Not OP but that's the thing right, you've talked a lot about feels which means there will never be an answer that overcomes the emotion built in your head.
I wonder what it would take to win you over, and i don't mean the rational you, which i'm sure you can justify, i mean the irrational 'i'm in love with the product' you.
It’d take these very objective things:
- 7+ hour battery life while running a bunch of Docker containers and IDEs, at the same screen brightness nits I run my MacBook at.
- Those things run not-perceptively-slower than on my Apple hardware
- No perceptible fan noise while doing the above
- The chassis does not creak when I pick it up from one corner
- Does not weigh more than double my MacBook
I’ll even relax the trackpad requirement and allow a 60Hz HiDPI screen instead of the 120Hz screen my MacBook from four years ago drives while doing all of the above.
Is there anything that can check those boxes?
This is a much more definable list, no feels there. (I don't know.. as am not hunting for a similar option, although I probably will be in the future).
> - The chassis does not creak when I pick it up from one corner
This would be an INSTANT 'nope' from me.
Every Fortune 500 company I’ve worked for (three so far) has sent me a Windows “dev machine” laptop with huge RAM and an i7-whatever processor… and they all creak if you pick them up from a corner. And the screen hinges all make weird sounds.
It’s not, like, a usability concern, but it’s something I’m definitely willing to fork over a couple hundred bucks to not feel every day.
"A lot" being in one of six items, specifically about an element that you touch and quality is generally judged by how it feels