Lenovo's higher-end machines are still solid, but their midrange and low-end machines are really disappointing. Sucks that you've had this experience, but among the folks I work with, Dell's high-end machines have a rep for being really reliable in both Windows and Linux. My next machine's probably an Alienware 13, but the lighter XPS 13 is real tempting too.
No. I find Razer as a company to appeal to the "x-treme gamer" set in ways I wouldn't want to support, but I also think their branding is childish and would not walk into a meeting with a client with that huge gross logo on it. It would look bad.
I'd rather get a laptop with no branding at all, but the Alienware logo is at least really small. (And the keyboard on the Alienware 13 is good, my brother has one.)
Razers are nice-looking machines but last time I checked the biggest processor you could get for the most portable one was dual core, and the next model up (the 14 inch model) had pretty bad battery life.
I'm still looking for the perfect replacement for a MacBook Pro. Hopefully when the 2018 XPS 15 comes out...
For me, that's basically the Alienware 13. With the discrete GPU off it seems to get 4-5 hours (at least, according to my brother, who owns one) and that's good enough for me, while also having 32GB of RAM and a 7700HQ.
