I think it's a tricky time at the moment. Basically if it's only going to sit on the desk buy a big chunky business type machine, put a heat resistant mat under it else you will spoil your table.
Windows 8 works well with a touch screen, but a standard laptop form will be a stretch to the screen and will probably suffer from false multi-taps as the screen bounces. I forget if it's Acer or Asus doing the Star Trek format with a clever hinge and the touchpad at the top, ideal if you use a mouse anyway.
For others, if you want portability, ultrabooks are light and have great battery life because they have SSDs.
Solid State Drives (SSDs) are evolving rapidly with lower prices and higher capacities. More rugged than spinning disk, less power so longer battery life and less heat, lightning fast access. Seagate are doing hybrid drives with 8GB Solid state and 500/750GB HDD. A good compromise between capacity, performance, and price, claim to boot in 10 secs.
The next generation of intel chips is due, the Haswell offers much lower power consumption than current chips Haswell plus SSD may give an all day battery life.
A new networking standard is coming in to replace the current 802.11n, think it's 802.11o and will be at least twice as fast as 802.11n and further range.
Finally, Leap are just launching a sensor which will give 3D hand gesture control next month. It will possibly replace touch screens and has already been licenced to HP, will probably be built into the laptop keyboard, far more sensitive than Kinnect
https://www.leapmotion.com/
There's lots of innovative hybrid tablet/laptop devices being launched.
I would wait until after Christmas, prices are already being slashed and if you just want the existing technology expect to see it in fire sales in the new year.
Originally Posted by BigRed
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