There is no undebatably best consumer laptop for the simple reason that different users have different requirements and priorities.
And for some, things that Apple do are a no go. Like glued parts, limited Linux support, no OLED screens, no post buy upgradability, overpriced RAM upgrades, limited and finicky multimonitor support for most models.
So clearly it is debatable and depends on who you ask.
Yep, everyone has different requirements and things they'll put up with. Personally, the touchpad on my Dell laptop is absolutely terrible, but it's not hard to get a wireless (or wired) mouse and plug that in, so I can have a reasonably-priced laptop that works well with Linux.
> limited and finicky multimonitor support for most models.
I’ve never had an issue, and I regularly plug in one or two at a time. Even two that lie and say they are the same monitor with same serial and it still just works. Although, only after m1 and beyond.
How about I name a company that sold us a laptop that required 7 motherboard replacements, and after the 8th time it crapped out they told us it would cost $1200 to fix it from then on out. We signed up on a class action lawsuit along with tons of other people having the same exact dead motherboard problem, and we won.
Because the reason Apple really dislikes nvidia was because nvidia sort of lied about the thermal spec (much like intel does, except intel could downclock); and it caused a lot of GPUs to kill their motherboards: https://blog.greggant.com/posts/2021/10/13/apple-vs-nvidia-w...
We’ve had our share of Dell lemons, too. Bad batches and problematic models happen, that’s life. If we have to go back 10 years to find an example of widespread problem, it’s not that bad.
And for some, things that Apple do are a no go. Like glued parts, limited Linux support, no OLED screens, no post buy upgradability, overpriced RAM upgrades, limited and finicky multimonitor support for most models.
So clearly it is debatable and depends on who you ask.