Yeah redistributors discussions can go on forever.
As far as laptops, I've got two top-of-the-line Dells and one HP consumer line notebook, and I find I keep hunting for HP bargains so I can have one just to HAVE one as they really are very nice and at least as good in quality as anything anyone else does- (including the top XPS models). Simply put, HP is a very good company. I'm not super excited about their latest consumer laptops (they're pretty consumer cheap), but their business models and older ones are VERY nice.
The only other thing I've seen that I like as much in my hands are some of the Toshibas and re-distributors like Sager (those huge bulky horribly non-portable systems rock, esp. for upgrading- they really are nice, yeah not quite laptops, but they COULD be if necessary; one Sager 9xxx and a simply light IGP notebook for presentations with clients using premade quicktime movies or such.... yeah. (M'kay? I think we're gonna need you on... Saturday. Maybe Sunday too....)
😉