I just ordered one of these for programming in C. Note, however, that this one doesn't have a DVD drive. Oops - didn't realize that when I ordered it. It's super slim and light, though. I like a 15.6" screen as a compromise between longer battery life and big viewing size - this way we can use it more easily in the stands if we use laptops for scouting again. This one has a touch screen, which would be nice for scouting as well. I'll probably end up spending $40 on an external USB DVD drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834314085
I figure this thing should last five years pretty easily. It is currently way overpowered for what we would need to program either C or LabView. This laptop has an i5 and 6 GB of RAM and nothing special on graphics. That is exactly where I wanted to spend the bucks. I trust an i5 processor, but if I'd decided to research this more I might have gone with AMD as a way to save a few bucks (that model is $20 less) and possibly get longer battery life if AMD processors are still less energy hungry than Intel. Not sure if that is still true as I haven't researched AMD processors in years.