I owned 6 HP laptops when i was in the navy. Id go through 2 a deployment. Me being young and had more money than sense, I continued buying them. I have a stack of dead hp's now lol. I recently bought a lenovo, and its been great. My work laptop is an Asus; while old and decrepit, its still trudging along lol. For the money, it appears lenovo will always give you the best bang for the buck. Acer laptops are generally quite decent, not sure why you have them on your excluded list.