Fail...

Macbooks have the best build quality and the retina display is beautiful. The premium isn't that much considering the class they're in. Plus it's the only (real) way to get OS X.

Anyway, I recommend the Yoga 2 Pro as some others have. Maybe would have gotten one myself but couldn't wait for it to arrive here.

Personally I have had good luck with Toshiba laptops in my lifetime. I use a desktop now for about everything.

can't believe asus is winning. they have the worst wifi card in them.

to OP you should go to a shop and try out the keyboard and touch pad. Nothing more annoying when both or one suck.

I have an HP Envy Touchsmart quad edition and I am quite happy with it.

One thing is for sure, it took about two days of use and then I realized I could never buy a laptop without a touchscreen ever again. The combination of the keyboard/touchpad and the touchscreen just can't be beat.

Depends where u live if u live in India like me don't buy hp it heats like a heater, don't consider Samsung.
I have been using acer for about 2.5 years it is nice buy The new series of acer is very good. Dell is a great brand but it does not look well. I have been in laptops business for past 10 years and in previous years acer has done a pretty good job of making new laptops which are nice and I would say excellent.
Go for acer or dell

No way, the only reason why people think Macbooks have the best displays is because they're ignorant of other alternatives, you're paying a premium for that logo.

The upcoming Lenovo’s Y50 has a 4k display, that puts the "Retina" display to absolute shame. (Then again, Apples "Retina" in the mobile space isn't even 720P, it's a marketing term for those who aren't very knowledgable, nothing more.)
Then you have Toshiba's "Kira Book" with it's 2560x1440 displays. - Which, from someone who has three 1440P 27" monitors, are a delight to behold.

You also can't forget the Dell XPS 15 with it's 3200x1800 display, which the equivalent Macbook is $500 more and doesn't have a touch screen, premium? I think so.

If I was the Op though...  And I was looking into a notebook, I wouldn't look past an MSI GT70 or the cheaper GX60, mainly from a gaming perspective or Perhaps the Razer Blade notebook.

Build Quality means nothing if the hardware is shit... Its like buying a Lamborghini with an Engine of a Toyota Corolla... You can literily go any specalized computer store, such as ncix.com, and do a side by side comparasion of a Mac vs PC/laptop and you will see easily that the Laptops will save you from $500 to over $1000 than if you were to get a Mac with the same Specs... And have you seen some of the Asus Ultra Books? Their build quality is top of the line and the Retina display was good until IPS displays came around and distroyed them

Apple have been ripping people off since the 1990s which is why their market share is still freakishly low... People buy Premium laptops but only dumb people buy Macbooks

A friend of mine recently bought a Toshiba Satellite Pro of some description for pretty much the same kind of uses as you, came with an Intel Core i5 and a mid-range Nvidia GPU (GT 740M or 750M, can't remember which) for about £550. He's very pleased, plays stuff like Far Cry 3 and Portal 2 well at 768p at (what looks to me) better settings than the console versions with higher fps

I also have a Samsung which I like, though I'm not sure what the consensus is like on their build quality - mine feels good but not great, mostly made of plastic, although I prioritised the componants (Core i7, but only Intel's IGP HD 4000 - don't need it to play games) which work well, it's also quiet and cool, cost about £500

Before that I had an older Dell XPS 1530M (now 5 1/2 years old). Still works, but I bust the screen (my fault though), however I did have problems with it - about a year after I bought it it had to go in for major work where most of the innards where replaced (fortunately under warranty though) and after about 3yrs the built in media software did something really weird - I got stuck in it and when I eventually got out of it the day after the partition on the HDD for Windows had disappeared, so I had to reinstall everything which took the best part of 2 days because it wouldn't so what I wanted it to (don't remember specifics). It was also as hot as hell, but then it was more powerful than my Samsung for its day (Core 2 Duo at 2.1GHz + Nvidia GT 8600M). That said its now pretty old, so it may not be representitive of current Dell products, but it has made me wary of them

My MacBook Pro is well over 4 years old, and it runs like a champ. I have never had a single problem with it. The only thing that might need addressing soon is the battery. She has 653 charges under her belt. I also have one of those older white 13 inch MacBooks, that's around 6 or 7 years old. Battery is dead now, but still fires up and runs like no ones business. In the same time frame my girlfriend has had 3 PC laptops completely die on her. One was LG, one was Toshiba, and one was Samsung. I don't remember what she has now.

You can't go wrong with a Lenovo.