I love the chromebook pixel with a debian chroot (aka crouton). I use the 2015 pixel with a 2560x1700 screen, i7, 16GB ram, and I get 12 hours battery life.
The chromebook pixel has been my only laptop for three years, and it's been rock solid. I never spend time troubleshooting. Setup upon upgrading from the 2013 to the 2015 pixel took about two minutes.
At this point, I'd prefer to use a chromebook rather than loading ubuntu on a laptop, because the stability of the pixel has saved me so much time.
I get 9-10 hours on Linux with the UX305FA model (pre-Skylake fanless CoreM, i.e. MBA competitor). Not sure about the UX305LA model (i5/i7, i.e. MBP competitor).
I checked out the Surface Book briefly, and boy was it a massive disappointment. The screen is much more heavier than the keyboard so it's unbalanced, detaching and reattaching the screen is extremely awkward, and there were touch issues with the stylus that the salesperson could not resolve.
The chromebook pixel has been my only laptop for three years, and it's been rock solid. I never spend time troubleshooting. Setup upon upgrading from the 2013 to the 2015 pixel took about two minutes.
At this point, I'd prefer to use a chromebook rather than loading ubuntu on a laptop, because the stability of the pixel has saved me so much time.