switching to windows 8.1?

[Mark Valentine]

So Im currently in the market for a new notebook to take with me on the go and also for college. My primary laptop right now is the mid-2011 13 inch macbook air with 1.7ghz i5 128ssd and mavericks 10.9.2. my macbook airs i5 is the sandy bridge 2557-m that boosts from 1.7ghz to 2.7ghz. i don't really use my laptop for anything too extensive. other than 10+ internet tabs running, document editing like word, power point, or excel, streaming or downloading music and videos, photo editing, and other daily needs. and i was curious to know if you think this would be an upgrade or not from my current processor. im close to purchasing an ultra book that has the haswell i3-4020y 1.5ghz that does not boost. it will be a 13 inch with touchscreen 128ssd and windows 8.1.

 

[mayconvert]

So do you feel that having a touch screen laptop is more important than any other feature? If so, you should get a touch screen.

You have a macbook air that is superior to the ultrabook you are considering. Why not just buy a full legal copy of windows 8.1 from newegg and install it on the mac book air?
Your track pad on the Air makes the MB Air "like" a touch screen but without having fingerprints all over the screen. There are Many gestures on that track pad.

All you have to do, if you don't have room for a boot camp partition on the 128 SSD is back up the MB Air to a time machine back up. Wipe and install Windows 8.1 and run it for a while and see if you like it better than OS 10.9
Personally, I think OS X is better than Windows for nearly everything related to productivity, school, documents etc. Windows is better for gaming, but you won't be able to game on the specs you listed above so I am not seeing any advantage to the Windows machine. The MB Air is an awesome computer, not sure why you would prefer a lesser windows touch book, but hey, It's your money.
Or, Why not try a Surface Pro tablet? Find a store with a reasonable return policy, buy and try. Stay away from Window RT.