Originally Posted by
timfountain
So in your opinion, only 2 Windows notebooks in the whole world are worthy of consideration? Got it.
I would generally agree with him. The majority of Windows laptops sold in retail stores are consumer-grade (poor quality, cheap components & design), even big name-brands. I would actually lump the Microsoft Surface in that group too.
If you're buying a laptop for anything other than screwing around on the 'net, do yourself a favor and buy a real enterprise-class laptop, even if that means buying a used one. Yes, they're a bit more, but for a reason -- better quality parts. Intel network cards *are* better than Realtek's offerings, and yes, they cost more. Proper thermal design costs money, and good heat sinks generally cost more to manufacture due to the precision required if you're going for lightweight, or the sheer mass of metal if you're going sloppy with the machining. Even the almighty Apple Macbooks had thermal problems due to them cutting corners on thermal management.
Not sure what to buy? Look around next time you're at the airport or on the plane. Look for laptops with barcode/inventory control stickers on them -- those are likely corporate machines. When an IT department has to support 1,000-50,000+ laptops, they're not going knowingly to buy something which is failure prone, fragile, or unrepairable. Chances are you're going to see Lenovo T, X, and P series and Dell Latitudes, maybe a Dell Precision. HP does make an enterprise line, but I've not overly familiar with them. You're NOT going to see Acer, Asus, Samsung, MSI, etc. Do be careful as Lenovo, Dell, and especially HP make consumer-grade laptops as well which are just as good/as bad as the rest of the cheap stuff flooding the market.
/typing this on a well-beaten, repaired-too-many-times-to-count 2009 Macbook Pro
//Replacing it with either a Lenovo T480 or T580. The new Macs aren't up for the rigors of the road, especially their new keyboards.