Hardware Multi Purpose Laptop Required

[mobad]

I have been using my Dell XPS for over 5-6 years now and its about time I changed to a laptop that fits the following criteria -

1. Very Good Battery Life
2. Not too heavy as I will be taking it on trips with me
3. At least 8 gig of ram
4. 13"-15" Screen size

The laptop will be used for running self learning labs such as VMWARE, so the processor needs to be quick.
I tend to multi task with multiple apps running in the background, so hence the minimum of 8gig as well.

Any suggestions please?
Budget is around 1k but happy to pay more if required...

 

[oneman]

I have been using my Dell XPS for over 5-6 years now and its about time I changed to a laptop that fits the following criteria -

1. Very Good Battery Life
2. Not too heavy as I will be taking it on trips with me
3. At least 8 gig of ram
4. 13"-15" Screen size

The laptop will be used for running self learning labs such as VMWARE, so the processor needs to be quick.
I tend to multi task with multiple apps running in the background, so hence the minimum of 8gig as well.

Any suggestions please?
Budget is around 1k but happy to pay more if required...

How about Dell XPS 13 ?