I have pretty good experience with OEM windows laptops. Dell is okay and customer service is decent. Problem with Windows is that most OEM's don't make much of a profit on each sale. Unlike Apple where they rake in the profits because they control their supply chain or should I say China does for them. They are not dependent on third party drivers, cpu/gpu, and make and design their own chassis. That being said there are good Windows Laptops out there.
I have not had a very good experience with Lenovo. They make decent hardware but their driver updates and after sale support is awful. I feel like they really don't care about their customers beyond just getting money. They are way overpriced in my opinion and a lot of times try to pass older cpu. I would avoid Lenovo. Just my personal opiniion. HP, Dell, Samsung or Microsoft would be my choice.
Microsoft Surface products are very good but my problem is the hardware. It lags behind other OEM's. However you can find deals on the Ryzen 5 model with 16gb ram and 256gb ssd. Microsoft manages all the drivers and makes the hardware much like Apple does. It makes for a seamless experience and the OS is more optimized for the hardware.
I also like Samsung. Samsung is one of the few manufacturers that is not making everything in China. That may not matter to you but I just don't feel comfortable fueling an enemy with technology and cash and when I say China I don't mean the people or their culture but the CCP.
I have two laptops I bought from Bestbuy at the moment and am trying to decide which I am going to keep. Both cost the same. One is the MS Surface I mentioned above 13.5" and the other is a Samsung Galaxybook2 360-not the pro version. I like the design of the MS laptop just a little better and the higher resolution screen and speakers. However the Samsung has an OLED screen. The Samsung has a 12th gen i7 and 16gb ram and double the ssd size. The build quality of the Samsung is not quite as good as the Surface but not far behind. The Samsung is much lighter though and that is a plus. The Samsung has a great keyboard, more ports, a bigger battery, a much faster processor. So it is a tough choice. My main problem with the Surface is the laptop looks old in the design. Huge bezels, limited ports, old cpu all make the experience not so great.
As for customer service I think Samsung is getting better because they control a lot of their supply chain just like Apple and Microsoft. Unlike Apple and Microsoft and most other OEM's Samsung pretty much manufactures most the the components and has their own factory to build so they make more of a profit and quality is better.
If I were you and customer service was most important I think I would have to suggest Microsoft. I have also had good luck with high end products from HP. Their customer service may fight you initially if out of warranty period for hardware failures but they have fixed my devices within a few months out of warranty.
Hp also is usually a decent price.
For me I think I am going to give Samsung a try. I have always liked them but their prices have always been high but their after sale support of the devices has always been good.
One thing I will say is the new Intel chips are pretty impressive. I like AMD Ryzen a lot but the i7 1255u which is middle high end mobile low power chip for intel with only 2 performance cores is a beast. It is almost as fast as an M1. It does get hot and spin up the fans but it is not terrible. Battery life is also better than tiger lake. There is like a 30% difference between Tiger Lake and Alder Lake and it is not just frequency and power. I have to admit I thought Alder Lake was going to be a disaster and I stand corrected.
Good luck whatever you decide!
