.

Anyway any help would rock.

From experince I would add one condition. See if you can get one that either is NOT Win 8 or can be upgraded back to XP or Win 7. Hateful Operating System that one.

I would stay away from a Chromebook. Pretty much useless without an internet connection.

I like Windows 8 for my use of a laptop. For starters boot times. That's actually the biggest draw for me. I can boot up Windows 8 in about half the time as windows 7, and if I'm getting say an HP Spectre (though it's hardly locked in as my choice) boot time should be seconds and loading programs would also be super fast.

And for tablets/convertibles you almost have to go with Windows 8 cause Windows 7 is garbage with a touch screen. Surface is kind of appealing to me. I want to get my hands on one to see if I like how it feels. Acer is supposedly working on their version of Surface Pro which I'd probably rather go for since it would certainly be cheaper.

I also am wondering if I should wait for the next intel Chip to drive down the cost of the current batch.

I was pricing laptops for a friend the other day and ran across this guy:

lenovo G580 Metal (59359079) Notebook Intel Core i3 3120M(2.50GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1600 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW Intel HD Graphics 4000

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312428

It's a big bulky laptop, but pretty good build for $379.99

That's not bad at all, maybe I could swap out my current one for it, it would be less frustrating I'm sure but have lesser features (I'm i5 sandy bridge, 6 GB RAM, about the same on everything else)

If you go with a laptop like that one at Newegg - or any with a standard spinning hdd really - and if you're concerned about battery life, then I think that you would be well-served to replace the hdd with a SSD.

Here's a quick explanation of the differences:

http://ocz.com/consumer/ssd-guide/ssd-vs-hdd

Personally, I have been in love with my System76 laptop since the day it arrived. But I don't think that would suit your needs based upon your posts here.