I’ve had a near high-end Asus 17” laptop for four years, and it’s still great, even though the processor is a by now ancient 4710 CPU, and it has a 970GTX GPU. It’s a beast, it weighs 10 pounds, and I rarely take it anywhere.
It was pretty expensive when I bought it.
Here’s what I’d look for:
- At least four cores in the CPU, with multithreading (so it looks like 8 to the software)
- 1060GTX or better, or AMD equivalent GPU
- Good reviews on airflow, display quality.
- At least 500 GB, preferably 1 TB of SSD, either built in or installed afterwards
- 16 GB of memory (I put in 32, and I NEVER have memory problems, no matter how many programs are running, or with a Linux VM in the background)
- Something to watch out for: Avoid the temptation to get a completely loaded 15 inch machine, with the intention of portability and a big outboard display. It will either get hot and self-throttle, or it will be noisy from the fans.
And, despite what many complainers say, Win10 is very good and very stable on my machine, and will probably be that way on any new PC.
What I can’t help you with is which manufacturer has the best mix right now.
I like my Asus too. 10 years old and still kicking without one problem except the battery which died about 5 years ago, normal life span. Just have to keep it plugged in. lol