ASUS

The build quality of their laptops is exceptional. When you work with an ASUS, it feels professional, and they have the design correct. I don’t have a Zenbook but when I look at photos and have tried demos, the experience is good.

The keyboard: the keys are responsive, well placed, and guess what, usually most ASUS laptop keyboard have a numpad, very important! I’ve written a lot of code on my laptop, and when you type, it feels almost mechanical. Placement is important too, on some laptops like Sony Vaio, the keys are placed together with no spacing in between, usable, but not terrific in my opinion.

The design: the design feels premium, professional, and functional. It doesn’t feel like anything is cheap.

The battery life: more than decent, with mine I get around 6-7 hours using it, if we’re closing it and taking breaks.

Hardware: the components inside seem fine-tuned to work right out of the box, with any OS. I’ve actually seen a jump in performance when I removed the Windows 8.1 (the came pre-installed) and put in Windows 7 Pro. On another note, the casing and placement of the HDD make it easy to replace without needing to remove the entire lower part of the case.

Second, third, fourth, and fifth place: Lenovo ThinkPads, MSI, Macbook, Dell.

Lenovo

– their ThinkPad laptops are built for performance, durability, and endurance. They simply last. Many are workhorses in various professions, not just the software development world.

MSI

– great hardware, especially for their gaming laptops, which design wise look very cool.

Macbooks

– I think with the combination of OS X, and the finely tuned hardware, that’s why they last long, they simply work right out of the box, however, I think the keyboard isn’t to my liking, feels cheap, not very responsive, but aesthetically great overall. If I was gonna buy one, I’d probably buy it refurbished because the price for what you get, isn’t justified (imo).

Dell

– all I will say is, they could be better. I’ve had some problems with them, the past and recently. Good-decent I’d say.