Field use laptop setup?

I am currently using a ACER netbook, CF card reader and Transcend USB drive in a Pelican case to do preliminary sorting and accept / reject of photos, either via tethered operation , or post shoot drag and drop from card reader to LR or other image sorting software. I also backups the files onto the USB drive. I am looking to update the setup, it has served okay in the last 3 years, but is slow with the larger files I am getting nowadays.
I am curious what some of you use. Any favorite backup drive, download / sorting software? I see a lot of higher end ultrabooks coming out, but are they worth upgrading to? Not likely to change to a Mac setup, I already have a lot invested in Microsoft for better or worse, but maybe you can convince me

I spent A LOT of time researching for a good ultrabook I could use in the field. There's nothing out there that is perfect for photographers IMO. I wound up getting a samsung series 9 (http://www.tigerdirect​.ca …details.asp?Edp​No=7362982)

13 inches with a 1600x900 screen. 400 nit brightness (most laptops are 300). 128 gb SSD, 4 gigs of ram (which I upgraded to 8 myself), 3 lbs, nice battery life. it cost me 700 + 50 for the extra 4 gb of ram. People complain about the lack of contrast but after I calibrated with my spyder it was fine.

It doesn't have an IPS screen which I really wanted but anything that did was either only 4 gb of un-upgradable ram (asus zenbook), lower resolution (thinkpad x220), 2000+ dollars, or big and heavy.

Lots of photographers are getting Surface Pro's for this.

My work laptop is a Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch and I love love love it, best laptop I've ever owned. But it's expensive at around $1699.

I'm also heavily invested into the Microsoft ecosystem but I use an iPad with the Photosmith app specifically for field use. I have an Eye-Fi in my 5d3 that sends jpgs to the iPad, where I do all my rating and reviewing while still in the field. Then I get home, import the RAW's from the CF card into Lightroom, then wirelessly do a metadata-only sync of the jpgs from Photosmith on the iPad to Lightroom, which matches up the star ratings with the RAW's. It's a brilliant system.