Hell yeah, Thinkpads! They're still around except the internals are better now! They actually have some sort of deal on now...

If you're getting a laptop with a decent GPU it probably won't be thin unless you're willing to throw a bunch of money at it. Otherwise (in a similar price range) the Surface Laptop is also an option although don't expect to run seriously graphics intensive workloads on it because it doesn't have a dedicated graphics processor.

The Dell XPS 13" is a great computer but once again is >$1000.

TL;DR, if you want great performance it is tough to find in a thin light laptop without spending a heck of a lot of money. Definitely don't drop serious cash on a laptop with a crummy bottom of the lineup (read: not worth your money) Nvidia GPU though, spending the $200 on the Acer Aspire 7 looks like it would go a long way in this situation. IMO that's a pretty good price for the specs you're getting although I don't know much about Acer's build quality so that can be up for debate. My thinking is that if you're going to spend $700 on a laptop spending $900 isn't the end of the world if it will last you longer and open you up to some video work in the future (if need be) which that hardware would definitely allow for.