Interestingly <Someone> had the best choice for you out on the market, and hybrid hdd/ssd don't exist in the way you think they do.  The ssd is usually super small and only used for swap cache or fast booting.

Don't recommend mustop. I recommend finding someone to bring you it, or taking a trip to america (since the difference you'll pay in shipping tax and potential headaches equals a ticket). Or you can pay someone a hundred bucks to bring it and still save hundreds of hundreds of dollars that way.

Don't go cheap on a laptop it's the one thing you use everyday all day. just like shoes and a cellphone. It also doesn't mean spend stupid money for the best thing out there.

Your main choice is between a 13.3 inch and then bigger screen.  I recommend the 13.3 since it provides the best battery life and portability. But it will likely mean a little less harddrive space and higher price.

You're going to want the new haswell 4th generation intels, they are 50% more efficient than everything else. I recommend the i7's you're basically looking at a machine that will never hickup, and for the extra 15%-20% you'd be paying on top of an i5 I think it's worth the long term flexibility.

When it comes to harddrive if 256gb ssd isn't enough you can buy a $400 512gb ssd and swap it (bad idea) or buy a 128gb SD card for $100, stick it in the sd card slot and that's what i do with my 128gb ssd laptop. 12-16gb ram laptops are super rare and not necessary imo.


Budget choice (14" ~3.2 lbs i5 non haswell 3rd gen, no name brand but definitely some massive value and good reviews, and will do the job, but a little riskier.  If you're not sure what you want and just want to smack ubuntu on there i recommend this as a shot in the dark)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834686004

Economy choice (15" 4.8 lbs i5 definitely heavier but a total desktop replacement):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314179

High end choice (13.3" 2.3 lbs i7):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834126047

These are just the models, there may be slightly better deals for them on amazon or elsewhere. Your current laptop is ~4.7 lbs i think.

Having been a laptop market researcher for over a decade i'd say these are your two best choices.  You can wait 2-3 more months for new models to come out but no reason to.  Don't assume you are marrying your choice.  I say that because if it don't work for you then you should change, not worth the long term productivity loss.

Secondly by buying smart and not in israel you are saving alot (prices for these laptops here are 80-100% higher than usa) so you always have the resell option here possibly at a gain! Europe might have some good deals but really nobody beats the usa because of how marketing subsidization works over there.