Brand Blacklist > Horrible Notebook Laptops Edition

XPS is cool

No, just no.

My dad used an Acer laptop as his primary PC for 5 years, and it withstood lots of use and abuse. Only issues it had:
1) keyboard died around 2 years after he bought it - we bought a replacement keyboard really cheap through eBay, I installed it myself, problem solved.
2) With over 4 years of use, it started refusing to turn on sometimes (disconnecting the power, removing the battery and putting everything back solved this issue when it happened), and sometimes it would turn off on its own when we were using it even while connected to mains (it wasn't overheat - that was the first thing I checked - or power management issues). When this issue started becoming more frequent my dad decided it was time for a new laptop, this one was over 5 years old already after all.
Overall it left me with a good impression, considering how long it lasted and the abuse it took - it spent all its life in a beachfront location (sea air is terrible for electronics, in case some of you didn't know), and he would sometimes take it to heavy construction areas.
Now he's been using a Samsung for almost 2 years, not a single issue so far.
Acer is not my favorite brand and I do think they have poor build quality and poor design choices for most part, but still, I wouldn't rule them out as a good laptop choice depending on model and price.

Firstly, during the years I've seen lots of complaints on the internet about poor durability and low reliability of Dell laptops. Then I experienced it first hand.
One company I was doing support contract work a few years ago bought around 30 Dell laptops for office use (keep in mind most of them were used as if they were desktops, meaning they never left the office, most never even were moved from the desks they sat on).
With less than 1 year of use, most of them presented all sorts of problems - keyboards dying, USB ports failing, dead pixels on screens, screens dying, motherboards dying, random crashes and blue screens that ended up requiring memory or motherboard replacements.
At least they were still under warranty and Dell's customer service isn't bad. But they'd still keep breaking down, and the warranty would eventually expire. When the warranty period ended, we replaced them with Dell desktop workstations which are extremely reliable (I suggested switching to another laptop brand but the CEO didn't want to spoil the customer relationship they had with Dell).
All I know is that after complaints I've seen on the internet and my own experience, I'll never buy a Dell laptop myself or recommend them.

I didn't know they made anything other than shortwave radios.

About to buy an hp elitebook 840 g1. i lost my x220 thinkpad trying to get a replacement. i heard the elitebooks are of better quality. How true is that?

I used to like them but shilling for refugees is a big no-no.
still...
amazon.com/Samsung-Premium-Notebook-Bluetooth-Windows/dp/B07D2YLL7W/
that doesn't look bad.

lookin pretty new there fam
but yeah avoid intel

I assumed dell and HP the more likely candidates for this. If even lenovo is botnetting their laptops is there any hope for a laptop without? I'm thinking of getting an ASUS for work, does anyone have any advice?

never trust american or chinese companies