I felt the same way, especially wrt battery life, until the 2015 Chromebook Pixel came along. For $1000 I have a beautiful screen (touch but I don't use it that way), better battery life than my MBA, portable, rock solid in every way. With Crouton I get a real Linux environment running alongside ChromeOS, only an alt-tab away, complete with clipboard sharing between the two. That MBA was my gold standard for three-plus years, haven't missed it for one moment.