Whatever you do, do NOT get anything with Windows 8 on it. I got a beautiful Acer Aspire M which has a great screen, backlit keys, decent CPU, less than 5 pounds, 15" screen, ultra-thin, you name it. The pain of getting Linux to run on it, I can't even begin to tell you.
Worst part is, I like it so much that I would buy one again (if I could get Windows 7) without hesitation.
I bought a Thinkpad X1 Carbon with Windows 8, had no issues getting Debian on there (minus having to manually upgrade kernels as 3.2 was a bit old and was causing issue).
Although the Carbon also support non-EUFI booting which made it easier, it shouldn't be that hard to get linux running with EUFI. What caused you trouble?
I am typing this on a Toshiba Z935 that shipped with Windows 8. Wasn't a terrible pain to fix that (Quantal now), but if I had wanted to dual-boot, it did look like it would be more of a headache.
Worst part is, I like it so much that I would buy one again (if I could get Windows 7) without hesitation.