For me it's mostly because of build quality (keyboard, casing, screen, feel, ...) and a functional pointing device. No other laptop I have used has a useable t

For me it's mostly because of build quality (keyboard, casing, screen, feel, ...) and a functional pointing device. No other laptop I have used has a useable trackpad and most have a keyboard that is unusable. The only other laptop I have ever used with a pointing device I liked was the Thinkpad nub. Also, everything seems to "just work" when compared to using a Linux. Sleep/hibernate, syncing with my iPhone and iPad. It's nice not worrying or having to tweak this only to never be satisfied with the end results. I remember spending hours and days trying to get things working sometimes. I expect some would argue the everything "just works" statement, but for me I have not had any problems of note. I have not tried a Thinkpad + Linux in years or the Dell alternatives I have seen. I'm really eyeing a Thinkpad 460p and want to put Fedora on it and give it another try.