But each time I look at the offerings, I conclude that my $700 PC from 2010 is perhaps not superior, but is certainly adequate enough that I'm not interested in forking out $1k+ to get something with a comparable battery lifetime.
Instead I start to look at the Chromebook with Ubuntu on it as a much less expensive option with the primary thing I want (battery life) combined with an almost-real computer that does basically everything my older laptop can do.
But even then, sunk cost and all. It's not enough to meet the performance of my three year old laptop, they have to exceed it. And it's amazingly still not there yet.
I don't know what exactly Intel has been optimizing, but it sure isn't anything that matters to me.
The FUD surrounding Win8 is kind of crazy. You want to know the easiest, fastest way to launch an application? Hit Windows key, type application name. Same on Win7, same on Win8...hell, it's the same on Ubuntu.
Its actually, IME, noticeably slower than mousing in most cases on Windows 7.
Reminds me of a coffee cup I bought at Wal-Mart for work. It had a transparent plastic sticker on it that would not come off, without leaving a gummy stain. Didn't come off in the wash. Think about it: I buy something NEW and shiny, and the first thing I have to do is clean shit off of it? Maybe buy some other product to get the marketing crap to come off? Of course I respond emotionally, just as if I got a new car and found someone had dumped in the back seat.