Best Laptop Brands Right Now?

Quote from jeffbx : i'd rather have a much more reliable machine that's 1/8" taller or weighs an ounce more.

this!

There is no "best brand." Price point and model description play more of a factor than anything else. For example, HP's have a reputation for being crappy, but that's just because most people buying $250-$400 laptops seem to go with HP. Their Elitebooks are monsters. And Lenovos are known for being amazing, but get one of their N series laptops instead of a Thinkpad, and you'll see quality just as bad as those budget HP's. Dell is a good choice if you get their upper level lineups, such as XPS or Alienware. If you get their Inspirons, you'll be as disappointed as you are with your current Toshiba.

Jeff's computers, as he mentions, are business class machines, and while solidly built, trade away performance and features for stability, as mentioned in that nightmare story above. All 3 that he mentions come factory with Windows 7, unless you pay to upgrade to Windows 8 (by the way, I'm typing this on my own T430 with Windows 8 Pro, so I partially agree with you, but that is what's best for me, not most people).

Asus and Vaio are awesome computers. With any brand, at the $1,000 price point you're going to get a great machine, especially if you go with something that's on sale, so you're getting a $1,400-$1,600 machine for that. You're going to love the Y series laptops. The 15" screen really is the best price/performance ratio, and your computer has a great set of upgrades.