Don't be silly, Dell isn't that bad. They make some very nice laptop hardware, for instance. I just got an Inspiron, for instance, that's nicer than the Thinkpad I had at my last job.
I have a Dell XPS 15 (the only laptop with a non-1366x768 display I could find here in Brazil - the other choices would be from Apple, whose Brazilian operation is known for overpricing stuff, or gamer stuff which I don't need/want).
Not much to complain about it, really: almost everything worked out-of-the-box on Linux (except for the 'hybrid graphics' bullshit which requires a little hacking to get going, and the card reader - which I don't use that much - which won't automount until you run a command, then it works until the next reboot).
Of course, YMMV, the plural of anecdote isn't data, yada yada yada.
No amount of careful planning will ever replace dumb luck.