My two cents worth: - Chromebooks are not particularly fast, unless you live 100% inside Chrome and even then it's debatable if you go beyond web-apps in Javascript. - The battery life (to weight/size) ratio of Macbook Air is pretty much unbeatable. Yes, they downthrottle a lot on battery power, but the system remains at usable speed. Ref: Apple MacBook Air (13-Inch, Early 2015) - Full Review and Benchmarks - Most WinTel-PC notebooks are either worse in battery life (up until Skylake in October, anyway) or bulky (i.e. bigger battery). My Lenovo is a total dog, even with dual batteries (replaced DVD-burner with extra battery) when running in balanced battery mode. I mean _really_ slow. On AC-power it blazes. - Macbook Air uses Samsung M.2 4x SSD at c. 1285 MB/s. Many (if not most) PC/Wintel Notebooks get maybe half of that. It really shows, if you multitask a lot - If you buy an Air, don't buy the 4GB RAM model. The RAM is soldered to the motherboard, cannot be upgraded. Buy the 8GB minimum (if your gf multitasks at all or is a browser tab hoarder) - If you use notebook in spaces that require quietness, Airs are almost totally silent (the same cannot be said for all PC ultrabooks). I know this is sounds like a lot of Apple love, but I'm must presenting some things to take into consideration. I'm a Lenovo/Win8.1 user myself, hoping to upgrade to Dell XPS 15 7000 once Skylake ships, but then again, I'm not shopping for an ultrabook with fast, light and good battery life specs. Good luck with the choice!